Yep, and just get a 5 pin JST connector with flying leads and drop it in that white outlined spot for it and tack the leads right onto the pins of the audio connector. Done.

2023-01-16
FCS-PRC152-N 2.1.1226 firmware upgrade package.rar

FCS PRC 152 Android RCU Google Translate - English

Has anyone messed around with the FCS 152 enough to see if the freq range can be expanded?

scroll up

Apparently they have the rf deck sourced, but the mfg and FCS isn't coming off of any details.

Anyone test this app out? This was one of the main reasons I selected FCS, and now its here. I don't use an android as a primary phone or I'd poke around

Only preliminary test (been super busy) but so far for firmware upgrade I had to -

On Rev v2.0.000 and Boot v0.0.0003

- Connect to 2.4Ghz wifi
- Squelch + power button for FCS152 and select UPDATE
- Open FCS App and click UPGRADE1.0
- Choose your 2.4Ghz wifi SSID and input wifi password, then confirm

At this point Smartconfig will fail but it'll give you an IP address.

- Go to main menu on the FCS App and select "Standby interface"
- Manually input IP and confirm
- When connected at this point your radio will show the IP and WIFI program on display
- Update firmware by selecting the .bin file (need to have it downloaded onto your android device) and clicking update
- Radio will reset with new Version: Rev 2.1.1226, BOOT Rev 0.1.000

With Rev 2.1.1226, BOOT Rev 0.1.000

The input bug with the number 3 in VFO and Channel mode seems to be fixed. Haven't been able to check all the numbers. Haven't had time to check for any other bug including the issue with #00000 on the desktop CPS although release notes say it has been fixed. I did the KDU via the new CPS vs using the app.
---------------------------------
Hit 8 on a keypad to go into Program mode
Saw new TIMETOSLEEP option - this is auto-shut off when idle. I've tested this and as long as there are TX or RX, the FCS152 will not auto shut off and this option allows you to adjust this for 4 hours, 8 hours or turn it off completely.

Option 8 is WIFI RCU
Entered WIFI RCU can change the FCS SSID and password. To change, you use the keypad, numbers/letters.

-----------------
Enter WIFI RCU mode (power up FCS152 normally and entering program with Keypad 8)
- On Android device, connect wifi to the FCS SSID and password (default is FCS_Configure and password is 123456789)
- Open FCS RCU app
- Click UPGRADE & Control 2.0
- You are now in pseudo-KDU mode.

In FCS App/Android WIFI pseudo-KDU mode. You can change modes with "V/M" button from Channel, VFO VHF or VFO UHF. You can adjust volume and scroll through channels or frequencies. I haven't found a way to manually input digits for the freqs but haven't spent enough time on it.

-----------------
Programming via FCS App

On radio
- Squelch + Power
- Enter WIFI Control
- You will see IP and WIFI Program on the radio
- On Android device, choose the available FCS SSID hotspot on your wifi settings (default is FCS_Configure and password is 123456789) and connect to it.
- Open FCS App and select UPGRADE & Control 2.0 and click next

Once connected you'll see "Channel setting", "PGM Setting" and "DUAL Mode" and "Finish" all the way at the bottom. 462.56250

I did one preliminary test to write RX and TX freq using the app then clicked "Finish" on the bottom. It'll then say "Writing Finish. Please reboot your device!" in the app. The radio auto shuts down. and it failed to save the freq input.

@analogkid

I noticed this in one of the derail threads:


Do you do much with ESP32?

You might be able to help some of these other cats working on something that could be of a bigger community benefit.

Amazing. Thank you. Very pleased to hear its fixed. I intend to get on this soon myself. Also amazing to hear the esp32 is working as I had hoped it would one day. What a solid buy this radio is.

Edit: Got around to doing this today. Updated with the instructions above using an android phone. I hot spotted my iphone for wifi and that works for the 2.4ghz requirement. There doesn't seem to be a reason to use the app after updating. It appears to be a way to scroll faster but thats about it, hopefully it has some use in the future for quick programming. I'm not seeing the options to program in the app. I will keep messing around with it a bit. It did fix the .3 bug.

TCA just released a new 152 (allegedly)

alleged specs (some make more sense than others):

comes with KDU that doesn't use screws?
GPS installed
You can monitor up to 20 teammates location
10-15w power out
air band receive
firmware end user upgradable
logo (?) end user customizable
channels and group managable
8 voice encrypted channels
Auto detection channel in 3 seconds
DC out on pin F

The only thing I've learned about the GPS is that it is present, and somehow can track other users. I don't know what constellation, and I don't know how they talk between each other. The guy that did the reveal says the side dongle can be modified for an 'ATAK Hammer' but then says if you use it for ATAK, you can't use it for voice. (shrugs)

No idea who will distribute or MSRP or first available or what the case is made out of, FYI only

Is this the 3rd world militia model? Russian military model?

