Trying again - take 4 for the TYT TH-9800 - M0YNG.uk

Created 2015-12-05

Modified 2019-09-21

Mobile

Programming

TYT TH-9800

I got myself a TYT TH-9800 when I passed my intermediate exam, and although I like the radio, it's been a rocky ride for the two of us! Mine was one of the first batch produced, at least it hadn't been out long when I bought it. Inevitably, there were some teething troubles. For me, this manifested as the 2m Power Amplifier failing, in total, this has happened three times, with increasingly significant action by the seller.

1. Repair / replace the PA module

2. Replace the entire radio circuitry (same box)

3. Replace the whole radio (this time I'd *smelt* the radio fail!)

I now own a "plus" model, which I understand (from reading the internet) comes with uprated components, and improved firmware. There also seems to be a variation which covers 4m, rather than 6m.

Reasonably pleased with finding that TYT had hopefully resolved my problems, and that it wasn't anything I was doing that had caused them, I shoved everything back under my seat in the car, and hit the road.

Sadly, and much to the confusion of the other station, and to my own frustration, I found that the new radio had a "busy lock" enabled. This stops the radio transmitting when it is receiving a signal. This meant that I was unable to reply to my contact using the repeater, until the repeater had stopped transmitting. Which it didn't, because I kept being asked if I was still there…

This "feature" is not something you can change in the menu of the radio, nor via Chirp, nor via the TYT supplied software. It is, however, superb at making the radio almost completely useless as a mobile rig, repeaters are impossible, and squeezing into a net isn't much better!

If you search online for "TYT TH-9800 Busy Lock", you will find quite a few results. Not least of which is N6PET[1]'s very useful page. On it, he helpfully provides a bit of software to upgrade the firmware / fix the issue. Hooray! I've kept hold of a copy, in case his ever vanishes...

1: https://n6pet.com/tyt9800-good-chinese/

No TX when Busy Light on

Sadly, the software is only provided for Windows, so I spent the majority of a day arguing with combinations of Virtualbox, Windows 7, Windows 10, Prolific Drivers, an old laptop, the radio, other bits of software, and myself, I was successful in applying the fix.

To speed things up for everyone else, RTFM. Follow the instructions, put your radio into the correct mode, and everything will work.

It will, however, erase any of your settings, so I'd suggest running Chirp before, and after, to save you manually re-programming everything.

With that all done, hopefully this one will last longer than the rest! I've got a page with more info on the TYT TH-9800[2], and my use of it, which I'll soon update with things to remind me how to do this, if I ever need to again!

2: /tyt-th9800/

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