Uniden WHAMx4 User manual

Wireless Handheld Access Microphone
Owner’s
Manual
WHAMx4
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 1 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

FCC Information
2
FCC Information
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules.
Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
(1) This device may not cause harmful interference.
(2) This device must accept any interference
received, including interference that may cause
undesired operation.
Important: Changes or modifications to this unit not
expressly approved by Uniden could void your
authority to operate this unit.
FCC RF Exposure Information
Warning! Read this information before using the
radio. In August 1996 the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) of the United States with its
action in Report and Order FCC 96-326 adopted an
updated safety standard for human exposure to
radio frequency electromagnetic energy emitted by
FCC regulated transmitters.
Those guidelines are consistent with the safety
standard previously set by both U.S. and
international standards bodies. The design of the
radio complies with the FCC guidelines and these
international standards.
Warning! It is up to the user to properly operate this
radio transmitter to insure safe operation. Please
adhere to the following:
Use only the supplied or an approved antenna.
Unauthorized antennas, modifications, or
attachments could impair call quality, damage the
radio, or result in violation of FCC regulations.
FCC Information
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 2 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

FCC Information 3
Do not use the radio with a damaged antenna. If a
damaged antenna comes into contact with the skin,
a minor burn may result. Please contact your local
dealer for a replacement antenna.
Body-Worn Operation
This device was tested for typical body-worn
operations using the supplied belt-clip.
To maintain compliance with FCC RF exposure
requirements, Body-worn operations are restricted
to the supplied belt-clip.
For hand-held operation, the radio should be held 1
inch from the user’s face. The use of accessories
that do not satisfy these requirements may not
comply with FCC RF exposure requirements and
should be avoided.
For more information about RF exposure, please
visit the FCC web site at www.fcc.gov.
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 3 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Contents
4
Contents
Introduction 7
Understanding Your Microphone 9
About This Manual 9
How The Microphone’s Controls Appear in This Man-
ual 9
Setting Up the Microphone 10
Charging the Battery 10
A Look at the Microphone 11
A Look at the Display 14
Operation 16
Turning the Microphone On and Off 16
Adjusting the Volume 16
Adjusting the Squelch/
Checking the Battery Level 16
Using Triple Watch 17
Using WX/Alert 18
Using STEP/SCAN 18
Using MEM/UIC 19
Using Select/SCRAM 20
Using HAIL/INTERCOM 20
Using LIGHT/LOC 21
Using Distress 22
Using MENU/H/L 22
Using DSC Call 22
Using Standby 26
Using Call Waiting 27
Using Fog Horn 29
Setting Up the Microphone 30
Using the Directory 31
Adjusting the Local Time 33
Turning Daylight Saving On or Off 33
Programming a FIPS Code 33
Using Auto Channel Switch 34
Contents
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 4 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Contents 5
Using Position Reply 35
Using a Group MMSI 35
Using the Scrambler 36
Exiting a Menu 36
Setting Up the System 37
Adjusting the Contrast 37
Adjusting the Key Beep 38
DSC Alarm Level 38
Adjusting the WX Alarm Level 39
Using Self Test 39
Adjusting the VOX Sensitivity Level 40
Using Handset Paging 40
Care and Maintenance 41
Specifications 42
Appendix 43
Reference Information 43
Three Year Limited Warranty 46
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 5 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Introduction
6
Introduction
Your Uniden WHAMx4 2.4 GHz Wireless
Microphone is the next generation in wireless
handheld microphones, and is compatible with new
Uniden Marine radios. It combines state-of-the-art
technology with rugged durability and ease of use.
The microphone's all solid-state design and
conservatively-rated components and materials
make it an ideal choice for harsh marine
environments. The microphone's large display and
backlit control buttons make it easy to use even in
extreme lighting and weather conditions.You can
use up to four WHAMx4 microphones with the same
marine radio.
You should read the rest of this Operating Guide
thoroughly to acquaint yourself with all of your
microphone's features and functions. Save your
receipt as proof-of-purchase in case you ever need
to have warranty service on the microphone.
Features, specifications, and availability of optional
accessories are all subject to change without notice.
Note: Your microphone meets the stringent JIS7
waterproof specification. This means that the micro-
phone can be submerged to a depth of 1 meter for
up to 30 minutes without incurring damage.
Introduction
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 6 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Introduction 7
Introduction
Intercom Input - You can use the microphone to
control a radio from almost anywhere aboard your
vessel, and each WHAM x 4 user can communicate
with each other. You can also use the radio's
intercom function to communicate with each WHAM
x 4 user. You can use the microphone to call
handset-to-handset, handset to radio, handset to
multiple stations including the radio, handset to
second radio, and radio to individual, group, or all
handsets. You can even use a second base radio as
an intercom
VOX - You can connect and use a VOX microphone
with the microphone.
Outrange Alert - The microphone alerts you if you
are moving out of its range.
Auto Handset Registration - The microphone
automatically registers itself with your radio.
Handset Paging - You can send a tone to the
microphone, to make it easier to find it you it gets
lost.
Display Backlight/Key Light Adjustment - You
can adjust the brightness of the display and the
keys on the microphone to make them easier to see
in extreme conditions.
Key Beep Volume Adjustment - You can adjust
the volume of the tone you hear when you press a
key.
Battery Level Display - The microphone displays
