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ICT90A Quick Guide by AD0N
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Icom T90A A quick guide for blind amateur radio operators. This guide is for the Icom IC T90A USA model. It is not meant to take the place of the manual. This guide will only cover some of the basic functions. Right out of the box information CW Readout The CW readout will not work on a new radio right out of the box. To get it working, hold down the CALL-TV-LOCK button and turn the power on. The power button is on the front and is about half way down on the left side. The CALL-TV-LOCK button is the extreme bottom right hand corner on the fromt. To activate the CW readout, hold down the BAND button for more than one second. The CW readout speed can be adjusted in the SET mode menu "KY SPD" for 10, 15 or 20 words per minute. The MULTI FUNCTION KNOB This knob is found on the top of the radio and opposite the antenna. Rotating the MFK while holding down a button is a method for selecting and changing values for the T90A. When rotating the MFK counter clockwise many clicks always brings you to the first selection of the button depressed, never any further no matter how many times it is turned. Likewise rotating the MFK clockwise many clicks always brings you to the last item in the list and never any further. This is very helpful in finding your way around this handy little rig. BATTERY The snap-on battery pack must be initially charged for at least 15 hours. The T 90A can be operated while charging. ANTENNA The Rubber Duck antenna has two tips. The long tip is for 50Mhz / 6 meter operation. The short tip is for all other bands. Never pick up or carry the radio by the antenna. It's very tempting. The physicical discription. Top. On the top you will find the SMA antenna connection, the Multi Function Knob (MFK) and a rubber flap that protects the external microphone and speaker jacks. The left connector is the mic and the right is the speaker. The SMA connector has fine threads and care should be taken not to cross thread them. Just at note; the manual warns against lifting or carring the T 90A by the antenna. Right Side. The right side has a rubber flap that protects the External DC Power Jack. This jack allows battery charging via the wall charger or the optional CP-19 cigarette lighter cable. Left Side. This side has the PTT (Push To Talk) and Squelch/Monitor Buttons. There is one rubber cover over both of these buttons. The PTT is the top two thirds and the bottom one third is the SQUELCH. If you run your finger down the rubber cover you will feel a small ridge that seperates them. The SQUELCH can be opened by pressing and holding down this button to listen for weak signals. Also, the squelch can be set by using this button and the MFK on the top of the radio. To set the squelch, press and hold down the SQUELCH button and with your other hand turn the MFK at least 12 to 15 clicks CCW (counter clock wise) and release the SQUELCH button. You have now set the sqelch to the OPEN position. Push the SQL button in and rotate the MFK one click CW (clock wise) and release the button. You are now in AUTO SQUELCH mode. Now if you hold the SQUELCH button in and rotate the MFK up to nine more clicks CW, the SQUELCH will get tighter and tighter to eliminate stronger and stronger noise. Remember, the rotation is like a water valve. To let in more noise turn the MFK CCW. To let in less noise Turn the MFK CW. I recommend using the Auto Mode to start. Note This method of holding down a button and rotating the MFK will appear again and again to adjust many setting on the T 90A. FRONT THE VISUAL DISPLAY First the upper one third is the visual display. The characters are dark on a colored background. The background color can be adjusted in the SET menu. The choices are Green, Red and Orange. Orange seems to be the brightest. VOLUME BUTTONS Just below the display on the left are two large buttons stacked verticaly over each other. These are the UP and Down VOLUME buttons. Punch these briefly to increase or decrease volume. A quicker and better way to control the volume is to press and hold either of these buttons and rotate the MFK. POWER The POWER button is small and round and just below and to the left of the bottom Volume button. Push and hold to turn the T90A on or off. BAND To the right of the POWER button is the BAND button. It has a horizontal shape with rounded corners. This is most useful to the blind ham. Press and hold the BAND button to hear the CW Readout of the frequency on the visual display. The speed of the CW can be set in the MENU. The other function of