The Kenwood TKR-840 Repeater Setup and Programming Page


The Kenwood TKR-840 Repeater is quite the box, it is low profile and versatile. There are however some quirks with this Repeater that has caused many hams much grief or give up trying to make these things play. Having spent many hours with a Hex Editor program on various Radio Program Software from many vendors, I was not able to crack this software, I was able to change the band limits, but it does appear that the software has a validity check to see if the band limits have been altered.
Things you need to make this repeater work
KPG-47D V3.02KPG-46 Programming Cable


You will also need a computer with WinXP or Win7 to install and run the Kenwood Software. The KGP-46 cable can be purchased on EBAY with a USB Connector. Be sure to install the correct drivers for this type of cable.
The KPG-47D Software can be found online if you look hard enough. I recommend contacting a Kenwood Radio Dealer for this software
Additionally you will need a good hex editor program, I use XVI32 The purpose of this HEx Editor is for modification of the .dat file the Programming Software will generate for you.

The first thing you should do is install the Kenwood Software
1. Verify that the software can talk to the radio.
2. Install the XVI32 software
3. Run the KPG-47D Software and select the proper radio definition:
   < TKR-840 >

Make the following entries, you will notice in the example below, the Ch1 and Ch2 are programmed nearly identical.
Enter your frequency as a 450 Mhz frequency, i.e. 449.250 Mhz Rx will be entered as 459.250 Mhz Rx. 444.250 Mhz Tx will be entered as 454.250 Mhz.
Be sure to save this work, it will be stored as kpg47d.dat, be sure to store it in the C:/program files/Kenwood FPu/DATA directory. (Win 7 stores program files differently)

We do this for two reasons:
First the KPG-47D will NOT LET YOU PROGRAM OUT OF BAND
Second, the programmer has a glitch as it will NOT LET YOU select a non-repeater option in Channel 1
I have tested this on different laptops and different OS


Now lets edit the file:


Notice the blue circled numbers, notice the Hex Locations of these numbers. This important!



You will now edit the locations at 0835h, 0839h, 0875h and 0879h. All of the "45" numbers will now be edit to show "44".
This is the base number for programming this radio into the 440 Mhz ham band. We do not need to worry about any portions of the Khz part of the frequency as this
program handles that part with a different value that will not change

Now go back to your Kenwood Programmer, open up the stored file, kpg47d.dat
Your screen should now look like this example:



At this point DO NOT click on any frequency cell on the program, this will result it the program detecting incorrect frequency data and your changes will be
written to 450 Mhz!