Standard Radio Information Index

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Equipment
Compiled and , HTML'd by Mike Morris WA6ILQ
Formerly Maintained by Robert Meister WA1MIK (SK)
Currently Maintained by Mike Morris WA6ILQ

This web page is for all the equipment branded as "Standard Radio". All the products that are branded "Vertex", "Vertex Standard" or "Vertex / Standard" (i.e. post merger) will be found on the Yaesu-Vertex-Standard page at this web site.

Standard Communications was an LMR and VHF-UHF amateur radio equipment division of Marantz of Japan. Standard also provided equipment to Heathkit and other OEM manufacturers. Marantz was a manufacturer of multiple product lines, one of which was high-end consumer audio equipment. Yaesu Musen is a manufacturer of amateur radio equipment and wanted to get into the USA commercial 2-way radio field. They acquired Standard Communications from Marantz Japan in 1998 and changed the company name to "Vertex Standard".

Motorola acquired Vertex Standard in 2012 just for their low band equipment line - Motorola had discontinued their low band product lines several years earlier and realized that they had screwed up - they could no longer bid on low-band systems. As a result the current California Highway Patrol mobile radio fleet is Kenwood.

A bit of trivia - when Standard was still in operation they manufactured their own crystals. When they were bought by Yaesu the crystal division was spun off into its own company, which (as of late 2023) is still operating as Frequency Management International.

Your page maintainer has very little knowledge or hands-on with this equipment!
Mike's father, WB6SOX, had a Standard SR-C826 that Mike added several sets of crystals to between 1975 and 1983 (when the radio was retired)...
Later he purchased a Standard SRC-851 monitor radio and Mike added more crystals. That's been Mike's total interaction with Standard radio equipment...
Comments, corrections, critiques, contributions, suggestions and updates to existing information
for this page are requested and appreciated (even one that just points out a typo).

C108 Schematic Diagram 2.9 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM

C120 144-148 MHz 5W Hand-Held Transceiver Owner's Manual 3.3 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM

SRC188 Schematic Diagram 1.9 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM

SR-C826M 2m 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 1.1 MB PDF courtesy of Bob WB4RJE

SR-C826M 2m 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Schematic Diagram 121 kB PDF courtesy of Bob WB4RJE
The SR-C826M was sold from roughly mid-1972 (the first review was in the January 1973 QST) to about 1975.

A bit of history: The Standard SR-C826 was manufactured in the early 1970s, a bit before the standardization of the 600 KHz offset on 2 meter repeaters and before the establishment of 146.52 MHz as the national simplex channel. As such, it was shipped with the four most popular frequency pairs at the time: Frequency 1 was 146.94 simplex, F2 was 146.34 TX / 146.76 RX, F3 was 146.34 TX / 146.94 RX, and F4 was 146.76 simplex, plus there were 8 sets of empty crystal sockets for 8 additional channels.

The SR-C826 and similar VHF radios used a standard design of 8 MHz crystals tripled to 24 MHz, then another tripler to 72 MHz. then a doubler stage to reach 144-148 MHz. Even Motorola used the same design, but where Motorola used an 8 MHz oscillator stage followed by a separate tripler stage Standard used a single oscillator-tripler stage (the first resonant circuit was at 24 MHz). Unfortunately that oscillator circuit was overdriven and enough 19th harmonic was generated that it radiated across the circuit board and leaked into the PA deck.

A little bit of 19th harmonic leakage wasn't a problem in most areas, but it was in Los Angeles, and probably in other areas that the author didn't hear of at the time. Torrance is one of the 48 communities in Los Angeles County (which with 11 million people has a larger population than 43 states). Torrance PD has been around since the 1940s and today (late 2023) has over 200 officers. In the 1970s they had four frequencies on VHF, one was 155.100 MHz.