this button is to rotate through ten bands available on this rig. I didn't find this to be of much use, even to a sighted ham. KEYPAD The keypad is the bottom one third of the front. The buttons are arranged in three horzontal rows of five buttons each. Each of these buttons has at least two functions. The first or top function is achieved by pushing quickly (you will hear a short beep). The second or bottom function is accesed by pushing and holding more, than one second, untill a second beep is heard. The keypad is arranged a little differently than the standard telephone pad in that the zero is to the right of the 6 and the decimal point is to the right of the 9. All the number buttons pressed briefly enter numbers in VFO and Memory Modes. >From left to right the top row. # 1 / V/D Hold the #1 button down to toggle the functions of the volume and MFK. Don't bother with this function. # 2 / Tone Hold the #2 button to activate Tone functions. # 3 / H-L Hold the #3 Button to toggle between High and Low transmit power. SHORTCUT Hold down the #3 / H-L button and rotate the MFK one click CW for High transmit power or one click CCW for low transmit power. MODE / SCAN To change transmit and recieve modes momentarly press MODE /SCAN to cycle through AM, FM and WFM. To start SCANning press and hold til the second beep is heard. When released the scanning will start. There will be more on scanning later. VFO / Mhz To select the VFO mode or to toggle between the A and B VFOs press briefly. To move frequencys by one Mhz jumps hold the VFO/Mhz button for one second and use the MFK to go up or down frequency quickly. Not very useful. Middle horizontal row. Left to Right # 4 / DUP Hold the #4 button down to toggle through the repeater offsets. Using the toggle method there is no way to tell where you are unless you can kerchunk a repeater or can listen on another reciever. HERE'S BETTER WAY Hold down the #4 /DUP and rotate the MFK at least three clicks CCW The rig is now in simplex mode. One click CW is negative (-) offset and one more click CW is positive (+) offset. No matter how many clicks CW or CCW you can't go past the settings and get mixed up. It's like a three position switch, Left - no offset, center - negatave offset and right - positive offset. FYI These offsets are standard for what everband you are on. Non-standard offsets or odd splits can be set in the menu. # 5 / SKIP To SKIP a Frequency in VFO mode or a Memory channel in memory mode. While scanning, hold down the #5 / SKIP button while the reciever is paused. It's a good idea to take note of the channel or frequency so the SKIP can be removed later. # 6 / M.N To view an alpha-numeric name instead of the frequency number hold this button down. # Ø / RIT This selects the RIT above 630 Mhz or the ATTENUATOR below 630 Mhz. MR / SMW This selects the memory mode and is used for writing memorys. Press and release to enter memory mode. Press and hold for longer than one second to enter the memory writing mode. More on this later. Bottom Horizontal Row. Left to Right # 7 / T.SCAN To scan for PL Tones press and hold to start the TONE SCAN Function. Make sure that the "SCAN STOP BEEP" is turned on in the menu. # 8 / SET SET Mode is used for programmming infrequently changed values or conitions of functions. # 9 / TS Press and hold for one second to select TUNING STEPS. If you hold this button down and spin the MFK CCW at least 10 clicks the minimum size tuning step will be selected. . / DTMF.M The decimal point is used when directly entering frequencys. Hold for one second for the DTMF memory channel functions. CALL / TV / LOCK Push to toggle between Weather Channels and Call Frequencies. Hold one second for LOCK Functions. VFO FREQUENCY SELECTION Direct frequency entry is the best method. To enter VFO mode just touch the VFO button briefly once or twice to get either A or B VFO. The A & B VFO's are identical in function, there are just two of them. (Handy for switching back and forth between two frequencies.) Any frequency over 100 Mhz can be entered in without entering the decimal point. EG 146520 or 444100. All six numbers have to be entered though. Frequencies less than 100 Mhz must have the decimal point entered or start entering with zeros. Examples are, for FM broadcast: 097100 or 97decimal 100. AM broadcast: 000830 or decimal 830. 