Back to Home   Technical Information on Advanced Electronic Applications, Inc. (AEA) Products
Compiled by Mike Morris WA6ILQ
Maintained by Robert Meister WA1MIK
   

The AEA Company that was involved in the amateur radio world ceased operation in 1996, and their office at 2006 196th Street SW, Lynwood, Washington 98036 was closed. They sold the data products line to Timewave Technology of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the antenna products line to Tempo Research of Vista, California (just north of San Diego).

Historically, “AEA Wireless” was purchased by Tempo in 1995 and sold again in 2000. George Naber, the former VP of Operations at Tempo, bailed it out of near bankruptcy in 2001. He restructured product production to be profitable, brought on a new Chief Engineer and redirected the company toward the commercial market. On May 5, 2004, he renamed the company AEA Technology, Inc. He is still their President and CEO. AEA continues to make several models of test equipment designed and priced for the amateur market, but all their newer products are now focused on the cable TV, Telco, Broadcast, Land and Marine Mobile, Medical, RFID, and military markets. AEA maintains a loyal following of amateur users who have been using their antenna analyzers for years and trade them up whenever possible.

There is a different AEA (based in Pasadena, California) that makes some of the world's finest recording studio microphones and also offers forensic audio recovery services.   If you are looking for Audio Engineering Associates, "The Ribbon Microphone People", "The Forensic Audio People", or Mr. Wes Dooley click here. Wes and his employees make some OUTSTANDING microphones that are used throughout the music and recording industry.


Contact Information
AEA Antennas and Antenna Analyzers
The AEA antenna and Antenna Analyzer product line was acquired by Tempo Research, previously known as AEA Technology, of Vista, California, now of Carlsbad, California (in the north end of San Diego county). Any service or upgrade requirements should be directed to:

AEA Technology, Inc.
5933 Sea Lion Place, Suite 101
Carlsbad, CA 92010
Tel: 800-258-7805 or 760-931-8979
Fax: +1 760-931-8969
email: sales (at) aeatechnology (dot) com,
or techsupport (at) aeatechnology (dot) com

Note: The AntennaSmith™ is a Timewave Product.
  AEA Data products (Multimode data controllers, TNCs)
In mid-1997 Timewave Technology bought the data side of AEA, and they can repair many AEA data products. Their ability to repair these products is limited by parts availability and special test equipment to test the products. Timewave has a limited supply of AEA custom parts that will be used until the supply is exhausted. As of October 8 2012, one of their technicians informed us they no longer repair the PK-88’s at all, he said they only repaired the PK-96 and PK-232’s. The 88’s are just too outdated so they have stopped working on them.

Timewave Technology Inc.
27 Empire Drive, Suite 110
St. Paul, MN 55103-1892
Phone: 1-651-489-5080
Fax: 1-651-489-5066
email: techsupport (at) timewave (dot) com

They used to be at 1025 Selby Avenue, Suite 101, St. Paul, MN 55104-6533, but moved in October of 2010.
 


If anyone has any of the AEA manuals listed below please send an email to repeater-builder. Or if you have an additional manual that we don't have below. We'd like to get PDFs of them or borrow them to scan:
"Halo" series antenna(s) (model number? numbers?) Antenna Analyzer(s) BT-1 Morse Trainer
KK-1 Keyboard Keyer MM-series MorseMatic Keyers
PK-89 Packet Controller RL-1 Radiolink  
 
AEA offered three programs for packet use. Here are the last versions of two of them. If anyone has the Apple Mac version please let us know. Note these are DOS programs, and what you find in the ZIP file is all that there is, and there is no vendor support. If there is a better freeware packet program "out there" please let us know, we can make it or them available for download:
PC-Pakratt PK-Fax MacRATT

Does anyone have any useful modifications or other articles on AEA gear? We're offering this space to host any mods that have proven useful and any articles of interest that you may have stashed on your local hard drives. A walkthrough of how to use the Antenna Analyzer would be of special interest.

Lastly, EPROMS aren't forever... after a decade or so they start dropping bits (the common term is "bit rot"). Further down this page we have all of the PROM image files that were donated. If anyone would like to donate others we will post them.


