Changing the Kenwood TK-7180/7180H/8180/8180H from Passport Trunking to Conventional Firmware

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Back to Home Changing the Kenwood
TK-7180 / 7180H / 8180 / 8180H
from Passport Trunking to Conventional Firmware
By Robert W. Meister WA1MIK and Dennis Lombard N1MAT

The Problem:

Apparently some TK-7180 and TK-8180 radios contain Scholer-Johnson Passport (trunking) firmware and the radio can't be programmed with the usual KPG-89D program. In fact, when you try to do so, you get a message informing you to "!USE SJ-180!" to deal with the radio. There's no external indication of this on the radio's label.

The Solution:

You need to install conventional firmware into the radio. It can be found "out there" on the web, along with the KPG-89D programming package. The latest firmware release (as of the time of this writing, December 2019) is Version 1.22. If you haven't already installed KPG-89D, do so now. Two programs come with the package: FPRO.exe, used only for firmware programming, and KPG-89D.exe, used for personality programming. (NOTE: Some European radios may require the KPG-92D or KPG-96D package to update the firmware, so perhaps not all FPRO programs are the same.)

Navigate to the folder with the KPG-89D software. Start the FPRO.exe program. Once open, it will ask for the file name containing the firmware that you want to install. This will be a file whose name ends with ".HEX".

Set up the proper COMM port (where your programming cable is plugged into) and baud rate (115,200 bps) in the FPRO program. Connect the radio and computer with the standard programming cable.

Put the TK-7180/8180 into firmware programming mode by pressing and holding the 'S' button on the front of the radio while turning the radio's power on.

Once in programming mode, click "Write" on the FPRO program. Some radios may have inhibited firmware updating. If so, you'll need the SJ-180 programming package; SJ-180 can be found "out there". Get it, install it, run it, and read the radio's personality file. Locate and enable the option to allow flash/firmware updating then write the personality file back to the radio. You can now run FPRO.exe by resuming at the previous step.

After the new firmware is loaded, a checksum will be displayed on the FPRO program's screen and on the radio's display. If the firmware loaded properly, you should see the same checksum value in both places. If not, repeat this process.

Turn the radio off and then back on. It will now be running conventional firmware with most of the existing channel information intact.

Open up your KPG-89D program. You now can program the radio normally. I'd suggest you start by building a clean personality file from scratch. Don't rely on any settings from the previous owner.

Contact Information:

The author can be contacted at: his-callsign [ at ] comcast [ dot ] net.

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This page created on 05-Feb-2019.

This web page, this web site, the information presented in and on its pages and in these modifications and conversions is © Copyrighted 1995 and (date of last update) by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors. All Rights Reserved, including that of paper and web publication elsewhere.