Anyone have an older ICOM unit (70's - 80's)

[cruiseroutfit]

I recently came across an older ICOM unit (IC-280), made in the late 70's and early 80's. Everything is clean and intact, even has a remote mount kit for the face unit. It is however missing the DC power cord. I tried our local ICOM dealer, he hasn't seen one in years, he might be able to order it but he recommended I just go buy the 4-pin molex connector at Radio Shack and build a cable.

I picked up the 4 pin male molex thinking I could resort to my owners manual for the wiring schematic on the pins, no such luck, the schematic doesn't have any detail.

I'm hoping someone has an older ICOM radio and could tell me which of the 3 pins is 12V, which is GRD and which is memory.

Similar ICOM radios that use the same DC Power Cable: 45A, 260, 290H, 255A, 1200, 25A, 120, 490, AT500, 245, AT100, 280, 221, 220, 560, 290, 490, (R71/A with CK70 Kit), 22S

Anyone?

 

[gary in ohio]

You can find a manual at http://www.usersmanualguide.com/icom/amateur__mobile_transceiver/ic280 but it doesnt have the pin out.

You can find other manuals on that site, maybe one of them has the pinout.
Thats a standard connector from the period. I have a older icom Ill can digout if need be and find your pins.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

You can find a manual at http://www.usersmanualguide.com/icom/amateur__mobile_transceiver/ic280 but it doesnt have the pin out.

You can find other manuals on that site, maybe one of them has the pinout.
Thats a standard connector from the period. I have a older icom Ill can digout if need be and find your pins.

I tried looking through as many of the manuals from that era as I could, no such luck, I did find a rough schematic of my unit. If someone wouldn't mind looking at it and verifying what I assume is correct:

Top to bottom with the triagle corner at top as shown in schematic:
1: 12V DC power
2:
3: Memory
4: Ground

Look right?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

With fingers crossed I wired it up as described above. She works like a charm. Using a home-made j-pole antenna I was able to hit our local "chat" repeater and get a radio check back from a gent ~15 miles away, he could hear me 100%. It did take me awhile to figure out how to use and program a 30+ year old radio though.

 

[adventureduo]

That's awesome Kurt! talk about oldschool man... way to go on bringing it back to life.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

That's awesome Kurt! talk about oldschool man... way to go on bringing it back to life.

Best part is that it was a white elephant gift at a Christmas party this last year. I kinda figured I was stuck with an old broken CB as I didn't even give it a second look in the box. Low and behold the gent that brought it came over and told me what it was and was pretty confident it was still a working unit. In the box was also a remote mount face kit (can you believe that had that in the 70's) and the owners manual

 

[craig]

That's pretty cool. Goes perfect with the old Cruiser. :smiley_drive:

 

[Tennmogger]

FYI, for the future, to 'pin-out' the power connections without a schematic, use a VOM with ohmmeter connected to the frame of the radio and find the pin that is connected to ground. Then, from that ground pin, check the other pins with the VOM in diode mode. The positive pin will almost always have a polarity protection diode to ground, and the VOM will find it for you.

Congrats on that 'new' radio. It's fun like that that makes ham radio such a great hobby!

WB4ETT

I recently came across an older ICOM unit (IC-280), made in the late 70's and early 80's. Everything is clean and intact, even has a remote mount kit for the face unit. It is however missing the DC power cord....chop...

 

[cruiseroutfit]

FYI, for the future, to 'pin-out' the power connections without a schematic, use a VOM with ohmmeter connected to the frame of the radio and find the pin that is connected to ground. Then, from that ground pin, check the other pins with the VOM in diode mode. The positive pin will almost always have a polarity protection diode to ground, and the VOM will find it for you.

Congrats on that 'new' radio. It's fun like that that makes ham radio such a great hobby!

WB4ETT

Great info, thanks!

I guess an update is in order. I've been using it as a "shop radio", its sitting on a power supply on my shipping table, always monitoring our local "chew" repeater. From time to time I'll hop in on a conversation though I'm usually just listing to the deep thoughts of others. Still using the home-built j-pole antenna too

 

[Tennmogger]

Hi Kurt,

My shop radio is an old Yaesu CPU-2500 dating from the '70's. I had bought it new for over $500 (!) because it was the "first computer controller" 2m radio. It scanned all four memories! Looking back, it has earned it's cost over the years. Today, the same money buys a lot more radio!

Let's keep the old ones working!

Bob

Great info, thanks!

I guess an update is in order. I've been using it as a "shop radio", its sitting on a power supply on my shipping table, always monitoring our local "chew" repeater. From time to time I'll hop in on a conversation though I'm usually just listing to the deep thoughts of others. Still using the home-built j-pole antenna too

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Hi Kurt,

My shop radio is an old Yaesu CPU-2500 dating from the '70's. I had bought it new for over $500 (!) because it was the "first computer controller" 2m radio. It scanned all four memories! Looking back, it has earned it's cost over the years. Today, the same money buys a lot more radio!

Let's keep the old ones working!

Bob

Very cool, "scanned all four memories" :sombrero: This model has 4 channels, no scanning. As sad as the side by side comparisons are towards a newer Yaesu (have a new 2M in my Tacoma). I like the bulky manual switches and knobs, I'm all for relics

I'm supposed to be scoring some other old models this coming week, I'll post some pics if it all comes together.

 

[bj70_guy]

How do you open the door to shovel the coal into that thing? :elkgrin:

Kidding, I think it's cool. Looks like it belongs in a '68 F250 crew cab 4x4.

 

[Tennmogger]

I would prefer an older radio in my vehicles because I can reach over and turn the knobs and flip the switches and never look at it. The new radios are just impossible to tune/adjust and drive. Heck, it's hard enough to do on a desk in good light!

I have a couple of FT-857D's in vehicles because of their versatility, However, (if you know these radios) tuning to a new repeater frequency, adding the correct CTCSS tones, and putting that into memory is just impossible without stopping. But, I can't even talk on a cell phone and drive. Are there any new but simple 2 meter radios that are still "finger touch friendly"?

Bob WB4ETT