Kenwood TK380/TK880 Firmware Programming

[@Craigs-corner]

Link for the firmware files posted in the video description.

[@franciscoherrera7240]

Thank you. Helped out big time.

[@Craigs-corner]

That’s great…the whole point of the video! What do you have…TK-380, 880, or both?

[@labreja1]

Thanks for your quick reply!

[@Craigs-corner]

Glad I could help…73s to ya!

[@dustineasley854]

Hi you helped me before on finding a cable. I am missing a tone DCS 036N. I need that for my local repeater on receive and transmit tone of DCS 145N. Am I out of luck since the programming software doesn’t have it? That’s the only thing I’m missing

[@Craigs-corner]

Hey man…sorry for the delay. What you can do (since those tones aren’t available in the drop down list) is manually type in “D036N” in the decode box, and manually type in “D145N” in the encode box and then save your codeplug file. I just tested it and it works fine (the radio can still generate that tone, even though it doesn’t show in the drop-down list). Give that a try and see if you can break squelch on that repeater. Report back, if you don’t mine…in case others read this (encounter this).

[@dustineasley854]

@@Craigs-corner hi that worked great, thank you again for your help

[@Craigs-corner]

@@dustineasley854 that’s great, man…glad to help, and thanks for reporting back success…may help someone else out.

[@ipodbuff]

Hey 👋 I was able to follow along and update my radio 😊😊. I was wondering if you could please 🙏 make a video going over the stunt kill feature? I’ve bought my radio for a really good price and I was able to fully restore the radio. There we’re programmed frequencies from a school bus company. My thoughts is that they probably disabled/locked the radios after getting rid of them. Idk. 😂😂

[@labreja1]

73 to you as well. FYI, I just got my gmrs license. I purchased a used TK880 to test on the higher power simplex. (wife won't get her ham ticket), so I figured that this might get going. Anything else you could think of that would help with the radio would be greatly appreciated. 73. K8JCL

[@colt45cz75]

I have several TK 880's and they have been programmed with v1 firmware. When I hold the scan button and power on the radio, it shows the ver 1.5209 then channel one. The two I've tried won't enter programming mode. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[@Craigs-corner]

Sorry for the late reply…you may have already figured this out, but I’ll answer just in case someone else runs into this. I actually talk about this at the beginning of the video. Plug your radio in (powered on) and start the programming software. Read the codeplug from the radio, then go into General Setting, then tab2. Click the box that says “Firmware Programming” to put a check mark there, then write the codeplug back to the radio. When it completes, the radio should restart, then you can power it off, hold down the scan button while powering it on, and it should then go into firmware program mode.

[@jeremygonzalez8464]

I know this isn't what the video is about but I'm unable to get fleet sync to work on my TK-880, do you have any tips?

[@traviscamacho5306]

Do you know if I can scan all UHF freqs with it. I have a 380 and programmed all the GMRS channels into my radio, but want to listen to more, so would I have to put all UHF Freqs into my radio, or is there a way to scan and find used ones.

[@Craigs-corner]

The type 1 TK-380 will work from 450-490MHz. I can tell you they can be programmed lower than that, as I monitor some local 70cm repeater traffic, but I don’t receive that great on a GMRS specific antenna. I use a Smiley Superstick antenna for GMRS and it works awesome with this radio. I can hit one of our network repeaters from over 40 miles with the TK-380 and people tell me I sound like I’m on a base station. If I put a dual band antenna on I receive the 70cm frequencies better, but it degrades the GMRS performance.

[@labreja1]

Thanks for the firmware link. Would you please please provide a link for the cable from the computer to the TK-880?

[@Craigs-corner]

I’ve purchased several programming cables from this gentleman…he is a long time HAM. This FTDI cable is plug and play via USB on both Windows 7 and Windows 10…connects to the mic port on the radio. www.ebay.com/itm/152844849543

[@nelsmcmullen7967]

I'd like a copy of the firmware files if possible. I need to update my 880s. How can I contact you

[@Craigs-corner]

[e-mail]

[@Craigs-corner]

Actually…look in my video description…there is a link I provided that you can download them from, and I explain which .hex file is for the version 1 and version 2 radios. If you have issues with that, email me and I’ll send them to you directly.

