Radio Shack HTX-400 manual

Cat. No. 19- 1104 OWNER’S MANUAL Please read before using this equipment. HTX-400 Mini Handheld 70-Ce ntime ter FM Amateur Transceive r 19-1104rc.fm Page 1 Friday, August 27, 1999 8:31 AM[...]

2 FEATURES Your Radi oShack HTX-4 00 Mini Hand held 70-C entimate r FM Amateur Tr ansce iver is com pact and lightwe ight, m aking it easy to carry alm ost anywhe re. The cry stal contro lled circu itry pro- vides accu rate and s table freq uenc y sele cti on, ma king i t an ideal choice for yo ur amateur comm unicatio ns nee ds. Note : You must ha[...]

3 Paging Tones — yo u can s et the radio to play a shor t, sele ctable paging ton e wh en it trans mits, and sound the sa me ton e when i t receives a signal . Signal Strength Ind icator — a gr aduated ba r shows t he relative strength o f the rec eived s ignal. Time-Out T imer — lets you set a maxi mum transm ission time in- terval from 0 to[...]

4 MANUAL CONVENTIONS Your trans ceiver’s bu ttons perf orm multi ple funct ions. The ab bre- viation or s ymbol for a fu nction is pri nted on, b elow, o r above each bu tton. To act ivate cer tain t ransc eiv er feat ures, you mu st pr ess FUN C (functio n) and a nother button at the sam e time. Th ose key com- bination instru ctions are p rinte[...]

5 CONTENT S Intr oduction to Am ateur Radio ............. ............ ........... ......... 7 Preparation ...... ........... ............ ................ ............ ........... ......... 9 P o we r Sources ............ ................. ........... ........... ............... 9 Using Internal Batte ries ............. ................. .........[...]

6 Scanning O peration ........................ ........... ............ .............. 32 Scannin g f or Acti ve F requencies ....................... ........... ... 32 Using Sca n Dela y ...................... ........... ........... ......... 32 Scannin g Standard M emory Locations ....... ................. ... 32 Setting A M emory Location to Al[...]

7 INTRODUCTION TO AMATEUR RADIO Your transcei ver is the perfe ct first radio for an yone enteri ng the exciting world of a mateur ra dio, as wel l as a grea t addi tional transceiv er for the ex perien ced amate ur radio ope rator. You r transceiv er opens a do or for you to the world from almost any- where! Al l you ne ed is an Amate ur Radio Ope[...]

8 Start st udying for th e licens e exams. Do not be intimid ated by the word “study ,” bec ause most p eople can go from kno wing abso- lutely nothin g about a mateur radio to p assing the Nov ice and Technic ian wri tten ex ams in l ess than a month. The exa ms test y our know ledge of basic rad io regulat ions and el- ementary radio th eory.[...]

9 PREPARA TION POWER SOURCES You can operate your transc eive r from any of thre e power sourc - es: • internal batteries • A C po we r (using an optio nal po wer s upply an d DC adap ter) • ve hicle ba ttery powe r (usin g an optio nal DC adapter) Using Interna l Batteries Your transc eiver can us e two AA batte ries (not s upplied) f or pow[...]

10 2. Press do wn and sli de the b attery compartment co ve r in the directio n of th e arrow marke d on the c ov er . 3. Put the batteries into the compar tment and on top of the attached ribbon, accordi ng to the polarity symbols (+ and –) marked in side the co mpar tment. 4. Rep lace the co v er a nd slide the LOCK tab to secure the cover . T [...]

11 USING AC POWER You can op erate th e HTX-400 from AC pow er using a regulated power su pply c apable of s upply ing 13.8 VD C at least 1A and a vehicle power adapt er (see “Using Veh icle Battery Power” on Page 12). The sup ply sho uld also hav e an acces sory po wer socket into which the DC-to-DC power adap ter fits. If your power supp ly d[...]

12 USING V EHICLE BAT TERY POWER You can p ower the HTX-400 fro m a vehi cle’s 12 V power s ource (such a s cigaret te-lighter s ocket) u sing an 9 -volt, 900 mA DC-to- DC pow er adapter an d a size I Ada ptaplug ® (n either s upplied) with TI P set to + . Both are avai lable a t your l ocal Rad ioShack stor e. Cautions: Y ou must use a power so[...]

13 CONNECTING THE A NTENNA Place the t hreaded ba se so ck et o f the su pp lie d an tenna ove r the antenna co nnector on top of the tran sceiver and tu rn the antenna clockw ise to ti ghten i t . Turn it clockw ise to rem ove it. Caution: Do not over -tighten th e antenna Note: You can connec t an external ant enna t o the HTX- 400 using an SMA-t[...]

