I just acquired one of these, badly used, without charger...

I don't know if the radio's dead or just the battery.
It also has a keypad, and I'm wondering if it can be programmed like my Gp-68's?

The antenna's only about 3 inches long so I assume it's VHS.

Anyone have one of these, have pointers to info, or can relate anything?

~ Dagr

Judging by the antenna length its UHF, get the model # off the back of the radio and it can be decoded, other than that, find a charger off ebay or batlabs.

Model is:
P94YPC20C2AA

That tell you anything?

~ Dagr

[edit] Sorry, I should've typed UHF last night... my only excuse is that I was *really* wiped..

Yup, what you have there is a 16 channel GP300 UHF that covers 438 to 470MHz. So, you can use it for FRS, GMRS, UHF Ham, etc...

-Mike

Kick ass.

Now I need to find a battery charger...

~ Dagr

I might be able to help you with that - lemme check the stock room.

-Mike

I took just the battery into school with me, and after a moment of complete shock the security person let me leave it in their charger for the day. I'm still only getting 4.5V out though. I don't know if battery's can be reconditioned, but to test the radio I'm going to attach it to the charged, and known good, battery from my gp-68. If the radio doesn't work, I'm gonna sell it for parts :0)

~ Dagr

Hey Dagr;

Well, those are 7.2 volts, when fully charged, they're going to be around 8 volts, give or take abit. The best way to get that battery back to life... Let it discharge, to the point that the battery won't even turn on. Charge it completly (4 hours on a rapid charger, 16 hours on a slow charger), then discharge ot completly again, and do this cycle 3 or 4 times.

I've brought batteries back from the dead that wouldn't hold even a 1 hour charge.

-Mike

The radio currently doesn't turn on. I'm only getting 4.5V out of the battery, the radio did, once and once only, immediately after I put the recharged battery in, beep quietly when turned on. I still have hope :0)

What I don't have is a reliable way to charge the battery... Got a spare charger Exka? :0)

~ Dagr

[edit] I left the battery in the radio, and the radio 'on'. I don't know what else to do to discharge it.

It sounds like a bad battery to me. Maybe you should get a new one.

That would require putting money into this project... something I haven't done yet. And if the radio can't be programmed from the keypad, something I may not do at all.

Also, when I connected another 7.5v motorola battery, the radio did not function... though I can't guarantee the connection.

If I can't get it to work, I'll sell it on e-bay for parts/as-is.

~ Dagr

programing is easy but requires money. As for the battry you can probably relace it with the correct ammount of batteries.

Posted by Mark programing is easy but requires money.

As in you can't do it yourself without cable, RIB, and RSS software?

~ Dagr

If you have the cable (5 bucks to build), the RIB (20 bucks to build) and the software (free to download), you're all set

-M

I have none of the above... Yet.

There's something ... irksome... about not being able to reprogram the radio in the field. Though I have to admit I've only done this a few times with the GP-68's because I've forgotten to put a frequency in beforehand.

I guess I'll check batlabs for schematics/circuit dia's and see how much I can complete with the stuff at home this weekend.

If I can confirm the radio is functional I'll happily shell out $$ for a battery and charger, probably match the gp300 to the same freqs as my gp-68. Then I might actually use the things :0)

~ Dagr | too many projects not enough time.

Update: apparently I didn't have sufficient motor control when I last tried this, but... when I stick some copper wire between the battery off of my gp-68 and turn the gp300 on, it beeps. Very very quietly. But I'll figure that out later. Time to order a battery charger. and maybe a battery. But if I can recondition this one, so much the better.

~ Dagr