It’s been about 10 or 12 years since I ordered a URI and I just ordered one as I ran out of them and it came as a URIb version.
I didn’t even notice it until I started investigating while I was having trouble with reaching sufficient discriminator level and pin 21. I’m using Kenwood next edge repeaters and I have several of them. I’m finally getting around in adding a node to my Marathon Florida repeater and discovered the hard way that the URIB will not work properly I called and found out that they change the chipset and it is not as sensitive. Just wanting if anyone else had experienced this and what the resolution might be?
I tried testing a URIb on a gm300 and found that it just barely had enough level. It actually warns you but it does work.
There needs to be an alternative or they need to fix this because I can see this being a showstopper for a lot of people.
DMK is aware of the situation and will be shipping the URIxB with different resistors in the fixed attenuator between pin 21 and the CM119B. Resistors R5 and R7 formed a resistive divider that for the CM119B is too aggressive. R5 was a 470k for URI's with the CM108 and CM119A chipset. For the URIxB, R5 changes to a 39k. R7 remains a 68k, its original value. This change fixes the low-level problem as you discovered. A fix is to either replace R5 with a lower value resistor, solder another resistor over top of it that results in approximately 39k. Another is to utilize pin 9 with a outboard coupling capacitor and a voltage divider that suits your attenuation needs.
Going forward, all URIxB's will be supplied with an EEPROM to hold some settings that aren't currently command-able from ASL software. The CM119B chip has two additional features which affect how the radio adapter works. One is a microphone high-pass filter. This filters intention is to eliminate popping of P's or other words/syllables similarly spoken. For ASL, this feature serves no real purpose, and if allowed to be turned on, will cause reduction of CTCSS detection below 100 Hz, especially if the signal is noisy when using the usbradio channel driver. Another feature is a selectable boost amount of 12 or 22 dB. The older CM108 and CM119A only have the 12 dB boost amount. Obviously, to be compatible with older URI's this needs set to 12 dB. And - it appears if this is set to 22 dB, the radio adapter stops working. These settings are held in EEPROM and DMK will be shipping URIxB's with these set properly.
If you consider the CM119B has no crystal (its design eliminates the need for it as a cheap USB audio adapter), you have to wonder if the temperature stability will be sufficient for reliable CTCSS detection. I suppose a variance of a few cycles of audio frequency shift would have no effect on voice transmissions, but a few cycles of shift of CTCSS could mean unreliable PL detection or possibly decoding your neighbors PL tone. In my opinion, the CM119B based radio adapters should only be used for simpleusb deployments. Some radio adapter manufacturers have purchased thousands of genuine CM119A's and will continue to supply that chipset by default in their radio adapters.
Kevin W3KKC
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On 5/10/2019 10:26 PM, Lu V wrote:
It’s been about 10 or 12 years since I ordered a URI and I just ordered one as I ran out of them and it came as a URIb version.
I didn’t even notice it until I started investigating while I was having trouble with reaching sufficient discriminator level and pin 21. I’m using Kenwood next edge repeaters and I have several of them. I’m finally getting around in adding a node to my Marathon Florida repeater and discovered the hard way that the URIB will not work properly I called and found out that they change the chipset and it is not as sensitive. Just wanting if anyone else had experienced this and what the resolution might be?
I tried testing a URIb on a gm300 and found that it just barely had enough level. It actually warns you but it does work.
There needs to be an alternative or they need to fix this because I can see this being a showstopper for a lot of people.
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All of my radio adapters still use the CM119A chips. While they are not pin for pin compatable with the URI, I feel they work well and have a superior feature set:
For use with the GM300, you might take a look at the RIM_Lite that plugs directly in the back of that radio: (RIM Maxtrac)
Scott
Scott Zimmerman
Amateur Radio Call N3XCC
474 Barnett Road
Boswell, PA 15531
···
On 5/10/2019 10:26 PM, Lu V wrote:
It’s been about 10 or 12 years since I ordered a URI and I just ordered one as I ran out of them and it came as a URIb version.
I didn’t even notice it until I started investigating while I was having trouble with reaching sufficient discriminator level and pin 21. I’m using Kenwood next edge repeaters and I have several of them. I’m finally getting around in adding a node to my Marathon Florida repeater and discovered the hard way that the URIB will not work properly I called and found out that they change the chipset and it is not as sensitive. Just wanting if anyone else had experienced this and what the resolution might be?
I tried testing a URIb on a gm300 and found that it just barely had enough level. It actually warns you but it does work.
There needs to be an alternative or they need to fix this because I can see this being a showstopper for a lot of people.
To unsubscribe from this list please visit http://lists.allstarlink.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Enter your email address and press the "Unsubscribe or edit options button"
You do not need a password to unsubscribe, you can do it via email confirmation. If you have trouble unsubscribing, please send a message to the list detailing the problem.
I was just informed that DMK is offering a free replacement for anyone who is unhappy with the audio levels on their URIxB. To initiate this, send an email to sales@dmkeng.com <mailto:sales@dmkeng.com> to receive an RMA and they will take care of the situation.
Kevin W3KKC
···
On 5/10/2019 10:26 PM, Lu V wrote:
It’s been about 10 or 12 years since I ordered a URI and I just ordered one as I ran out of them and it came as a URIb version.
I didn’t even notice it until I started investigating while I was having trouble with reaching sufficient discriminator level and pin 21. I’m using Kenwood next edge repeaters and I have several of them. I’m finally getting around in adding a node to my Marathon Florida repeater and discovered the hard way that the URIB will not work properly I called and found out that they change the chipset and it is not as sensitive. Just wanting if anyone else had experienced this and what the resolution might be?
I tried testing a URIb on a gm300 and found that it just barely had enough level. It actually warns you but it does work.
There needs to be an alternative or they need to fix this because I can see this being a showstopper for a lot of people.