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Reviews For: Piexx TU-79PX Tone Encoder

Category: Third-party Equipment

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Review Summary For : Piexx TU-79PX Tone Encoder
Reviews: 2MSRP: 59.00
Description:
Tone encoder designed for the Kenwood 7930/7950 2 meter transceiver.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.piexx.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
KE0MS Rating: 2015-07-11
These things ROCK! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I just wrote a review on the PIEXX TU-5 for my TS-7811 and 811 radios... and now I need to write one for the TU-79 that go into the Kenwood TS-7900 and 7930 radios....

When these boards go unpurchased when the radios are new, the radios have functions that are unusable... then when they go out-of-production, you can't find them anymore, other than paying a King's ransom for a used one.

PIEXX has come to the rescue of guys like me that want to outfit our radios as best as we can, and do not believe in obsolescense just because something is "old". The TU-79 boards plug right into the radio and do everything just as the original ones would have done. I could not be happier.

Thank you, PIEXX for making solutions to keep our older radios fully-functional on the ham bands.

:)

ke0ms
KS3R Rating: 2004-08-16
Very pleased with this product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased my Kenwood TR-7930 in 1983. It didn't have the TU-79 tone encoder, so a few years later I breadboarded a tone encoder using the schematic Kenwood supplied with my 7930 and using identical components.

About 3 years ago, I bought a TR-7950. Once again, it lacked the tone module. I purchased a TU-79PX tone encoder from Piexx in August of 2004. I purchased it online through their website. They provide the installation instructions, programming codes and several pictures of the product on their website.

After I placed my order, the next day, I received a confirmation email from one of Piexx's staff, confirming my order, telling me when it would ship and also asking me what (3) PL tones I desired, so they could pre-program it for me!

The Piexx unit is physically identical to the size of Kenwood's TU-79. They provide a copy of the manual, the harness and mounting stand-offs to mount the unit inside the radio. I would however, suggest using a 4-40 tap on the holes in the Kenwood chassis as they appear to be un-tapped and the threads on the male/female stand-offs can strip.

Installation took around 15 minutes. I didn't even have to set the deviation adjustment. I found the encoder deviation to be already set to the right level. You can change the (3) banked tones by bridging solder across designated solder pads. It would have been nicer to have DIP switches for each of the three banks, but obviously this would increase the size of the printed circuit board, causing it not to fit inside the radio.

Today, I see many 7930's and 7950's being sold on Ebay. The majority of them do not have the tone encoder board. If you're looking for an easy way to add tone to your 7930/7950, you can't go wrong with this product.