10m Ranger mod for CTCSS?

[kf7qzc]

Hi everyone! I got my hands on a Ranger RCI-2950 DX some years ago. I got it in pretty near factory condition except for a pretty easy and obvious mod … we don't talk about fight club, etc. It's been sitting in storage because what it doesn't have is a way to connect a CTCSS device installed. Because why the hell would the original owner want that? But I do, because it's actually a decent 10 meter radio for its time.

So … is it difficult to add? It sure as hell is undocumented, I've looked around. The manual says it can be done and that's about it. I mean it can't be just as simple as injecting the correct tone in through the mic jack, can it? Surely that's done somewhere inside the radio after the audio has been amplified from the mic, and there's a specific place you inject a tone of the correct frequency at so many volts to be mixed in to the transmitted audio.

I'm sure there are boxes made 20-30 years ago that are like hen's teeth that you plug into a connector you add to the radio. Y'know or you realize it's 2026 and that generating one of a few selectable sine waves by turning a clicky little knob is an easy task to accomplish. That'd be my plan. But first I've got to have the means to inject the tone, and some idea about e.g. what the voltage needs to be.

Are there people who do these mods, and what's it likely to cost, ballpark? (e.g. is it difficult enough I'm better off selling this thing to a trucker who'd use it legally I'm sure and buying a 25W Chinese radio with all mode features?)

Info wanted!

 

[SuperLid]

Hi everyone! I got my hands on a Ranger RCI-2950 DX some years ago. I got it in pretty near factory condition except for a pretty easy and obvious mod … we don't talk about fight club, etc. It's been sitting in storage because what it doesn't have is a way to connect a CTCSS device installed. Because why the hell would the original owner want that? But I do, because it's actually a decent 10 meter radio for its time.

So … is it difficult to add? It sure as hell is undocumented, I've looked around. The manual says it can be done and that's about it. I mean it can't be just as simple as injecting the correct tone in through the mic jack, can it? Surely that's done somewhere inside the radio after the audio has been amplified from the mic, and there's a specific place you inject a tone of the correct frequency at so many volts to be mixed in to the transmitted audio.

I'm sure there are boxes made 20-30 years ago that are like hen's teeth that you plug into a connector you add to the radio. Y'know or you realize it's 2026 and that generating one of a few selectable sine waves by turning a clicky little knob is an easy task to accomplish. That'd be my plan. But first I've got to have the means to inject the tone, and some idea about e.g. what the voltage needs to be.

Are there people who do these mods, and what's it likely to cost, ballpark? (e.g. is it difficult enough I'm better off selling this thing to a trucker who'd use it legally I'm sure and buying a 25W Chinese radio with all mode features?)

Info wanted!

I don't recall a factory CTCSS board for that radio, but you could install a third party board, like a COM-SPEC or Selectone. Not sure if you are looking for only encode or tone squelch, which will make the difference as to what board you use.

You will need to be mindful of enabling the encoder in FM mode only, so you will need to examine the schematic, to see where and how to inject the tone.

At one time, Ranger had an instruction sheet for installation of a Com-Spec encoder in the DX model. These boards are no longer produced, but they can be found.

 

[Blackcat630]

I picked up a RCI 5054 DX a few years back on a trade. It came with a Communication Specialist TE-32. The previous owner already wired it in. I believe it's only 3 connections. All info was quickly found on Google. They can be found relatively cheap nowadays...

https://ebay.io/m/zhDpJn

 

[SuperLid]

This may help.

 

[fourstringburn]

I had the Com-Spec CTCSS board put in by Chip over at RCI when they were in San Diego. While it did work, it wasn't very convenient because you had to open the radio covers to change PL-tone frequencies via the DIP switches. I eventually sold that radio.

The CTCSS box that Blackcat on the above post is a better way to go for easier PL tone switching but unless you make some kind of disconnect, it isn't very practical if you move the radio around a bit.

Some older Chinese 10 meter radio's like the modern President Lincoln and others do have built in CTCSS with scanning but with a caveat.

Good luck trying to use these on 10 meter repeaters. Most repeaters use CTCSS and your radio needs encoding mode. The Chinese Lincolns do not have encoding only mode.


Here is what I posted in another thread about that subject.

Having had the 3rd generation President Lincoln, I can say it doesn't live up to the quality of my older President HR2600's even if mine didn't have the Chipswitch. They could have at least built it with the same size chassis but this one is much smaller.

These new Presidents have more features like VOX, Memory channels (only 6), CTCSS/DCS, and LCD color selections. However, the CTCSS/DCS can only be used in encode/decode or decode only. This is stupid since most of the few 10 meter repeaters out there require "encode only" and "encoding only" can't be selected. This new version stays the same according to the new manual I just read.

I have the new version Anytone AT6666 Pro and that does have encode/decode and can be selected to be used separately or simultaneously and will work on repeaters.

Maybe consider the Anytone AT6666Pro if you want a small mobile 10 meter radio with CTCSS scanning for repeaters. The newer Pro version also does 15 meters along with 12m and is an 80 watt radio (40 w on 15m though).