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Anytone Ares 2

lonestarbandit said:
Very nice!
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Tell you what....I am thinking of doing the same to the QT-60/Q5N2. I'll be sure to take a photo for you.

I worked my buddy in FL about 90 minutes ago. He said the SSB audio was kinda lame. I turned the NPC on and he was impressed with it. I didn't look at a waveform yet and I saw some dude's YT claiming that the NPC is shit and never use it. We shall see....but at the other end, my buddy insisted it was killer. I am impressed with this POS LOL. Very cool toy indeed!
 
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Deal lol. Now stop influencing my RAD I've already blown my toy budget on that Yaseu FT710 when it shows up. And a used DVI monitor. And a desk studio mic. If I buy anything else today she may kill me lol. Possibly tomorrow as well.
I'll just live vicariously through the rest of the RAD afflicted for now.
 
SuperLid said:
I am going to screw around with the S meter calibration. Like others here, I cal my S meters -73 dBm for S9. I will adjust the smaller values accordingly at 6 dB per S unit and see how it goes.

I don't have my QT-40 hooked up right now, but I may today just for fun. I have a QT-60 also and will do the same with the S meter. Too bad Radioddity has no QT-60's right now. They may miss the end of year sales window. $260 less 20% makes it $208 shipped plus tax. That is insane!
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Any luck with the S-meter adjustment? Mine came out pretty good. I can tell the higher S readings are slightly off but close enough for me not to mess with them. It was just that floating/stuck on S-5 that was driving me crazy, which is fix now.
 
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Rick-SJ said:
Any luck with the S-meter adjustment? Mine came out pretty good. I can tell the higher S readings are slightly off but close enough for me not to mess with them. It was just that floating/stuck on S-5 that was driving me crazy, which is fix now.
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I have not done the S meter adjustment yet.
 
Rick-SJ said:
Ok. Here is the 5555N II service menu parameters. This goes without saying, but you are doing this at your own risk. I’m not responsible to anything that happens to your radio by doing this. Please take note of all original setting from factory on a pad or paper before changing anything so you can put it back (hopefully). Be careful when attempting to adjust some of the parameters as some may need test equipment to obtain those numbers back. In other words, you might screw the radio up and not get it back.

All the ones I adjusted were easy to adjust without harm and able to go back by just turning the channel selector, except adjusting the S-meter. It will requires a signal generator to safely get it back to the original setting, but I knew I didn’t want that anyways. Every Anytone I ever used required the S-meter to be adjusted as they all come screwed up.



Here is the Service menu for both 5555N and the Ares II. All the original settings from my radios are list with the few of my adjustment numbers in ( XX ).



For some reason, the wide band TX sound good on the Ares II (FF) but I feel on the 5555N II it sounds better at (0000). It just has a little more punch in the audio. But on the Ares II, this really helps clean that crunchy and chopped up audio and sounds better. Try it out and see for yourself.



To fix the S-Meter reading, you will have to have a signal generator or make your own with another transceiver (which is what I did, since my signal generator died years ago). You will have to inject or dial down the signal as low as possible to adjust these low S units to favorable setting. You can also do it another way by listening to other stations on the air that come in weak and quickly turn the dial to hopefully get a number you want to try. It will constantly change up and down due to the signals present on the air. You will have to go back and forth, but you will get there also.

On the Ares II, the main number you want to adjust is S-5. It needs to go higher than the number you have from the factor. The higher the number, the greater signal strength needed to move it. It appears the factor has a lower threshold number which is why it stays there all day.

My numbers my not work for your radio, so you will have to play with it dozens of times to dial it in.

On the 5555N II, I didn’t have to mess with the R-5 setting, just the R1 and R3. But on the Ares II, I needed to do all three. I could probably dial it in better, but at the moment, it is good enough and way better than what the factory did. It drops down quickly once the signal is gone. It drops to just below the 1-S unit and hangs for a second and then drops completely if there is no other signal present. It is almost like this unit has a Peak S meter setting built in. I would like to shut it off if it does. But it is so nice to see the meter working like this versus the hang on S-5 all day long whether there is a signal or not. Why Anytone adjust radios like this is beyond me.



Oh, note that with band selector on ‘D’ and the switch on ‘L’, my radio automatically went to channel 20 (27.205) for the test frequency when in the service menu.

It will be on USB automatically when trying to adjust U1-UC S-meter.



My radio only needed 1 click to get it dialed in to be on frequency, as you can see on my chart. They are that close from the factory, but I’m very picky and wanted it dead on.



Also, when you try to clean the audio up, you see I turned down the SSB High output a bit. So now it only does about 20-25 watts PEP but it sounds cleaner. You would think that turning down the output from the outside of the radio would produce the same effect, but for some reason it doesn’t clean the audio as does when you adjust it in the service menu. I tried this but it stayed crunchy and choppy sounding no matter how low I turn the output down from the outside. Hence, you see that I did this to both of the radio and it really does make a difference if you care for a cleaner sounding audio. Take this bit info for what you will. There might be other parameter settings that will clean it up also or even better. Let me know if you find a better way to do this. But in the mean time, this setting that I have adjusted has greatly helped these radios out.



I’m much happier with the radio now and can start using it with a smile on my face.



Anyways, I hope this helps and good luck.

Rick
P.S. I hope I saved it as a file you can view.
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I don't know what the difference is, between your radio and mine, but the service parameters don't work the way you describe.

First, the RX frequency when in service mode, is 27.420.

Second, the U1-UC parameters are random. They change with signal level and are almost never the same. I found the MDS on SSB to be -127 dBm, which is higher than I expected. When going from -73 to -72 dBm, the meter goes from S9 to S9 +30. Nothing I have seen corresponds to what things should be, in my experience. The AGC decay on SSB is so slow, it is a joke. I like the radio, but it needs refinement, as do all of these Qixiang radios from what I can tell.

Maybe I am not doing something correctly, but I am doing what I am doing by the seat of my pants, with no service manual.

I am going to put the PA transistors back to factory and look at the spectral purity. 2nd harmonic was around 35 dB down, with the IRFZ24's.
 
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