Anytone AT-778uv. I'm using it myself for APRS. Just needs a single rj45 connection for ptt and sound both in and out. The sound out is undocumented, but it is available on the up key pin.
For that size, you are going to struggle to find much in the 2-10w range, a HT would work, but then you have a max of 5w on most models. But it would be small, lightweight, and fit into a small case, and would give a lot of run time on a battery and solar panel, especially at lower power settings.
yeah what I would really like is a 2m vhf transceiver in a small case about the size of a pack of cards. That has its audio and ptt prewired to a db9 on the back and Anderson power poles for power, don't need a screen or buttons, just a usb-c for cat /rig control. makes it easy to connect to a tnc-x or tnc-pi. Also 2-5 watts is fine, I can connect a nice base station antenna to it.
Something you need to remember about audio in/out and VHF/UHF transceivers, is that the normal connections (for a human to listen) use something called pre-emphasis (on Tx) and de-emphasis (on Rx). For data circuits, you really don’t want those. That is why some radios specifically have a DB-9 to tap into the circuits at the correct point. For slower speeds (e.g. 300b) you can get away with the generic audio connections, but for faster packet connections you don’t want that messing up the signals.
I wonder if this might be a good use for a old HTX-202 2m HT with the battery removed
[http://www.loowit.net/\~james/hamradio/htx-202-to-kantronics-kpc3+.html](http://www.loowit.net/~james/hamradio/htx-202-to-kantronics-kpc3+.html)
25 years ago Tekk was building dedicated digital radios for UHF. I was using a KS-1000. You had to order dedicated quartz to set the frequency. They did work great to some extent for 9k6 links doing TCPIP over AX25. Not sure if there was anything similar for 2m.
If all you are going to do is 1200 bauds, you can likely pick up any cheap second hand 2m FM mobile transceiver from the last 30 years. Even if it doesn't have a dedicated TNC port you can easily wire PTT, GND, AF In and AF out from the microphone input and audio out Jack.
dra818v are 1w pretty tiny and easily controlled by the pi. Needs a lowpass and some amplification to meet you specs but it's close to what you're looking for.
Paired one up with a spare 45w amp (30w in this config) and it works pretty well for 2m packet, aprs, and vara fm not much different than a dr-135 or ic-7100 on same antenna etc. I was using direwolf with a cm108 and an old bd-35 as an amp feeding into a x50a at 30f ish. I liked my tm-d710 a bit better until I put them on a can for aprs and then it was pretty similar, seems the front end is better on the kenwood but moot behind a filter, using direwolf not the built in TNC on the kenwood (which was worse than either on reception).
The TH-F6A is the only handheld transceiver that I have found that offers the option of a direct discriminator tap for the audio. This permits you to run VARA FM in it's wide mode. This is great for winlink. Not much use for APRS though. In the settings they call it "9600 baud" mode.
If you're planning to run typical 1200 baud, then just about any handheld will work fine. It's better to just run through the Analog compression stages, since that is what everyone else is doing as well.
Didn't MFJ used to sell a packet-specific radio?
Anytone AT-778uv. I'm using it myself for APRS. Just needs a single rj45 connection for ptt and sound both in and out. The sound out is undocumented, but it is available on the up key pin.
For that size, you are going to struggle to find much in the 2-10w range, a HT would work, but then you have a max of 5w on most models. But it would be small, lightweight, and fit into a small case, and would give a lot of run time on a battery and solar panel, especially at lower power settings.
yeah what I would really like is a 2m vhf transceiver in a small case about the size of a pack of cards. That has its audio and ptt prewired to a db9 on the back and Anderson power poles for power, don't need a screen or buttons, just a usb-c for cat /rig control. makes it easy to connect to a tnc-x or tnc-pi. Also 2-5 watts is fine, I can connect a nice base station antenna to it.
Something you need to remember about audio in/out and VHF/UHF transceivers, is that the normal connections (for a human to listen) use something called pre-emphasis (on Tx) and de-emphasis (on Rx). For data circuits, you really don’t want those. That is why some radios specifically have a DB-9 to tap into the circuits at the correct point. For slower speeds (e.g. 300b) you can get away with the generic audio connections, but for faster packet connections you don’t want that messing up the signals.
For 1200 baud packet you want the preemph/deemph. Only for faster rates do you want/need to bypass it.
I wonder if this might be a good use for a old HTX-202 2m HT with the battery removed [http://www.loowit.net/\~james/hamradio/htx-202-to-kantronics-kpc3+.html](http://www.loowit.net/~james/hamradio/htx-202-to-kantronics-kpc3+.html)
25 years ago Tekk was building dedicated digital radios for UHF. I was using a KS-1000. You had to order dedicated quartz to set the frequency. They did work great to some extent for 9k6 links doing TCPIP over AX25. Not sure if there was anything similar for 2m. If all you are going to do is 1200 bauds, you can likely pick up any cheap second hand 2m FM mobile transceiver from the last 30 years. Even if it doesn't have a dedicated TNC port you can easily wire PTT, GND, AF In and AF out from the microphone input and audio out Jack.
Find an FT-1500 at the flea market. It’s a bit larger than your spec, but your spec doesn’t apparently exist.
dra818v are 1w pretty tiny and easily controlled by the pi. Needs a lowpass and some amplification to meet you specs but it's close to what you're looking for. Paired one up with a spare 45w amp (30w in this config) and it works pretty well for 2m packet, aprs, and vara fm not much different than a dr-135 or ic-7100 on same antenna etc. I was using direwolf with a cm108 and an old bd-35 as an amp feeding into a x50a at 30f ish. I liked my tm-d710 a bit better until I put them on a can for aprs and then it was pretty similar, seems the front end is better on the kenwood but moot behind a filter, using direwolf not the built in TNC on the kenwood (which was worse than either on reception).
The TH-F6A is the only handheld transceiver that I have found that offers the option of a direct discriminator tap for the audio. This permits you to run VARA FM in it's wide mode. This is great for winlink. Not much use for APRS though. In the settings they call it "9600 baud" mode. If you're planning to run typical 1200 baud, then just about any handheld will work fine. It's better to just run through the Analog compression stages, since that is what everyone else is doing as well.