TRAINING AND EQUIPMENT COMMUNICATIONS COMPONENTS 305.002d KENWOOD TK-790 MOBILE RADIO EFFECTIVE: SEPTEMBER 2013 PURPOSE The purpose of this policy is to familiarize members with the components, features, use, maintenance, and troubleshooting of the Kenwood TK-790 mobile radio. APPLICATION The Kenwood TK-790 mobile radio is used on many Department apparatus. It was originally developed specifically for CalFire based on operational needs. Features of the radio include: 254 channels alpha-numeric display 45 watts power output 1 group user modifiable (Command Group) 16 repeater tones available user modifiable scan with two levels of priority 1 direct access channel button (Home Channel) display dim button The 254 channels are divided into 20 plus groups. In addition to the 20 plus groups, most radios have command group capabilities. A command group can be any number of channels and the frequencies that are taken from any of the individual groups. The command group can be created or deleted at any time by the user. The Kenwood TK-790 radio is capable of choosing one of the 16 CTCSS (Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System) for accessing different repeaters. Section 305.002d Page 1 of 12
RADIO KEYS AND FUNCTIONS Below is a diagram of the Kenwood TK-790 radio, followed by a summary of the button operation of each function of the control head for the radio. POWER Button used to turn radio on and off. Group up and down arrows (located to the right of POWER button). These buttons control group locations. Display Area Highlighted area in above diagram. P1 Shows indicated channel is Priority 1. SCAN Shows the scan feature is activated. C Shows command group is currently selected. OST (Operator Selectable Tone) Shows a tone has been selected. A down arrow above the channel display indicates the channel is in the scan list. 4 Group number; this can be any group 1-20. 1 CDF CMD1 Channel number and name displayed with up to 11 characters. MON Button used with the SCN button to define Priority 2. SCN Button used to turn scan on and off. DIM D/A Volume Knob Channel Knob HC TA SQL AUX C OST Button used to dim the display. Button used to delete or add a channel from scan. (Located on far right of display.) These arrows are used to change channels within the group. If OST option is selected, these buttons will change the tone selection. (Left round knob under display) Adjusts the volume of the radio. (Right round knob under display) Used to select channels. (Home Channel) This button is pre-programmed to go directly to the main dispatch channel. Talk Around, direct, or car-to-car. Squelch control. Button used to add or delete a channel in the command group. Hold this button down to select an Operator Selectable Tone. Page 2 of 12
RADIO OPERATIONS Following are specific instructions for use of the various functions of the Kenwood TK-790 mobile radio: Power: This button controls the power on and off. Press this button once to turn on the radio and press again to turn off the radio. Note: The Kenwood TK-790 mobile radio is designed to retain any operator selectable features on power down. The radio will remember what it is last told to do upon repower. Group Up and Down Arrows (, ): These two buttons control the group locations and are located just to the right of the power button. Press the up arrow to scroll up from Groups 1 through 20. Press the down arrow to scroll down from groups 20 to 1. Pressing the button again below group 1 puts you into the command group (if the command group has been created by the operator). Home Channel (HC): This button is used to go to the home channel. Press this button to go directly to the home channel from any group in the radio. Talk Around (TA): This button is used to talk directly to another radio without using a repeater (car-to-car). Press the TA button. Notice the TA symbol in the display. Squelch (SQL): This button adjusts the squelch. Press the SQL button. The squelch can be adjusted by turning the channel selector. Once the squelch is set, press the SQL button again to resume normal operation. Command Group (AUX C): This button adds or deletes a channel from the command group. This feature is discussed in more detail later in these instructions. Operator Selectable Tone (OST): This button enables the Operator Selectable Tone function by pressing and holding it down. Scan Feature (SCN): This button starts or stops the scanning sequence. Press SCN. Only one group can be scanned at a time. When activating a scan, a tone sounds and the SCN icon appears on the display. When a signal is received while scanning, the scan will halt, the audio is unmuted, and the channel name appears in the display. The Kenwood TK-790 radio has the capability to add or delete any channel from the scan list within the same group. To do so, rotate the channel selector knob to the desired channel to be added (or deleted) in scan and press the D/A (Delete/Add) Page 3 of 12
