Icom External Keypad

Back in 2011, I acquired an Icom IC-7410 HF/50 MHz transceiver. The IC-7410 has worked out very well, but this radio does have a few shortcomings compared to my venerable Kenwood TS-870.

One difference between the IC-7410 and the TS-870 is the ease-of-use for the built-in memory keyer. On the TS-870 there are four "memory channel" buttons on the front panel to send the contents of memory. On the IC-7410 you need to navigate through the radio's menu system, pressing [F-4] "Key", then [F-2] "Send" soft-keys before you reach the part of the display that allows sending stored messages M1, M2, M3, M4 using the [F-1] to [F-4] function keys.

This is inconvenient if you want to use the menu system for anything else such as the Band Scope.

Fortunately, Icom allows connection of an external keypad for calling up memory contents on the IC-7410 and many other Icom HF radios. The keypad plugs into the "MIC" microphone connector on the front panel.

I decided to construct my own external keypad and was looking around for a suitable case to house the microphone connector, cable and push-buttons. Inspiration came at a recent hamfest where I saw a secondhand MFJ-1251 "Universal Microphone Adapter". This unit is not intended to be an external keypad, but it is quite easily modified for the task.
The MFJ-1251 should work equally well with other Icom HF transceivers needing an external keypad, whether they use an 8-pin round "MIC" connector or the modular jack type of connector.	MFJ-1251 modified for use as an External Keypad.

You can read about how I set about modifying the MFJ-1251 in the accompanying article, taken from the pages of the PCARA Update, monthly newsletter of the Peekskill / Cortlandt Amateur Radio Association.

IcomKeypad.pdf (PDF file, 309 KB)

- de NM9J, Sept 13, 2014

G3VNQ-NM9J amateur radio site, 13-Sep-2014