The SR-C826s (and most any other radio with an 8 MHz crystal and a leaky multiplier chain) that transmitted on 146.94 MHz simplex were being heard by the several 155.100 MHz Torrance PD voting receivers positioned around the Los Angeles area: 146.94/18=8.163333… and 8.163333…×19=155.103333…

Fortunately the chief dispatcher at Torrance PD was a ham, and the Police Chief was ham-friendly. In fact in the 1970s there was a twice-a-year ham swap meet in the Torrance PD parking lot. Both realized that the interference was not deliberate, and fortunately 155.100 MHz was the tertiary tactical frequency. The Torrance PD radio shop did some research, determined what the problem was, and notified Standard Radio of the problem. The FCC was informed but since the department didn't ask for help they did not get involved. There was a simple cure: just swap the 8 MHz transmit crystals for 12 MHz crystals. The oscillator stage would double to 24 MHz instead of tripling from 8 MHz, the 19th harmonic would go away and the rest of the stages in the transmitter would not care.

Standard Radio immediately jumped on the fix. The very next day the Torrance PD dispatchers had a Callbook on top of the dispatch console. A few days later the dispatchers had a stack of rush-printed Torrance Police Department QSL cards. The cards notified the recipient of the interference issue on a police frequency, the fact that the department knew it was not the fault of the ham, that it was a known equipment design issue, that the FCC was not involved and would not be as long as the NO CHARGE fix was followed: the card had a list of ham-owned two-way shops that would perform a FREE repair (a crystal swap and frequency and deviation check) - just call and make an appointment. Standard Radio provided all of the replacement 12 MHz crystals to the shops and paid the shops their standard rate for the bench work. All three factory transmit rocks were replaced even though neither 154.47 (from 146.34) nor 154.91 (from 146.76) was used in the Los Angeles area at that time. And during the bench session the ham learned WHY the problem happened and was instructed to be sure that if he added additional channels to be sure to get 12 MHz transmit crystals.

I was told that for a while Standard Radio was shipping out hundreds of crystals a week to locations all over the country…
I've been told by several people that 146.94 MHz is the most popular 2 meter repeater channel in the country, but 146.940 MHz was simplex in southern California since 2 meter FM was started in the late 1960s, Once Wayne Green and 73 magazine convinced people that 146.52 MHz should be the primary simplex frequency and the simplex channel in new radios became 146.52 MHz (with 146.55 MHz and 146.58 MHz as alternate simplex frequencies) activity on 146.94 MHz pretty much went away. Around 1979 WA6QVI (then an employee at Disneyland) coordinated and installed a 2 meter repeater... the 146.34 MHz receiver was high in the Matterhorn mountain and was wirelined to the 146.94 MHz transmitter in the equipment room in Small World. The visitor-friendly repeater was operational until about 1988 when the Disney head of security retired and the new one arbitrarily decided that personally owned 2-way radios of any type could be (and therefore must be) a security problem.
But back to the SR-C826...
Even the manuals that were shipped with the radios were changed! The technical description page in the early manual says that an 8 MHz crystal is tripled, the same page in the later manuals says that a 12 MHz crystal is doubled…

The maintainer of this page saw one of the Torrance Police Department QSL cards because his father (WB6SOX) was one of the recipients. The page maintainer wishes he had it - it would be one helluva conversation starter - but the shops kept the card when the work was done and sent them to Standard as proof of the work (and along with their invoice).

In closing, during the time that my dad had the radio he had me replace 146.94 simplex with 146.52 simplex, and add five of the local repeaters... 146.22/82, 147.84/24, 146.01/61 and two more that I've forgotten. One of them might have been the local RACES repeater that had a 146.66 input and 145.30 output… and there is another story behind why those particular frequencies were chosen (and the odd offset).

And old radios never die, as I write this in late 2023 there is an SR-C826 for sale on eBay. I'll bet it has 12 MHz transmit crystals.

