Sunday, January 20, 2013

FDK Multi Palm IV



Today I was playing about with a Multi Palm IV 70cm FM handheld. I have had this little rig in my possession for years now hidden in the attic along with lots of other 'junk' from the olden days.
This little handheld came out around 1979 and was ahead of it's time. I remember trying to build a transverter for 70cms then and it was difficult to build and tune up. The Multi Palm was small, very compact and stable. It was crystal controlled with a built in shift and tone burst for repeaters. Today I connected a 12v PSU and it worked fine. I could hear GB3CR repeater as good as my new Baofeng handheld.
Inside are a bank of small nicads, which don't seem to work any more. The rig gives an output power of 1 watt on 70cms.

I took the back off to remind myself of the analogue electronics inside, remember, there was nothing digital then. A lot of stuff packed into a small space! I wonder if you can still buy the packs of nicad batteries? Back in 1979 Birkett's would sell packs like this at some of the radio rallies dead cheap.


If you lift up the main board you will find the bank of six crystals which can be changed for the particular channels that you want. The ones fitted at the moment are: RB2, RB4, RB6, SU8, RB10, SU20.


Block Diagram of the FDK Multi Palm IV (Click to enlarge)


Circuit Diagram of the FDK Multi Palm IV (Click to enlarge)



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