You must have inside info. Google didn't show anything. With those features, it would be cool but maybe pricy.

I am on about a dozen groups. Very little traffic on any of them, and half the time I am clicking 'translate'.

More when I learn it

The new TCA ones are coming out mid-April. I’ve got one on pre-order, so hopefully will have mine in hand by the end of the month. Photos from FB show the GPS functioning as well as the TCA KDU.

How much?

I haven't seen any video except for the prototype MPU5.

Does any one explain the tracking feature? Will it work AND let you talk at the same time?

Is that a metal case?

Anyone have a link to the current place to order one of these?

I just purchased a new 15 watt tri 152 off ebay for 350 delivered from a conus seller.

Does the keyboard thing allow you to load encryption keys in the field? Also, what kind of encryption does this claim to have?

essentially none.

Most have fixed simple voice inversion. No keyloading

Roger. I was just reading the ebay listing.

It is interesting that it is so broadbanded for receive and transmit.

Here’s where I saw a pic of the KDU and GPS functioning on FB (photo by Kenny Wei)

The case is made of metal.

I don't have any problems believing they have working gps. There is an older version that had it.

I was merely curious about how they were using it to track other radios.


--- Yeah, you have to take the ads with a salt lick sized grain of salt. Every iteration moves towards something that could theoretically get advanced features such as crypto, though.

Time for them to dump the 152 and put what they've learned into a replica of the newest Harris offering though.

The dual antenna 163? Seems like putting some version of the chinesium DMR radio electronics would be a good start. The problem is that the real sales are to the airsoft/milsim guys. Would the manufacturers (TRI, TCA, FCA, etc) risk pricing the radio out of the existing markets to make something for the tactical survivalist people?

The hong kong airsofters would absolutely bankroll such a thing. People have been begging for a way to run ATAK for years, and people are cobbling together toy MPU5's.

This thing would be a win for multiple paths; it's just a matter of getting someone smart enough to do it to listen.

Also, look at the path airsoft IR designators have gone. From silly toy to people putting modded versions on Real Steel firearms. This has the potential to be like that.

A radio that could pass local voice and digital mesh data at the same time in a housing that would stand up to being beat on in a price range that regular people could afford? sssson!

If someone does all that, the ability to clone radios over RF digital data would be pretty baller and the ability to house more than one code plug that can be booted on demand in the field.

So for USA, it would be an Anytone-type radio (VHF/UHF) with a 900 Mhz freq hop section for the data? Don't think you'll get that for $500.00 but anything is possible.

There's a reason radios that can do all that cost several thousand dollars.  You're not going to get all that in a consumer radio for a couple hundred bucks.

Smart phones that cost less than these radios can clone wirelessly. There are already radios integrating bluetooth if nothing else. Seems pretty doable.

You just described one of the zello phones with a wider tx deck.

In my opinion, those radios cost thousands because the end user needs certain assurances. Those are provided through standards and spares.

You can get a triband radio for around $50. Mate it to a PTT phone. Now you can use gateways and all the DMR ecosystem, and then one of the bands for local. Still leaves you 2m/440. SDR control and then it would be a dangerous little device, and I don't see a lot of real cost in there.

Or, pervert a MIMO setup in a ham band, and add a 2m deck to it.

I think there's a lot of ways to skin this cat, if people with the time and money would listen. Especially the ones that seem to constantly believe FCC is more of a suggesting body than a law lol

“Clone wirelessly” is one very small feature. That’s not what I was talking about.
But if you think you can build that magic radio go for it!

BTW, the one smartphone/radio that is on the market is kind of a garbage android phone with a DMR radio in it, it costs about 1200 bucks.  There's a TON of work that goes into creating something like that, even beyond just the hardware that isn't cheap by itself.  The PRC-152 clones on the market generally are using pretty cheap FM radio modules that aren't capable of much, so you've got to replace that completely, then their motherboards aren't really wired to do more than what they're advertised to do so you've got to either create a new one or try to write new firmware that patches things around so it can be done that way, and so on and so forth.   It's not a trivial thing to write a radio that can do all that.

But again, and I'm really not being snarky, if you think you can build that do everything radio cheaply go for it.  

Your opinion is not based in fact.  