6 meters: 053450 or 53 decimal 450. Helpful hint.. If you think you have goofed up the entry, simply hit the PTT button briefly and the rig will take you back to where you started. Start entering again. SHORTCUT.. To change frequency within a band, say going from 146.760 to 146.940, just enter the decimel point and the last three numbers. MODE AND OFFSET Mode and offset are for the most part set by the T90A automatically when entering freqencys for the AM broadcast, FM broadcast, AM aircraft, 6 meter FM, 2 meter FM and the 440 FM bands. In the TV audio bands (WFM) the mode might have to be set manually by the MODE /SCAN Button which is just to the left of the VFO button. This might have to be done a couple of time till the mode toggles to the correct mode. In 2, 6 and 440 bands just push the PTT button. If you hear a beep you are in the wrong mode. Just cycle through the modes till no beep is heard. AUTO OFFSET Auto offset is turned on as a default setting. If it does not work, in the SET menu select AUTORP and select ONLY or TONE. ONLY turns on the auto offset function. The TONE setting turns on the auto offset and will transmit PL TONES if entered. Choose the TONES setting. PROGRAMMING MEMORY CHANNELS Select VFO mode and enter frequency, mode and offset. Now touch the MR button (just below the VFO button) to select memory mode. Select a channel number with the key pad. Let's say it's channel 52 for 146.520 simplex. Now push for one second the BAND button to hear the CW READOUT. If it spells out C L E A R the channel is empty. If the channel is not empty the CW readout will announce the digits of the stored frequency. Select another channel number or over write the previous information. The final move is to hold the MR down for two seconds. You will hear a short single beep ( E ) and then two short beeps ( I ) that confirms that the information has been transfered to the memory channel. RECALLING MEMORY CHANNELS There are two ways to recall memory channels. First select memory mode by touching the MR button. Then rotate the MFK to select the channel desired. This is a good way to find channels that have been marked to be SKIPPED for SCAN mode. These might be radio or TV broadcasts. The second way is to just enter the channel number on the keypad and touch the MR button again. An example would be to enter, 5 2 then the MR button. Another variation of the same thing would be to enter 0 5 2. The MR button does not have to be pushed. Bingo you are there! VFO SCAN The T90A has seven types of VFO SCANNING. To start scanning first touch the VFO button to enter the VFO mode. Then press and hold down the MODE/SCAN button just to the left of the VFO button. Now turn the MFK at least 7 clicks CCW. You are now in FULL SCAN. Full scan will scan the entire range of the T90A. That's from below AM broadcast to above 900 Mhz. One click CW from FULL SCAN will take you to BAND SCAN that is selected from the BAND Button. The only way you can tell where you are with the BAND button is to use the CW READOUT function. The second click CW will take you to a broad UHF / VHF scan. The third click is a 6 meter scan. The fourth click CW is a 2 meter scan. The fifth click CW is a 220 Mhz scan. The sixth click CW is a 440 scan. When you have made your choice, release the MODE / SCAN button to start the scanning function. If you get lost, you can stop the scan by touching either the VFO or PTT buttons and then use the CW READOUT function to make sure you are in the right place. Start the scan again. MEMORY SCAN Memory scan is started in exactly the same way as VFO scan. Touch the MR button to enter the Memory mode. Press and hold the MODE / SCAN button down and spin the MFK at least 10 to 15 clicks CCW.. You are now in FULL SCAN. In this mode you wilI scan all memory channels that have been programed. Rotate the MFK one click CW is a 6 meter scan, two clicks is a 2 meter scan and three clicks is a 440 scan. NOTE.. The manual and T 90A that I had to work with differ in the way that these scan functions worked. Have someone check these for you. Refer to page 48 in the manual. SKIP Unwanted signals can be SKIPPED in all the scan modes. When the scanning stops on a unwanted signal press and hold 5 / SKIP button for more than one second. You will hear three beeps and the scan will resume. NOTE Make sure that the PSCAN function is turned on in the menu. SET To enter the SET MODE press and hold 8 / SET button for more than one second. Rotate the MFK to the menu item you wish to change, touch 8 / SET to select. Then use the MFK to change the value and then touch 8 / SET to select. To exit the SET mode, touch the VFO or PTT buttons briefly. NOTE There are 39 menu items in the set mode. 21 in the main menu and 18 more in two sub menus. For the most part once these are set, you won't have to deal with these again. Refer to pages 56 through 66 in the menu for details. |
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