14 ATTACHING THE WRIST STRAP To attach the supp lied wri st strap to the top of t he belt cl ip, thread the strap ’s smal l loop t hrough the openin g in th e top of the clip. Then inse rt the longe r loop through the smal ler loop and pul l on the strap until the loop i s tigh t. CONNECTING A MICROPH ONE/ SPEAKER You can connect an external comm[...]

15 Caution: Use on ly microp hone an d speaker ac cess ories that do not share a commo n ground fo r the speak er and the microph one. Doing ot herwise migh t damage t he trans ceiver. Note: Insertin g a he adset’s plu g automatically disconn ects the in- ter na l sp ea ker. You can a lso c onnect an optio nal mono earpho ne to the SPK jack. This[...]

16 USING THE MENUS USING THE HTX-400’S MENUS The HT X-400 p rovides t wo men us to access its features, t he Main Me nu and t he Tone Set Menu. To see det ails abou t each operatio n, refer t o the p age numbe r in th e follow ing chart. To acces s the M ain Menu, hold do wn FUNC while tur ning on the HTX-400. (The CS opti on a ppear s) . Hol d d[...]

17 Main Menu Options Setting ( ) = default setting Description P age tot Time out Timer (Off) On 10-990 sec onds Lim i ts tran s m it tim e. 40 PS Power S ave (Off) On Cycles power ( PS flashes) to the receiver section to conser ve batteries. The circuit remains off then tur ns on briefly to check f or an incoming s ignal. 40 r Repeater Offset 0.00[...]

18 The Tone Set M enu lets you set features that rel ate to sound and the CTCSS tones . To access the se settings, turn o n the HTX-400 then ho ld d own FUNC and press T .SET . (The tone opt ion ap- pears.) Pre ss FUNC + V or W to sele ct the option , then V or W to change the se tting. T one Set Option Setting ( ) = defau lt setting Description Pa[...]

19 A QUICK LOO K AT THE CONTROL S Most of th e co ntro ls of t he H T X-400 hav e m ul tip le functio ns . Use the followi ng chart to revie w the fun ction of e ach cont rol. Key/Contr ol Use it to: Use wi th the FUNC + Ke y to: VO L / O F F Turn the radio on/off. Adjust the volume. Acc ess the M ain Menu. SQ Set the squelch level to block weak si[...]

20 (T .SET ) Change (decrease) the frequency by the v alue set for CS (see t he first menu option on P age 16). Accesses the T one Set Option men u and settings. MO (R EV) Press to override squelch. Press and hold to cycle through rC , tC , r , and CS s et- tings. Reverse the repeater offset. (BEEP ) Turn on the display’s backlight for 4 sec- ond[...]

21 C (LOCK) Press once t o display and switch to the cur- rent call frequency. Hold down to change the call frequency and associated parame- ters, such as repeater offset and CTCSS tones. Lock the control (except PTT , MO , , VO L , and SQ ). Press again to unlock the controls. PTT ( P u s h To Ta l k ) Hold down to trans- mit. Press to store the s[...]

22 A QUICK LOOK AT THE DISPLAY 1. F : appears when the FUNC key is pre ssed. 2. TX : appears when the ra dio is transmitting. 3. BUSY : appears when the radio receives a s ignal. 4. CALL : appears when tone squelch is on and the radio receives a matching tone. 5. : indicates the battery strength. 6. S-RF (Signal/RF Indicator): shows the level of an[...]

23 OPERATION T URNING O N THE HTX-400 To turn on the HT X-400, rota te VO L / O F F clockw ise unt il it cl icks. The HTX-4 00 s oun ds a b r ief m el ody i f the k ey to ne fe atur e is en - abled. Th en HELLO app ears for about 2 se conds and the last used fr equency appear s. SELECTING FREQU ENCIES (DIRECT T U NING) You tune to th e desired f re[...]

24 RECEIVING T R ANSMISSIONS Follow these st eps to receive standa rd trans missio ns. 1. With the radio on, rotate SQ coun tercloc kwi se until y ou hear a hissin g sound. Then slow ly rotate SQ cloc kwis e just unt il the nois e stop s. Notes: • BUSY appear s wh en the H TX-400 receiv es a stand ard tra nsmission or if the s quelch i s open . I[...]