I'll just leave it all at that.

Duly noted, Josh.

Can't seem to upgrade the FW on my v2.0.000, Boot rev 0.0.003 unit using the cable and either the V1.0 or v1.1 CPS.  Keep getting a "Product connect failed" error message.  Checked the COM port, and everything is fine.  Same issue with trying to connect to the KDU.  I am able to connect and read programmed channel memories though.  Any suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong?

Also, when going into program mode (#2), it'll start by displaying "Connect PROGRAM", then shortly followed by "Need to reconfig PROGRAM"

EDIT: OK, it seems the radio can only be updated over a wifi connection, which I was successfully able to do with the instructions above. Also figured out how to update the KDU FW.  Would be nice though to be able to do FW updates of the radio itself using the cable on a PC rather than the app.

People seem to have no idea what it takes and costs to build things.

Yep. I believe a federated approach (separate voice/slow-speed LMR data and broadband devices) is the most viable.

I mentioned this elsewhere a while ago; a friend and I are working on something very similar to a Silvus SL4200 using COTS equipment. So far we have an assembly that provides 5.8GHz omnidirectional local mesh capabilities, allows multiple end users via Wi-Fi AP, and can be powered by any USB PD power bank. Oh, and it fits in a 152 pouch

Our objective is to offer a 3D-printed case for this; development is underway. We haven't decided if we'll just offer the case file, sell cases, or build standalone radios for sale. This isn't a software development project, just an integration project.

I absolutely do.
My point wasn't for some talented individual to undertake this; that would be crazy. I am saying if you could bend the ear of TCA/TRI/baofeng, this would not be any bigger a deal than any other novel product offering. Not like there's a bunch of talent out here that could help guide them down the path for it.
I really like ST over Persistent based on what I've been able to look at in most of the regards. The swappable RF deck is pretty cool.

There is someone selling a case with a couple of the SDR dongles and a pi-type processor in it. You should add one. I don't want to clutter the 152 thread up, but seems like you could gut a high power baofeng as well, and essentially make what I was describing. Maybe not the entire range of transmit I would like, but, bridge a dual or tri band dmr radio with a mesh radio and then add a sdr dongle for good measure, and run it off some small form factor processor that could host atak.

Fuck, I need to quit my jobs and buy a Research Shed. I'm already in debt, what's one more credit card burnt? lol

They also think software and integration are free.  Newsflash, they're not.  

Seems like this version is available now at ebay. Dunno if linking to ebay listing is okay so I just say it was listed with following title "2023 TCA PRC-152A Radio W/ Functional GPS Module MULTIBAND Walkie Talkie +KDU"

The price is around $450 which feels a bit expensive just for GPS. Few models are cheaper but they say it doesn't come with the GPS hardware, just the antenna outside.

The case is also different. The plastic around the left side buttons (ptt) is different color in the pictures.

I looked at the FB website and the user went through the displays showing GPS coordinates. He didn't show any tracking of other units that I could make out. He was keypunching real fast.

Bump to keep this out of the archives

@mancow - did you ever find your connector?
@Mike327 - what's your opinion on the Beken BK4819 chip?

Smart People are working to unlock it to do:

Regular (FM) reception from 18-850MHz (1300MHz with the extended mod)
  AM reception from 18-136MHz (850MHz with the extended mod)
  Transmission outside of the 136-174,400-520MHz bands

But the radio this chip is in doesn't appear to be able to handle anything downstream that wide. Could this be a better starting point for the Franken152 project?

Lastly - has anyone bought one of the new 152's with GPS??

Never heard of it before the uvk5.
https://twitter.com/2ftg1/status/1639050278610542594

I'm swamped with projects and keep adding new ones. I'm determined to not let this one in the list.
https://github.com/fagci/qs-uvk5-firmware-modder

This one might be the way, dude.

I received this radio few days ago. The GPS is real and it works but the usefulness of that feature is questionable. I didn't buy the KDU since I just wanted the radio. I haven't found any real use for the GPS other than showing my current coordinates and time. But the current firmware version seems to have a bug so even the time is wrong. (it's not UTC time)

The readio is capable of working in VHF and UHF as transceiver. It also can receive FM broadcast and aviation AM bands.

I tested the radio with the 8.4 volt 2s battery which comes with the radio and I got out 9.5W of RF power on 145.525. On UHF it was lower closer to 5 watts but I forgot to record the correct value.