C5608D Dual-band Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 4.1 MB PDF includes schematics
The C5608D is a 50 watt fully synthesized dual-band radio. It's basically two independent radios with one common control panel and a microphone that duplicates 99% of the functionality. The radio can do full bi-directional cross-band repeat but this can only be activated at the control panel. It has separate UHF antenna connectors for each band. Use of a single dual-band antenna will require an external VHF/UHF diplexer. It does full CTCSS encode and decode but does NOT have DCS.

C7800 430-440 MHz 10w Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 2.5 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
Also contains some user interfacing circuitry at the end.

C7800 430-440 MHz 10w Mobile Radio Schematic Diagram 5.1 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM

C7900 430-440 MHz 10w Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 2.5 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM

C8800 144-146 MHz 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 5 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM

C8800 144-146 MHz 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Schematic 3.3 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM

GX1510U UHF 25w Mobile Radio Service Manual 1.7 MB PDF courtesy of Eric WB6FLY
This radio is identical to the Uniden SMU4525TK. Check the Uniden page for additional information.

GX3000U UHF 35w Mobile Radio Service Manual 2.8 MB PDF courtesy of Bill Griffith VE3WGX

RP70U UHF Repeater Service Manual 1.6 MB PDF
The RP-70 is a 12 watt crystal controlled desktop repeater with an optional internal notch-only duplexer. While Standard had their own tone board (the dip-switch programmable TN-34 encode/decode board), many were purchased as carrier-only and fitted with various aftermarket tone boards (i.e. Com-Spec TS-32) or community repeat panels (Com-Spec TP-3200, TP-38, Zetron, etc).
If anyone has fitted one with a tone board made by other than Standard or with an external controller please consider donating the interfacing information.

RPT-21 UHF Repeater Service Manual 7.06 MB PDF

sc-uSA-2 Desk Top Charger for the SR-C146A Transceiver 110 kB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK
This was the desk-top drop-in charger for the SR-C146A transceiver. It also had a 3.5mm plug with RG-174 coax feeding an SO-239 antenna jack on the back, so you could easily attach an outdoor antenna to the radio.

SR-C146A VHF Hand-Held Transceiver Instruction Manual, 12/73 edition 7.2 MB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK
The SR-C146A is a 2 watt, 5 channel crystal controlled hand-held transceiver. It even had a real S-meter! It came with two channels already installed. The optional TN3 Private-Channel (CTCSS) encode-decode module installed inside the radio. Power was provided by eight dry or rechargeable NiCd "AA" batteries.

SR-C146A VHF Hand-Held Transceiver Instruction Manual, 9/76 edition 10.7 MB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK
Later/cleaner version of the above SR-C146A manual. Has two sets of schematics, based on serial number.

SR-CTN3 Private-Channel (CTCSS) Encode-Decode Module for the SR-C146A 44 kB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK
This module used a miniature Motorola reed approximately 1/2 inch square. It all fit inside the SR-C146A transceiver.

Does anyone have any other Standard manuals?

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Page created 19-Aug-2004

The information presented in this web site and on these web pages is © Copyrighted 1995 - current by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors.

