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Technical Information on S‑COM Repeater Controllers

Compiled and HTML'd by Mike Morris WA6ILQ
Web page maintained by Kevin Custer W3KKC and by Mike Morris WA6ILQ

Click here or on the logo above to go to the S-COM factory website

Note that the S-Com factory still supports all of the 5K, 6K, 7K and 7330 controllers, including spare parts stock to the limit of parts availability.

Contact:	S-COM, LLC		Contact Bob Schmid directly at bob (at) scomcontrollers (dot) com For reference, the prior address (seen in many old manuals) was Box 1718 in Loveland, Colorado.
	PO Box 1546
	LaPorte, Colorado, USA 80535-1546
	Voice: (970) 416-6505
	Fax: (970) 419-3222
	E-mail: sales (at) scomcontrollers (dot) com

The S-Com corporate web site has a wealth of information at http://www.scomcontrollers.com.

There are two Scom mailing lists:
    Click here for the main list (all Scom products).
    Click here for the 7330 list.
There is a large user community on the mailing lists, plus the principals are active members of the list.

The 2.04x version of the firmware for the 7K was developed by Dave Karr KA9FUR at Vyex (from the S-Com 7K 2.03x firmware) to fully integrate his new Digital Audio board with the 7K controller. A number of very useful features were added at the same time (like an IF-THEN-ELSE construct). Support for all 2.04x issues is provided by Vyex, with contact information on their web page.

Scom has produced four controllers over the last 30 years:

• The 5K Repeater Controller: one repeater port (with optional audio delay) plus a Control receiver input. When the control receiver COR input is active the DTMF decoder is switched from the repeater receiver to the control receiver. That's the only function of the control receiver - its audio can not feed the transmitter, it's simply a priority DTMF input. The 5K was manufactured from 1987 to 1997 with over 1800 sold.
• The 6K Repeater Controller - one and a half repeater ports (two receivers and one transmitter). There was an optional audio delay and an optional autopatch. The 6K was manufactured from 1990 to 1995.
• The 7K Repeater Controller - two and a half repeater ports (three receivers and two transmitters). This was essentially a 6K plus a remote base port that could also do some repeater functions. You could have two optional audio delays, an optional autopatch and optional speech synthesizer.
  Dave KA9FUR developed, with the assistance of Scom, the Digital Audio Board that expanded the speech synthesizer and added a serial port for programming. The 7K was manufactured from 1989 to 2004.
• The 7330 Repeater Controller - three full radio ports, each of which could be a repeater, a radio (or wireline) link, a remote base, an internet (Allstar / Echolink / IRLP) link, or a control receiver. Internally the 7330 has a 3x3 audio crosspoint switching array (9 receiver to transmitter paths) and each path had separate courtesy beeps, separate IDers, separate time out timers. Each radio port had its own dedicated DTMF decoder and speech synthesizer... yes, three synthesizers and they shared a 1600+ word Standard Vocabulary (real human speech that was done by a professional voiceover artist) plus there was 11 minutes of audio storage for Custom Vocabulary "words". Each "word" was a stream of audio samples (8000 per second) and could be of any length just so the total was less than 13 minutes.
  There were no options, everything was built in.
  Production of the 7330 started in 2007 and ended in 2022 when some of the components were no longer available.

	The Vyex Digital Audio Board   - a replacement for the S-Com 7K speech synthesizer board... Bring your 7K up to date!   (offsite link)
	S-Com Connector pinout  Covers the models 5K, 6K, 7K and 7330
	Various Technical Notes on S-Com products   by Mike Morris WA6ILQ Including some notes on serial communications with the 7330 or the 7K DAB.
	Sample programming for the S-Com repeater controller line   By Joel Huntley WA1ZYX   (Off-site link, opens in a new browser tab) Programmers would call these "code fragments" - just little tricks and treats that others have developed and decided to share.
	S-COM 7K to MICOR station interfacing   (19 kB PDF file)   By Bob Hoffman N3CVL. This file was recreated from old postscript files. Diagrams only; no text.
	Another connection of a repeater controller (an S-COM 7K) to the MICOR Unified Chassis Station   By Joel Huntley WA1ZYX   (Off-site link, opens in a new browser tab) Also applies to the 5K or 6k with connector pin number changes.
	Interfacing a GE MASTR II Base Station / Repeater to a S-Com 5K or 7K   (19 kB PDF file)   By Bob Schmid WA9FBO of S-Com, LLC. Also applies to the 5K or 6k with connector pin number changes.
	Interfacing a Uniden Repeater to an S-Com 5K   (108 kB PDF file) Also applies to the 5K or 6k with connector pin number changes.
	Interfacing an MSF5000 Repeater to an S-Com 7330   (372 kB PDF file)   By Justin Reed NØUJQ
	Interfacing a Kenwood TKR-720 or TKR-820 repeater to an S-Com 5K   By John "Jake" Eckardt N3FU Just change the pin numbers for the 6K or 7K
	Recovering the extra User Function Outputs from an S-COM 7K     By Andy Zorca WJ9J Eight additonal digital outputs are available from a 7K controller. Here's a schematic of the hardware to do it, along with a complete description of the programming.
	Configuring the S-Com 6K to Operate a Link Transceiver   A thorough step-by-step walkthrough, including programming, by Justin Reed NØUJQ The technique also applies to the 7k with connector pin number changes.
	Programming your S-Com 5K, 6K or 7K repeater controller without a radio or a phone line   By Mike Morris WA6ILQ The pre-7330 S-Com controllers do not have a serial port (unless your 7K has a DAB).   Here's how to get around that. This technique works with any brand of controller that understands DTMF.
	Analog Audio Delay Module Schematic (ADM)  This is the early analog delay module. Most had two of the pots sealed with glyptal - Don't mess with the sealed pots! This is the voice of experience...
	Digital Audio Delay Module Schematic (DADM)   This is the later digital delay module.   Switch setting info is here: http://www.scomcontrollers.com/node/26.
	S-Com 7330 Board Layout   This is worth printing on a color printer and putting inside the case of the controller.
	One trick that has been done to confuse folks that want to play with your system is to use a courtesy tone that is commonly used by another brand of controller. The ACC page at this web site has a PDF that describes the factory shipped courtesy beeps. They are included in the courtesy tones collection page (trust me - the "Nextel Beep" is cute, but becomes real annoying after a while).

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This web page created 02-Apr-2007.

Information and images published with cooperation and permission of S-COM LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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.