Sensitivity of the receiver seems to be similar to my Yaesu FT3D which is really surprising since that means it's better than average Baofeng. Spurious emissions seem to be better than Baofeng except for the first harmonic frequency which seems to be little higher than UV5R. Transmitting on mid power (5W) lowers it to acceptable levels. Anyways the TX side works just fine the audio is clear and all the normal ham features seem to be included so repeaters should work fine. Overall it seems that the radio part of the device is on the level of any of the chinese radios like anytone.

These RF tests were done with calibrated HP 8920A.

It's an okay ham radio in nice beefy case.

Maybe, but probably not. For context, the TYT MD-380 line including derivatives is still massively better understood than the UV-K5.

And the things I'm working on will be useful regardless. I am not worried.  

We continue to make significant progress towards open-first hardware on 3 major fronts (there's also a fourth front that might be pretty amazing), which will absolutely trash anything we have to reverse engineer.

That's beautiful!

Thank you all for your efforts.

And,  thank you to the previous poster for the detailed report. What version firmware and software shipped with it?

I just got a TCA and a TRI radio to mess around with and cannot figure out how to program the TCA with software.  I have tried numerous computers (Windows 10 and Windows 7).  On one of the Win 10 machines, the driver installs (Prolific), but the software install file keeps getting deleted/quarantined, because MS thinks it is a virus.  On the other Win 10 machine, the software will install, but the driver is not installing correctly.  It fails when using the Prolific driver and then shortly thereafter, the driver will change to CH341 and appear to work, but the software fails, stating that it cannot communicate with the radio.  The TCA did not come with a manual and the manuals that I have found online do not line up with the menus that I have in this radio.  The manuals all end at Menu 38, but mine goes to 43 and includes an item labeled "HOP" that is menu 40.  I can't imagine that it could do hopsets, but would be cool if it did.

I took the cable apart and the chipset is not Prolific.  It has CH340 on the PCB, so I imagine that is why the one computer keeps defaulting to CH341.  I did trace the wires out between the plug and the PCB on the USB connector, but I can't confirm if they are correct or not, because i don't have a pinout of the TCA 6-Pin port on the radio.  I am very close to just moving the cable over to a different USB-Serial chipset adapter or just going straight to a serial port to get this running.

I have the TRI programming down and it is good.  I just want to figure out the extra menus on the TCA and use the PC to program it as it isn't as intuitive to program by hand as the TRI.

damn.

That's a user handle I haven't heard since the old batlabs days!

I can't be of much help, except to say I think that the fake prolific issue has been a huge pain in the balls for a LOT of radios. I'm not sure how to cure the virus issue, my programming laptop never really ran any of that stuff. Just out of curiosity, do you have to do anything to the radio to get it into programming mode? Can you see a connection to the radio if you hook it in, but don't start the software?

... wonder if chirp-next has a fork for these?

Far as ECCM, none of these do it out of the box. Be a neat trick if they did, though

Yep, that's me.  I haven't been on here or Batlabs in years, but still do a lot of radio stuff.  This is my first plunge into CCR radios though and don't have any experience with Chirp.  95% of my radio dealings are with commercial gear for work and some for play.  I just thought these radios would be fun to trick the Marines at work.  I already got a few of them when they asked what I was doing with a 152 and I told them I found it in the road on my way in and needed to make some calls...lol

As far as features go on the TCA, do the older models have a freq counter built in?  This one will grab a freq of a nearby transmitter and allow you to hear it within a few seconds as long as it is analog FM.  I'd also like to get the TCA to do 220 like the TRI, but can't figure out how to do that, yet.  The radio has a Program mode when you move the concentric switch to the "LD" position, but no amount of switching it makes it read the radio with the software.  I'm certain that most of my problems are coming from the fake Prolific chipset.  I did remove that USB module and wired it straight to a DB9, but all it did was made the radio go into a constant key.  Makes me wonder if the cable was wired wrong from the factory.  They did have the red wire as ground, which seemed odd to me.

Hello Group

I have a TRI PRC-152 (15W) and this Radio work not with Crossband Repater funktion. By Menu settings RPT - ON and correct settings, switch RX and TX on and off (Wobble) every second. The RX and TX Frequenz is not nearly on in 70cm Band and the other in 2m Band.

I have tested with Original Antenna, and with Base Antenna (Diamond X510) It is ever the same.

Has enyone a the same problem, or we can i fix it?

Best regards :)

Anyone having difficulties getting to program the radio via Android?

This is all I get when I connect
Attached File

OK, got that fixed and straightened out, anyone having any luck playing with the firmware?
I happened on this.... https://github.com/tarxvftech/FCS-152