I acquired a pair of EF Johnson "Viking CK" 8571 (intrinsically safe) series portable radios. These are in the 900 MHz band, and I'd like to try to convert them to ham use - unless this would be an exercise in futility.
The manual was available online, and after some reading I see that Johnson programs their radio frequencies via a Channel Number list rather than by actual frequency. So before I plunk down money for a "RIB", cable and software, I'm wondering if anyone has tried to do something similar before? For example, would one need to hack the channel number list to make this thing work, or are the "appropriate" frequencies available in the channel number list? (I thought I read where some of the Kenwood radios operated this way.) I guess I don't have enough projects going on without starting this. hehehehe But the radios were given to me, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