25 T RANSMITT ING There a re two basic ty pes of comm unica tion pos sible with t his transceiv er: radi o-di rec t-to -radi o (s im pl ex) or rad io -to re pea ter-t o radio (duple x). Simp lex operati on use s the same frequenc y to send and rece ive. Du plex o peratio n u ses one f requ ency to trans - mit and anot her to rece ive. For more info[...]

26 UNDERSTAND ING REP EATERS Operati on throu gh a repea ter, wher e you transmit o n one fre- quency and rec eive on ano ther , is ca lled duplex operation . Oper- ation direct to a nother station , wh ere yo u trans mit a nd rec eive on the sam e frequ ency, is calle d simple x operation. A repeater i s a sta tion that re ceiv es a sign al on on [...]

27 SETTING THE REPE ATER OFFSET FREQUENCY The H TX-40 0’s defaul t repe at er off set is 5 MH z, whi ch appe ar s as 5.00 (MHz ) . Foll ow these steps to chang e the offs et. Note: T his s ett ing on ly aff ects t he VFO mo de . If yo u s av ed a fre - quency o ffset in a memo ry, that se tting i s not affe cted. 1. With po wer o ff , hold do wn [...]

28 SETTING THE REPE ATER OFFSET DIRECTION 1. Set a n offset fre quenc y other th an 0.00 . 2. Pre ss FUNC + SC (R PT ) to se e t h e cu rr e nt of f se t di r ec t ion ( + abov e or – belo w). 3. Pre ss FUNC + MO ( REV ) to chan ge the re peater offset di rec- tion. Note: T o s a v e t h i s s e t t i n g i n a m e m o r y l o c a t i o n , m u s[...]

29 MEMOR Y OPE RATIO N Your HTX-400 has 30 stand ard memory locations tha t you can use to store frequencies for quick acc ess. For each memory loca - tion, you ca n also store other s ettings such as the repeater offset , CTCSS tones, and frequenc ies to pass or lo ck out duri ng scan- ning. STORING A T RANSMIT/RECE IVE FREQUENCY 1. Pre ss MR . an[...]

30 RECALLING MEMORIES To reca ll sa ved mem ory se ttin gs, pr ess MR so appears . Then press or to selec t the des ired m emor y loca tion. Press MR again to return to the VFO mode, (See “Selecting Fre- quencie s (Direc t Tuning)” on Page 23.) CLEARING A SINGLE ME MORY Follow these st eps to clear any sing le me mory loc ation. 1. Press MR . a[...]

31 USING THE CALLING -FREQUENCY MEMO RY The call ing-freq uency memory locatio n lets you qu ickl y jump to a specif ic frequen cy at any tim e. The def ault calli ng freque ncy is 446.0 000 MHz. You can store a differ ent frequenc y into mem- ory as well as other set tings as soci ated with that freq uency , such as the rep eater of fset an d CTCS[...]

32 SCANNING OPERA TION SCANNING FOR ACTIVE F REQUENCIES 1. T o search f or activity o n a frequ ency , press SC . The trans- ceiv er begin s to sc an up or do wn the full freque ncy r ange , and it stops on each ac tiv e freque ncy f or the duration s et b y the sca n dela y option (s ee “Usi ng Scan D ela y” on P age 32). 2. T o change the sc [...]

33 Setting A Memory Locat ion to Al wa ys Skip During Scanning The HTX-400 is preset to inclu de all me mory locati ons (ex cept empty loc ations) du ring memor y scan ning . Follo w these s teps to set the tran scei ver to have it always skip (or res ume sca n- ning ) a s pecif ic lo cati on du ring scan ning. 1. Pre ss MR . and the last used mem [...]

34 T em poraril y Loc king Out (Skip ping) Locations During Memory Scanning You can set the transceive r to lock out a loca tion while scanning the frequ encies s tored i n memory. When the tra nsceive r stops at a memory loc ation you w ant to skip, pres s FUNC . PASS briefly a ppears a nd the tra nsc ei ve r con- tinues to sc an, loc king out (sk[...]

35 CONTIN UOUS T ONE CODED SQUELCH SYSTEM FE ATU RES Your HTX-400 ca n transmi t and receive a low-l evel, selectable subaudib le tone at th e s ame tim e a s i t tran smits (TX) o r rec eiv es (RX) a regu lar si gnal. This special ton e lets y ou lis ten on ly to oth- er radios se t to the same to ne freq uen cy w he n y ou us e t he H TX- 400 in [...]