	C108 Schematic Diagram 2.9 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
	C120 144-148 MHz 5W Hand-Held Transceiver Owner's Manual 3.3 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
	SRC188 Schematic Diagram 1.9 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
	SR-C826M 2m 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 1.1 MB PDF courtesy of Bob WB4RJE
	SR-C826M 2m 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Schematic Diagram 121 kB PDF courtesy of Bob WB4RJE The SR-C826M was sold from roughly mid-1972 (the first review was in the January 1973 QST) to about 1975.
	A bit of history: The Standard SR-C826 was manufactured in the early 1970s, a bit before the standardization of the 600 KHz offset on 2 meter repeaters and before the establishment of 146.52 MHz as the national simplex channel. As such, it was shipped with the four most popular frequency pairs at the time: Frequency 1 was 146.94 simplex, F2 was 146.34 TX / 146.76 RX, F3 was 146.34 TX / 146.94 RX, and F4 was 146.76 simplex, plus there were 8 sets of empty crystal sockets for 8 additional channels. The SR-C826 and similar VHF radios used a standard design of 8 MHz crystals tripled to 24 MHz, then another tripler to 72 MHz. then a doubler stage to reach 144-148 MHz. Even Motorola used the same design, but where Motorola used an 8 MHz oscillator stage followed by a separate tripler stage Standard used a single oscillator-tripler stage (the first resonant circuit was at 24 MHz). Unfortunately that oscillator circuit was overdriven and enough 19th harmonic was generated that it radiated across the circuit board and leaked into the PA deck. A little bit of 19th harmonic leakage wasn't a problem in most areas, but it was in Los Angeles, and probably in other areas that the author didn't hear of at the time. Torrance is one of the 48 communities in Los Angeles County (which with 11 million people has a larger population than 43 states). Torrance PD has been around since the 1940s and today (late 2023) has over 200 officers. In the 1970s they had four frequencies on VHF, one was 155.100 MHz. The SR-C826s (and most any other radio with an 8 MHz crystal and a leaky multiplier chain) that transmitted on 146.94 MHz simplex were being heard by the several 155.100 MHz Torrance PD voting receivers positioned around the Los Angeles area: 146.94/18=8.163333… and 8.163333…×19=155.103333… Fortunately the chief dispatcher at Torrance PD was a ham, and the Police Chief was ham-friendly. In fact in the 1970s there was a twice-a-year ham swap meet in the Torrance PD parking lot. Both realized that the interference was not deliberate, and fortunately 155.100 MHz was the tertiary tactical frequency. The Torrance PD radio shop did some research, determined what the problem was, and notified Standard Radio of the problem. The FCC was informed but since the department didn't ask for help they did not get involved. There was a simple cure: just swap the 8 MHz transmit crystals for 12 MHz crystals. The oscillator stage would double to 24 MHz instead of tripling from 8 MHz, the 19th harmonic would go away and the rest of the stages in the transmitter would not care. Standard Radio immediately jumped on the fix. The very next day the Torrance PD dispatchers had a Callbook on top of the dispatch console. A few days later the dispatchers had a stack of rush-printed Torrance Police Department QSL cards. The cards notified the recipient of the interference issue on a police frequency, the fact that the department knew it was not the fault of the ham, that it was a known equipment design issue, that the FCC was not involved and would not be as long as the NO CHARGE fix was followed: the card had a list of ham-owned two-way shops that would perform a FREE repair (a crystal swap and frequency and deviation check) - just call and make an appointment. Standard Radio provided all of the replacement 12 MHz crystals to the shops and paid the shops their standard rate for the bench work. All three factory transmit rocks were replaced even though neither 154.47 (from 146.34) nor 154.91 (from 146.76) was used in the Los Angeles area at that time. And during the bench session the ham learned WHY the problem happened and was instructed to be sure that if he added additional channels to be sure to get 12 MHz transmit crystals. I was told that for a while Standard Radio was shipping out hundreds of crystals a week to locations all over the country… I've been told by several people that 146.94 MHz is the most popular 2 meter repeater channel in the country, but 146.940 MHz was simplex in southern California since 2 meter FM was started in the late 1960s, Once Wayne Green and 73 magazine convinced people that 146.52 MHz should be the primary simplex frequency and the simplex channel in new radios became 146.52 MHz (with 146.55 MHz and 146.58 MHz as alternate simplex frequencies) activity on 146.94 MHz pretty much went away. Around 1979 WA6QVI (then an employee at