The Radio Information Board

What does "Switchable" mean in the MRK model breakdown???

Frank

I'm not sure what radio brand and model you're referring to, but with most vendors "switchable" means the ability to have different bandwidths on different channels in the SAME radio.
Used to be a radio was all narrow or all wide, NOT switchable.

Maybe that's what you got?
Bob

I thought I had heard a GE Tech say once that "switchable" meant that the radios all had the same guts: you could swap faces and fronts and go from selects to scans to systems radios. Of course, with the MRK's the I is different from the II.

My other, logical (I think) guess is that they're talking about switching the spacing on the radios...


I'll probably be talking to a tech today or tomorrow - I'll try to find out for you for sure.

Gordon

Thanks guys, I thought maybe it be one or the other or maybe
something to do with bandsplits.

Frank

Switchable refers to wideband or narrowband channels...

Ken

Hey Ken -

You weren't the tech I had in mind, but you'll do!

:)

Check your PM's...

Gordon

NodrogCop wrote:Hey Ken -

You weren't the tech I had in mind, but you'll do!



Check your PM's...

Gordon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My PM reply is waiting for you Gordon...

If your talking about the old GE mobile telephone type MRK II radio, the terms narrow and wideband channels hadn't even been thought about back in those days.

Jim

Well I have now discovered that any "Switchable"MRK radio is just that-
Switchable, as in band splits!! I had a 470-500 here that is now working great as a 440-470 mhz with no re-tuning!! I simply had to flash the controller to a 440-470 mhz split and now I am in business. One additional thing to mention is that the FCC ID on this unit is AXATR-202-A1 , the A1 meaning it has the switchable RF deck, a no switchable would end with A5 meaning it's on going to work 470-500 Mhz . So here is some new info that is sure to please some of you out there, and it pleases me, I now have a mid-split MRK!!

Frank

From LBI 38746G for the MRK radio line switchable means the radio is capable of either 12.5 KHz (narrowband) or 25 KHz (standardband) channel spacings.

To get technical there are 3 versions of the MRK that you could find; 1 is the switchable(12.5 or 25 KHz channel spacing version) the 2nd is the 25 KHz only channel spacing version and the 3rd is the 12.5 KHz channel spacing only version.


Mike

That may be, I am just happy the radio is working 440-470 mhz now.
Apparently the A1 Rf section is a hybrid that will work the entire spread 403-470 mhz, the old designation for the 470-500 Mhz deck was A5.
Either way , I am happy now and can use the radio!

Frank

That is correct all of the RF boards are interchangeble but it's just that there are some that have a single 2nd IF and some that have a dual 2nd IF and some of the singles are either 12.5 or 25 KHz.

Either way the MRK's are nice radios and not about to become obsolete in the near future especially if you have the switchable IF version then the radio should be useable when the narrowband mandates come about.


Mike

10-95 wrote:Well I have now discovered that any "Switchable"MRK radio is just that-
Switchable, as in band splits!! I had a 470-500 here that is now working great as a 440-470 mhz with no re-tuning!! I simply had to flash the controller to a 440-470 mhz split and now I am in business. One additional thing to mention is that the FCC ID on this unit is AXATR-202-A1 , the A1 meaning it has the switchable RF deck, a no switchable would end with A5 meaning it's on going to work 470-500 Mhz . So here is some new info that is sure to please some of you out there, and it pleases me, I now have a mid-split MRK!!

Frank

OK. I've been trying for days now to make this work. I have two system M-RK II's that I want to switch. One is a "P" split (403-430) UHF and the other is a "G" split 136-160) VHF. Both were manufactuered after 2000, both FCC ID's end in A1, and both are switchable. They are even listed as UL & VL SWTCH in the revisions menu. I want to switch the UHF to a "U" split (440-470) and the VHF to a "H" split (150-174). I have ProGrammer Ver R1605. I've not yet been able to figure out how to switch the bandsplit's in RadioMaint, and if I crreate a new personality in ProGrammer, changing the bandsplit, and try to program the radio, I get an error message showing the current radio split and that i have the wrong freqs entered. So how do you change the bandsplit?

Usually you have to change a chip resistor on the board to change bands. The system board reads the resistor value and sees it as another band. As for moving a 403 band radio to the next split, it won't work. Some will get to 445 MHz by tuning but that differs from radio to radio. The problem is that the lower split uses a different VCO and some other hardware. The other splits can be changed with the resistor.

I have a few of the 403-430 radios and did a lot of research a while back.. The factory clued me into the different VCO story and said it wouldn't be possible. The RF board could be changed out with the 440-470 board, but not changed to the other band physically.


Tim

PS Frank, I don't know how you did it, but switchable doesn't mean bandsplit via software in the GE vernacular... it is bandwidth. All MRKs made after 2000 were switchable BW 12.5/25 KHz. Earlier than 2000 they used 4 (MRK1), 5 (MRK II), & 6 (MRK Scan) numbers for switchable- i.e. PK4xxx. By changing the resistor the reflash wouldn't have been necessary.