There are no Timewave manuals here. Use the link above to go to their web site.

The Advanced Electronic Applications, Inc. / AEA manuals that we have here are:

AEA Morse Memory Keyer model CK-1 Instruction Manual   Scanned and donated by Dale Cheek NY5B   580 kB PDF file
AEA "Contester" Morse Memory Keyer model CK-2 Instruction Manual   Scanned and donated by Bill Perkins KB4KFT   800 kB PDF file
AEA Corp. DM-1 Deviation Meter Manual  961 kB PDF
DM-1 large schematic   146 kB PDF   Both donated by and PDF'd by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
AEA 144 MHz Isopole Antenna Assembly Instructions (official copy)   500 kB PDF donated by AEA Technologies
AEA 144 MHz Isopole Antenna Assembly Instructions (early version)   34 kB PDF donated by Mike Reed N7ZEF
AEA 144 MHz Isopole Antenna Assembly Instructions (late version)   38 kB PDF donated by Gary Richardson N6LRV, PDF'd by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
AEA 220 MHz Isopole Antenna Assembly Instructions   99 kB PDF donated by Ron Bouder KA3CNT, PDF'd by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
AEA 440 MHz Isopole Antenna Assembly Instructions   99 kB PDF donated by Gary Richardson N6LRV, PDF'd by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
Two AEA Isopole Sales Flyers   207 kB PDF donated by Gary Richardson N6LRV, PDF'd by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
"Facts About Vertical Antennas" - a technical writeup by AEA   207 kB PDF donated by Gary Richardson N6LRV, PDF'd by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
Brochure for the MBA-RC Code Converter   2.2 MB PDF donated and PDF'd by Don Abeles WA7UUL
The MBA-RC is a single box that is a full function decoder and display unit for Morse code, Baudot (5-bit RTTY/Teletype) and ASCII (7 or 8 bit RTTY/Teletype/computer) data streams. It takes in audio from any HF, VHF or UHF radio, TTL, current loop or serial signals plus +12v (at about 1.2 to 1.5 amps) and outputs it's own 32 character scrolling display or drives a printer.
Manual for the MBA-RC Code Converter   5 MB PDF donated and PDF'd by Don Abeles WA7UUL
This Instruction manual is dated 1982.
Manual for the "Morsematic" Keyer model MM-1   1.37 MB PDF donated by Rich Rohweder N7FDM
PK-88 Packet Controller Operating Manual   21.7 MB PDF donated by Steaven Rogers, W4YI and Kenny Rogers, K4KR
Revision D, dated March 1990, complete with schematics and board layouts.
PK-900 Packet Controller Operating Manual   4.06 MB PDF donated by Mark Sihlanick N2QT
Revision D, dated March 1993, complete with schematics, interconnecting cable wiring information and board layouts.
PK-900 Manual   5.4 MP PDF. Donated by Greg Beat W9GB
Dated November 2004
PK-232 Operating Manual   5.4 MB PDF donated by Jim Lange WA2RJP
Revision B, dated Sept 1986.
PK-232 Technical Reference Manual   4.6 MB PDF donated by Jim Lange WA2RJP
Preliminary Release / Revsion A, dated May 1987.
Timewave DSP-232 Plus Manual (2005)   253 KB PDF donated by Greg Beat W9GB
2400 baud DPSK Modem Operation Instructions   253 KB PDF donated by Greg Beat W9GB
PK-232 Low Power CMOS Upgrade Kit A.06135 Documentation   191 KB PDF donated by Greg Beat W9GB
"TNC GPS Upgrade Addendum" subtitled "GPS Operation"   474 kB PDF donated by Jim Lange WA2RJP
The introduction says that this writeup is applicable to all of the PK series.
PK-232MBX Operating Manual   3.1 MB PDF donated by Jim Lange WA2RJP
PK-232MBX EPROM Installation Instructions   85kb PDF donated by Jim Lange WA2RJP
PK-232MBX Node Gateway Option Supplement   447 kB PDF donated by Jim Lange WA2RJP
PK-232MBX Revision Supplement (dated July 1990)   57 kB PDF donated by Jim Lange WA2RJP
The PK-232 was the flagship of AEAs product line, and THE unit that other companies tried to equal. Few products in the history of amateur radio have endured the test of time as well as the PK-232. Even fewer products in the digital age have survived more than one decade. The PK-232 was introduced in 1986. Offering all of the current digital modes - RTTY, AMTOR and CW - in one box made it an immediate success. The orders rolled in and AEA licensed the design to the Heath Company to produce the HK-232, a kit version of the PK-232. Over the next few years, several firmware upgrades added additional functionality and increased the reliability. In 1989, AEA introduced the "PakMail " upgrade, a mailbox daughterboard with battery-backed memory. Later in 1989, the mailbox daughterboard was integrated into the PK-232 main board to make the PK-232MBX. The new PK-232MBX had a number of other hardware changes, including changing the front panel leds from all red to a combination of red, yellow and green and adding a hole in the bottom of the housing to allow removal the battery jumper without removing the housing. In 1993 AEA added Pactor and Gateway modes to to the PK-232. The final AEA upgrade, GPS compatibility, came in 1995. AEA sold their last PK-232MBX units in early 1996, intending to replace the PK-232 with the new DSP-232. Unfortunately, AEA closed its doors in 1996. They sold the data products line to Timewave and the antenna products line to Tempo Research of Vista, CA. In late 1997, Timewave shipped the last of the remaining AEA units. In the fall of 1998, Timewave introduced the DSP upgrade for the PK-232MBX. This upgrade substantially improved performance resulted in the PK-232/DSP. In addition to its precision DSP filters, the PK-232/DSP featured lower power consumption, a reset switch and an overload LED. In 2001 the advent of the sound card modes, especially PSK-31, brought yet another upgrade to the PK-232. Timewave engineers created the PSK sound card interface board, a testament to the amazing flexibility of the original PK-232 design. In 2005 Timewave added the USB upgrade to support the new generation of PCs that lack a RS-232 serial port.

