AKD 2001, an early 1990s 2M transceiver.

I'm not nostalgic about valve radios, not at all.

This sort of thing leaves me cold.

 

I'm a fan of the sort of solid state radio where you can understand the circuit, the ones where if they have software it's only there to give a PLL some divider values and maybe hold a memory or ten instead of  the radio being a peripheral for a computer.

 So when I saw an AKD 2001 for sale on eBay, untested for spares/repairs I put in a cheeky bid and won it for a bargain £8.

 The AKD radios were reasonable quality little units with OK performance but they looked like something that was built from a kit with a microphone and two digit, seven segment channel display that are both more than a little reminiscent of a CB.

They're also really dated (unless they've been updated after purchase) with 1750Hz toneburst for repeater access and 25KHz channel spacing which makes them less useful than they could be with modern repeaters needing CTCSS and often being on a 12.5KHz channel.   

While waiting for the radio to turn up I did a bit of Google searching and found schematics as well as a user manual, looks pretty simple with a PIC16C55 microcontroller and a PLL chip I've worked with before, the TSA6057 which is a PLL intended for use in consumer radio receivers, the channel display is reminiscent of a CB.

There's very little information about these radios other than a handful of pages with information about converting them for 12.5KHz channel spacing, CTCSS injection and a review or two in the contemporary magazines, they seem to still be supported by Spectrum Communications who sell the 12.5KHz conversion kits which consist of a new PIC chip, a different PLL reference crystal and a pair of IF filters.

Except, when mine turned up, it's not the same radio. 

Mine is even earlier and uses a totally different PLL and CPU!

 

Yes, that's a Motorola MC6802 CPU and a separate EPROM which contains the code, the PLL is a Plessey NJ88C30 which is a device intended for use in communications equipment.  

 

The reverse, with reference to TOLMOR etched into the board instead of Garex.

 

Unfortunately it seems nobody has much information about this particular variant of these radios, there's one review in a 1991 issue of Practical wireless which mentions the MC6802, the front cover of that magazine, rather unfortunately, shows it next to an Alinco 2M transceiver which really makes the AKD look a bit sick but who cares about looks, it's performance that matters right?  

 

Right? 

 

Sigh, well yeah, but it's a really difficult sell when there's a sleeker, sexy, modern looking piece of mass produced kit for roughly the same price that has lots of buttons, a custom LCD, a microphone that's got up/down buttons and even comes with a mobile mounting bracket.  

 

 

 

And I've got plans