button. Press once to add a channel and press once to remove the channel from scan. The steps to add or delete a channel to scan are as follows: 1. Confirm what group is going to be scanned. 2. Make sure Scan is off. 3. Rotate the channel selector knob to the channel being added to scan. 4. Press the D/A button. The down arrow appears in the display and the channel is now in the scan list. Move to the next channel to add and repeat above. 5. To remove a channel from the scan list, repeat as above except once the desired channel is selected, press the D/A button. The down arrow icon will disappear from the display and the channel will be removed from the scan list. 6. After adding/deleting the desired channels, press the SCN button to enable the scanning sequence. Note: An unwanted channel can be temporarily removed from the scan list by doing the following: While in the scan mode (and the scan is stopped on the channel you want to temporarily delete from scan), press the D/A button once. This channel is now out of scan. The channel will return to the scan list if the radio is powered down or the SCN button is pressed again. Priority Scan Mode: The Kenwood TK-790 radio has the capability of two levels of priority scanning: Priority 1 and Priority 2. Priority 1 takes precedence over all other scanned channels in the group, including Priority 2. Priority 2 takes precedence over all scanned channels except Priority 1. This allows the user to have any number of channels in scan and two levels of priority. An example would be setting up a scan group on an incident with command and tactical channels as Priority 1 or 2, and other lesser-priority channels in the scan group. Priority 1 Channel Assignment: The Priority 1 channel is by default the channel selected in the display before pressing the scan button. In other words, when a specific channel is to be a priority, rotate the channel selector to the desired channel and press SCN. This channel is now the Priority 1 channel. The radio will also transmit on the priority channel when in scan mode. Page 4 of 12
Priority 2 Channel Assignment: Use the following steps to set Priority 2 channel assignment: 1. Turn Scan off (press SCN). 2. Rotate channel selector knob to desired channel for Priority 2. 3. While holding down the SNC button, press the MON button two times. The Priority 2 channel is now set. PP (Programmable Priority) shows in the display. 4. To make another channel Priority 2, repeat step 1. Note: The scan feature must be turned off in order to activate or change any of the scan or priority features. Operator Selectable Tone: Once the OST option is selected (hold down the OST button for two seconds), use the up/down arrow keys (upper-right corner of unit) to cycle through up to 16 custom CTCSS encode tones for access to repeaters. For safety, the Kenwood TK-790 radio operating system does not permit OST (Operator Selectable Tone) on channels that have been pre-assigned a transmit tone via programming. Page 5 of 12
Operator Selectable Tone Memory: The Kenwood TK-790 radio automatically memorizes the last OST the user set for a particular channel, even when the radio is turned off or unplugged. Different operator selectable tones can be assigned or reassigned individually to any channel desired. There are different tones for different channels, e.g., CDF C1 (Tone 2) and MVU LOC (Tone 4), etc. The radio will always remember what tone the user assigned or if no operator selectable tone was assigned to a particular channel at all. Once tones have been assigned for a particular channel, the operator need only change the channels; tones stay fixed to those channels until changed. COMMAND GROUP OPERATION The radio may have the ability to set up a user-programmable command group separate from the other 20 groups. This group is capable of any channels from any of the groups. The AUX C button is used to add or delete channels from this group. Following are steps to use the command group function: 1. Ensure Scan function is turned off. 2. Using the channel select knob (right round knob under display), select the desired channel to add to the command group from any group in the radio. 3. Press and hold the AUX C button until a short beep is heard and a momentary C icon appears on the display. 4. To add additional channels to the command group, repeat steps 2 and 3 above. 5. To add an entire group, press AUX C for ten seconds, or until a long beep is heard. The entire group is now copied into the command group. Page 6 of 12