NOTE: PROMs aren't forever. Given enough time they will all drop bits.
If anyone would like to read the PROMs in their PK-series unit and email us the image files we will host them.
Then as folks have problems due to bit rot they can erase and reburn their PROM chips and get their unit working again.
On all the .hex files below you will want to right-click on them and "Save As" to your local hard drive.
PK-88: None yet
PK-89: None yet
PK-900: None yet
PK-232:
These PROM images with 1987 in the filename are the old original code with the fax option included. They run in the original PK-232 without the memory expansion card or newer mother board.
pk232-1987-u2.hex         pk232-1987-fax-u3.hex
These PROM images with 1991 in the filename are for the PK-232mbx.
pk232mbx-1991-u2.hex         pk232mbx-1991-u3.hex
These PROM images with ver70 in the name are version 7.0 images for the PK-232mbx.
pk232mbx-lo-ver70-u2.hex         pk232mbx-hi-ver70-u3.hex
The newest version of PROMs contains dsp-72 in the filename and these are newest version PROMs that work in the PK-232mbx and include the PACKTOR 1 protocol. These are the ones most people would want for upgrading an older PK-232mbx.
pk232mbx-dsp-72-lo.hex         pk232mbx-dsp-72-hi.hex
Anyone want to contribute some other PROM images (even anonymously?)

Here are some photos of the PROM installation.
The picture pk232mbx-roms.jpg shows how the PROMs should be installed in the PK-232mbx. Note that each PROM chip has a notch in the pin  1 end. Watch that you get them in the right direction, you will destroy the chip if it is installed in the socket backwards ! And it's way too easy to fold a pin underneath. So look twwice and BE CAREFUL.
The picture pk232-mem-expansion.jpg shows the memory expansion board that was available from AEA to upgrade a PK-232 to a PK-232mbx. The board provides additional ram and sockets for 2 larger eproms (ver70 software PROMs shown installed).

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This page initially created 14-Oct-2004 by Mike Morris WA6ILQ as part of the "Other Manufacturers" page, and split off on 13-Jan-2007.

No infringement of AEA's, Tempo's or Timewave's copyrights is intended... The only reason we are doing this is that you can't find AEA information anywhere. If anyone had these files on their public web site we wouldn't need to.

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.