[@n1kkri]

I own a TK-880H-1 version 2. I can program the radio with KPG-49D (windows) but when I do write to it I get a message stating the firmware does not support Stun Validation, whatever that is. thanks

[@n1kkri]

I used the procedure to determine what version I have. B5DC. How can I tell if this is newer or older than 0ADE ? What would be the difference in features if my firmware is older? I am using KPG49D 4.20 (Windows) programming software. Should the radio still work with this programming software after updating firmware? The current programming software is programming the radio fine but I am wondering what the difference would be?

[@n1kkri]

I use a RS232 cable connected to a USB to RS232 adapter. This allows me to use USB on my computer. Should I still check USB in the firmware programming software? I noticed you had USB checked.

[@landonbargerhuff-m2c]

I checked the link and looked through the blog posts and I could not find the firmware update file.

[@Craigs-corner]

Hmmm…I see what you mean. It had been there. I have the .hex firmware files for both V1 and V2 radios. I could send you a Dropbox link to download them to your computer if you provide an email address. It would be from my Dropbox account. You cannot email them directly…they usually get stripped as potentially dangerous file types, since it’s a .hex file (machine language).

[@jasonlevine9848]

How do I send you a message so I can get your link for the firmware? Your video is super informative.

[@Craigs-corner]

Hey man…look in the video description for additional info, and the link where you can download the latest firmware hex files for both V1 and V2. Let me know if you need any other help.

[@1OFGODSOWN]

You left off how to get into the software? I have the Software disc but I don't know what to click on to get where you start? I'm not a high tech guru just someone that has no clue what I'm doing.

[@Craigs-corner]

Send me an email to [e-mail] and include your name/number and I’ll call you…should be able to explain over the phone. It sounds like you have the install disk and need assistance installing the software onto your computer, then go from there. If you want to try…go into disk one and look for a file called Setup.exe and if you run that it will install the FPU software onto your computer.

[@1OFGODSOWN]

@@Craigs-corner I will look at it when I get back out into the shack.

[@davidsirr9910]

I have a locked radio, given to me for free…broken antenna, dead battery locked radio channel 11. Seems like it should work if it was reprogrammed or cleared of all previous set up instructions. Is it possible?

[@Craigs-corner]

Try powering the radio on while holding down the scan button and report to me what the display says on the radio. Some Kenwood radios might have an aftermarket firmware programmed (not Kenwood). If you hold the scan button down and power the radio on, the display should say “PROG” and then some numbers next to it on the right; if the display says that, it’s in firmware programming mode, and means it can be re-flashed with Kenwood firmware and unlocked/reprogrammed. Let me know. The numbers after the word “PROG” indicate the baud rate for transferring data between the radio and a computer. Is this a TK-380 or TK-880?

[@davidsirr9910]

@@Craigs-corner it says P below that, a down arrow to the right ch 11. Attempts a changing the channel, -LOCKED- Beeps loud and clear. So the speaker works, replaced the battery and antenna. Going to try channel 11 on another radio to see what I get, if anything. Thanks for the input. Dave

[@KO4RXE-WRMR358]

@@Craigs-corner is it possible to Flash the TK 863g With the tk880 firmware...? If so then I can reprogram (tk863) now tk880 with channels and so on correct?

[@johnpayette992]

Stupid question how do I move the downloaded firmware from that folder in the folder I named firmware

[@Craigs-corner]

I’m not exactly clear on what you’re asking; are you asking how to copy the hex file from one folder to another on your computer, or how to transfer the hex file to the radio?

[@andrewgill1645]

Can I do this on a Mac?

[@Craigs-corner]

I don’t think KPG-49D is compatible with Apple, unless you can dual boot into Windows.

[@Craigs-corner]

I found this excerpt on a forum discussion from 2017, “I have actually used Mac for five years now. I run VMware on my MacBook Pro and use that software, running Windows 7 as a Virtual Machine inside VMware.” He also goes on to mention that you have to buy a USB to serial programming cable that uses the FTDI chip versus Prolific. For cables, I always buy FTDI cables from a guy named Mark out in California, for example his cable for the TK-880 bluemax49ers.com/product-explorer/kenwood-tk-880-ftdi-programming-cable-kpg-46/ and he can help you out with software and firmware files. Hope this helps.