6. When finished selecting all channels for the command group, press the down arrow (to the left of the display) until the C icon appears in the display. (This will be one step below Group 1.) 7. Selected channels are now in the command group. Priority 1 and 2 channels and any wanted channels in scan must now be redefined if desired. 8. To remove channels from the command group press AUX C until the channel disappears and you hear a short beep. 9. To remove the entire group at once, while in the command group press and hold the AUX C button for ten seconds or until a long beep is heard. The entire group is now removed, and the radio will revert to Group 1. It is important to understand the command group function is user programmable. The user defines what is wanted in this group and, in most cases, will be the user s own day-to-day operating group. For example, when going out of county, needed channels can be added, a group can be erased, and a new one built, etc. Upon return to the area, user can rebuild the day-to-day group. The next several pages include diagrams showing the command group operation in detail. Page 7 of 12
COMMAND GROUP OPERATION Adding Channels to Command Group REMEMBER: Scan must be off when adding or deleting channels in the command group. Note: There has been confusion as to why the Group 1 icon appears at the same time as the C icon when in the command group as the C icon is difficult to see. This is the way the radio was designed. Page 8 of 12
Locating the Command Group Page 9 of 12
Deleting Channels from Command Group REMEMBER: Scan must be off when deleting or adding channels in the command group. Page 10 of 12
Kenwood TK-790 Mobile Radio Command Group (AUX C) Command Group (AUX C): This function is used to create a custom command group with desired channels. C indicates that you are in the command group Press and hold AUX C Short beep: one channel has been added Long beep: group has been added Following are steps to use the command group function: 1. Ensure scan function is turned off. 2. Using the channel select knob (right round knob under display), select the desired channel to add to the command group from any group in the radio. 3. Press and hold the AUX C button until a short beep is heard and a momentary C icon appears on the display. 4. To add additional channels to the command group, repeat steps 2 and 3 above. 5. To add an entire group, press AUX C for ten seconds, or until a long beep is heard. The entire group is now copied into the command group. 6. When finished selecting all channels for the command group, press the down arrow (to the left of the display) until the C icon appears in the display. (This will be one step below Group 1.) 7. User is now in the command group. Priority 1 and 2 channels and any wanted channels in scan must now be redefined if desired. 8. To remove channels from the command group press AUX C until the channel disappears and you hear a short beep. 9. To remove the entire group at once, while in the command group press and hold the AUX C button for ten seconds or until a long beep is heard. The entire group is now removed and the radio will revert to Group 1. It is important to understand the command group function is user programmable. USER defines what user wants in this group and, in most cases, will be user s own day-to-day operating group. For example, when going out of county, needed channels can be added, a group can be erased, and a new one built, etc. Upon return to the area, user can rebuild the day-to-day group. Page 11 of 12
Kenwood TK-790 Mobile Radio Operator Selectable Tone (OST) Using the Operator Selectable Tone 1. Press and hold the OST button until TONE 1 110.9 starts to blink. 2. The Kenwood TK-790 mobile radio uses the two up/down arrow keys, (upper right hand corner), to cycle thru up to 16 custom CTCSS encode tones for access to repeaters. 3. Once the desired tone is selected, press the OST button to confirm. 4. To turn off, press the OST button again and the OST will disappear from the screen. Operator Selectable Tone Memory The Kenwood TK-790 radio automatically memorizes the last OST the user set for a particular channel, even when the radio is turned off or unplugged. Different operator selectable tones can be assigned or re-assigned individually to any channel desired. There are different tones for different channels, e.g., CDF C1 (Tone 2) and MVU LOC (Tone 4), etc. The radio will always remember what tone the user assigned or if no operator selectable tone was assigned to a particular channel at all. Once tones have been assigned for a particular channel, the operator need only change the channels; tones stay fixed to those channels until changed. Page 12 of 12