36 To selec t an d s tore a CTCSS s uba udi bl e ton e in a m em ory loc a- tion, p ress MR . and the la st used memory locati on appe ar . (In the ex ample s sho wn on the pre ceding pa ge , memo ry loc ation 2 is us ed.) The n follow the prece ding St eps 1–5. Subaudible T one Frequencie s (Hz) 67.0 1 14.8 186. 2 69.3 1 18.8 189. 9 71.9 1 23.0 [...]

37 T ONE PAG ING You can s et the HTX-40 0 t o s oun d a n a le rt to ne when it receiv es a transmi ssio n th at inclu des th e curr entl y se t suba udible rece ive- tone (or any transmi ssion, if the recei ve-tone or the tone feature is set to off). Turn off the radio, the n press while you turn the HTX-400 on again. appears . The first t ime th[...]

38 OTHER SPECIAL FEATURE S CHANGING THE T RANSMIT FREQUENCY RANGE You can cha nge t he stand ard tra nsmit f requenc y ran ge from 430–450 MHz to an ex tended rang e of 42 0–450 MHz. To set th e transceiver to its extende d range , turn of f the transc eiv- er, the n hold do wn SC and turn on the tra nsceive r again. To return to the standa rd [...]

39 T URNING T HE KEY T ONE ON AND OFF The transc eiver is pre set to so und a beep e ach time you p ress a key. To t urn off the beep , press FUNC + ( BEEP) . disappe ars. To restore t he key tone, press FUNC + ( BEEP ) again . Note : If th e key tone feature is dis abled, t he po wer-on t one does not sound. CHECKING THE CUR RENT MEMORY SETTINGS I[...]

40 POWER SAVE The pow er sav e feature lets the ra dio c onserve ba ttery power b y turning o ff power to the rece iver sec tion and pe riodic ally turni ng it on to chec k for a tran smissi on. Use the Main Menu to set the power save o ption (see “U sing the HT X-400’s Me nus” on Page 16). With PS an d the c ur re nt st at us ( on or oFF ) d[...]

41 REDUCING SQUELC H T AIL If you are com municat ing with a repea ter or another sta tion using subaudib le ton es, yo u can el imina te the squelch tail (t he burst of noise the oth er person hears when yo u stop transmitt ing) by turn- ing on the transm it delay optio n. When yo u turn o n this feature and use C TCSS, the radio co ntinues to tra[...]

42 T R OUBLESH OOTIN G If your transc eiver is not wor king as it shoul d and it displ ays an error mes sage, t hese sugg estio ns might h elp yo u elimin ate the probl em. If the transceiv er still d oes n ot operate p roperly , take it to your l ocal RadioSha ck store for assis tance . Y ou see P o ssib le Cause Reme dies S-SHORT If the tran scei[...]

43 CARE AND MAINT ENANCE Your Radi oShack HTX-40 0 Mini Han dheld 70-Centimete r FM Amateur Transcei ver i s an e xample of s uperior design and craftsm anship. T he fol lowing sugge stions wi ll hel p you c are for your transc eiv er so yo u can enj oy it for years. Keep the transc eiver dry. If it gets wet, wipe it dry immedia tely. Liq uids mi g[...]

44 USING THE KEYPAD DIA GNOSTIC The HT X-40 0 h as a bu ilt -in di agn os tic p rogra m tha t l ets y ou c on- firm whet her the keyp ad switch es are function ing correctl y. To use this diag nostic p rogram, follow t hese ste ps. 1. Ho ld down MO ( REV ) and turn on the tr ansc eiv er . 2. Press MO ( REV ) again . PrESS dn appe ars. 3. Press . If[...]

45 SPECIFICAT IONS GENERAL F requency: RX ................. ........... ........... ................. ...... 420–470 MHz TX ....................... ............ ........... ........... ...... 430–450 MHz Extended T X Range .. ........... ........... ............ 420–450 MHz F requ ency Gener ation ................. ........... .. PLL Synthe s[...]

46 NOTES 19-1104rc.fm Page 46 Friday, August 27, 1999 8:31 AM[...]

47 19-1104rc.fm Page 47 Friday, August 27, 1999 8:31 AM[...]

08A99 Printed in Korea Limited O ne-Y ear W arranty This product i s warrante d by Rad ioShac k against manufac turing def ects in materi al and workman ship unde r normal use for one (1 ) year fr om the d ate of purcha se from Ra dioShack com pany-ow ned stores and authori zed Ra - dioSha ck franchi sees and de alers. EX CEPT AS PROV IDED HERE IN,[...]