Bluetooth Adapter for Ham Radio
Quite a few people have made bluetooth adapters for ham radio using the Jabra A210. Unfortunately this is almost impossible to buy in Australia, and the US sellers on eBay won’t ship to here. I chanced across the HH1 at iBluetooth and this does everything that I need. The packaging lists the model as an RL9-HCB08, the manual calls it an HCB08 and the manufacturer is Bluesonic. A trademark search shows that Bluesonic is owned by Huey Chiao Wireless Communication Co Ltd. The HCB-08 comes up as a bluetooth headset, so not too sure what is going on there though, but the logo on the product matches that on the website.
While you can buy from these people direct, it works out cheaper to buy it through Oztion.
I built a simple adapter based on a stereo 2.5mm socket and two 3.5mm mono plugs. The tip of the 2.5mm plug on the bluetooth adapter is the microphone output, the ring is the speaker and the base is the ground. On air test showed that it works quite well. I used some existing interface cables that I had built for a gaming headset, but if keen you could build a dedicated adapter lead if you liked.
The adapter auto-pairs with a headset in pairing mode, and I used by Blueant Z9i. It seems that the HH01 adapter will shut the connection down if there isn’t any audio for a little time, but when there is some sound from the radio it wakes up and connects back to the headset. Quite a cool power saving trick!