Disneyland) coordinated and installed a 2 meter repeater... the 146.34 MHz receiver was high in the Matterhorn mountain and was wirelined to the 146.94 MHz transmitter in the equipment room in Small World. The visitor-friendly repeater was operational until about 1988 when the Disney head of security retired and the new one arbitrarily decided that personally owned 2-way radios of any type could be (and therefore must be) a security problem. But back to the SR-C826... Even the manuals that were shipped with the radios were changed! The technical description page in the early manual says that an 8 MHz crystal is tripled, the same page in the later manuals says that a 12 MHz crystal is doubled… The maintainer of this page saw one of the Torrance Police Department QSL cards because his father (WB6SOX) was one of the recipients. The page maintainer wishes he had it - it would be one helluva conversation starter - but the shops kept the card when the work was done and sent them to Standard as proof of the work (and along with their invoice). In closing, during the time that my dad had the radio he had me replace 146.94 simplex with 146.52 simplex, and add five of the local repeaters... 146.22/82, 147.84/24, 146.01/61 and two more that I've forgotten. One of them might have been the local RACES repeater that had a 146.66 input and 145.30 output… and there is another story behind why those particular frequencies were chosen (and the odd offset). And old radios never die, as I write this in late 2023 there is an SR-C826 for sale on eBay. I'll bet it has 12 MHz transmit crystals.
	C5608D Dual-band Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 4.1 MB PDF includes schematics The C5608D is a 50 watt fully synthesized dual-band radio. It's basically two independent radios with one common control panel and a microphone that duplicates 99% of the functionality. The radio can do full bi-directional cross-band repeat but this can only be activated at the control panel. It has separate UHF antenna connectors for each band. Use of a single dual-band antenna will require an external VHF/UHF diplexer. It does full CTCSS encode and decode but does NOT have DCS.
	C7800 430-440 MHz 10w Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 2.5 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM Also contains some user interfacing circuitry at the end.
	C7800 430-440 MHz 10w Mobile Radio Schematic Diagram 5.1 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
	C7900 430-440 MHz 10w Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 2.5 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
	C8800 144-146 MHz 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Owner's Manual 5 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
	C8800 144-146 MHz 10w 12ch Mobile Radio Schematic 3.3 MB PDF courtesy of Darren G1ERM
	GX1510U UHF 25w Mobile Radio Service Manual 1.7 MB PDF courtesy of Eric WB6FLY This radio is identical to the Uniden SMU4525TK. Check the Uniden page for additional information.
	GX3000U UHF 35w Mobile Radio Service Manual 2.8 MB PDF courtesy of Bill Griffith VE3WGX
	RP70U UHF Repeater Service Manual 1.6 MB PDF The RP-70 is a 12 watt crystal controlled desktop repeater with an optional internal notch-only duplexer. While Standard had their own tone board (the dip-switch programmable TN-34 encode/decode board), many were purchased as carrier-only and fitted with various aftermarket tone boards (i.e. Com-Spec TS-32) or community repeat panels (Com-Spec TP-3200, TP-38, Zetron, etc). If anyone has fitted one with a tone board made by other than Standard or with an external controller please consider donating the interfacing information.
	RPT-21 UHF Repeater Service Manual 7.06 MB PDF
	sc-uSA-2 Desk Top Charger for the SR-C146A Transceiver 110 kB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK This was the desk-top drop-in charger for the SR-C146A transceiver. It also had a 3.5mm plug with RG-174 coax feeding an SO-239 antenna jack on the back, so you could easily attach an outdoor antenna to the radio.
	SR-C146A VHF Hand-Held Transceiver Instruction Manual, 12/73 edition 7.2 MB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK The SR-C146A is a 2 watt, 5 channel crystal controlled hand-held transceiver. It even had a real S-meter! It came with two channels already installed. The optional TN3 Private-Channel (CTCSS) encode-decode module installed inside the radio. Power was provided by eight dry or rechargeable NiCd "AA" batteries.
	SR-C146A VHF Hand-Held Transceiver Instruction Manual, 9/76 edition 10.7 MB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK Later/cleaner version of the above SR-C146A manual. Has two sets of schematics, based on serial number.
	SR-CTN3 Private-Channel (CTCSS) Encode-Decode Module for the SR-C146A 44 kB PDF courtesy of WA1MIK This module used a miniature Motorola reed approximately 1/2 inch square. It all fit inside the SR-C146A transceiver.
	Does anyone have any other Standard manuals?