the status of the battery.
Floating Handset - The microphone floats, making
it easy to retrieve if you drop it.
Feature Highlights
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 7 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Understanding Your Microphone
8
Understanding Your Microphone
About This Manual
The screen displays used in this manual are
representations of what might appear when you use
your microphone. Since what you see depends on
the frequencies for your area and the settings you
select, you might notice some differences between
what is in this manual and what appears on your
microphone's display. Buttons you press appear in
bold type and text that appears on the display
appears in italic type.
How The Microphone’s Controls Appear
in This Manual
To help navigate the microphone's menus, the steps
shown in this manual describe the displays you see
and the keys you press or control you operate to get
a desired result.
The first thing you will need to do is charge the
microphone’s battery. See “Charging the Battery”
on Page 9 if you need any help doing this.
Understanding Your Microphone
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 8 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Setting Up the Microphone 9
Setting Up the Microphone
Charging the Battery
Need this information.
Engine Noise Suppression
Interference from the noise generated by the
electrical systems of engines is sometimes a
problem with microphones. Your microphone has
been designed to be essentially impervious to
ignition noise and alternator noise. However, in
some installations it may be necessary to take
measures to further reduce the effect of noise
interference.
In severe cases of noise interference, it may be nec-
essary to install a noise suppression kit. Contact the
dealer where you purchased the microphone for
more information.
Setting Up The Microphone
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 9 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Setting Up the Microphone
10
A Look at the Microphone
POWER/VOLUME - Hold down for 2 seconds to
turn the microphone on or off. Briefly press to select
the volume setting mode.
- Press to scroll up through the channels and
menu options. Hold down to increase scrolling
speed.
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 10 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Setting Up the Microphone 11
- Press to scroll down through the channels
and menu options. Hold down to increase scrolling
speed.
MENU HI/LO - Press to enter and exit the menu
mode. Hold down to change transmit power from
high to low. Hold down again to change transmit
power to high.
SELECT/SCRAM - Press in normal channel mode to
display the time, date, latitude, longitude, SOG
(speed over ground), and COG (course over ground).
Press in menu mode to select menu items. Hold
down to turn on the Scrambler for the current
channel.
16/9/TRIPLE WATCH - Press to tune to Channel 9
and Channel 16 and to use Triple Watch.
HAIL/INTERCOM - Press to turn the hailer on or off.
Hold down for 2 seconds to use the radio’s intercom
feature.
SQUELCH - Press to turn on the squelch setting
mode.
STEP/SCAN - Hold down to scan through all
channels in memory.
MEM/UIC - Press to place the currently selected
channel in memory. Press again to delete a channel
from memory. Hold down to change UIC mode.
WX/ALERT - Press to listen to the active weather
channel in your area. Hold down in weather alert
mode to turn on weather alert.
PTT - Press to transmit.
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 11 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Setting Up the Microphone
12
DISTRESS - Hold down for 5 seconds to turn on
distress transmit. The microphone counts down dur-
ing distress. If you release the key before the count-
down is finished, distress is automatically cancelled.
LIGHT/LOCK - Press to turn on the display and key-
pad backlight at its lowest level. Press again to
change the backlight to medium level. Press again
to change the backlight to high level. Press again to
turn off the backlight.
Hold down for 2 seconds to turn on keylock. All keys
are locked except PTT. To unlock the keypad, hold
down LIGHT/LOCK for 2 seconds or turn off the
microphone then turn it on again.
A Look at the Display
Status Icons
TX - Appears while the microphone is transmitting.
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 12 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Setting Up the Microphone 13
LO - Shows the transmit output power is set to 1
watt on the output channel.
HI - Shows the transmit output power is set to 25
watts on the output channel.
MEM - Indicates if a channel has been placed into
channel scanning memory.
TRI- Appears when the microphone is on a working
channel and is watching channel 16 and channel 9.
Also, additionally if watching the weather channel.
WX - Appears when the microphone is in the
weather mode.
- Appears when the weather alert channel
watch is active and blinks when the alert is acti-
vated.
U I C - Shows the channel mode (USA, INT, or
CAN).
DSC - Appears when the microphone is in the DSC
mode, including receiving DSC calls. It also shows
that the microphone is connected to the main radio
(by RF). It blinks when the microphone is close to
out of range, or when completely out of range.
GPS is connected to the microphone. The
signal wave portions of this icon will blink sequen-
tially to indicate that the GPS data being received is
valid.
This icon shows that the microphone is
connected to the main radio (by RF). It blinks when
the WHAMx4 is close to out of range, or when
completely out of range.
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 13 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Operation
14
Operation
Turning the Microphone On and Off
Hold down POWER/VOLUMEto turn on the
microphone. If the main radio is turned on, the
channel displayed will be the current channel
selected on the main Radio.
Hold down POWER/VOLUME again to turn off the
microphone.
Adjusting the Volume
Briefly press POWER/VOLUMEto adjust the
volume, then repeatedly press to turn the
volume up or to turn the volume down. Briefly
press POWER/VOLUME again to turn off volume
mode.
The microphone remember the last setting selected
before you turn it off.
Adjusting the Squelch/
Checking the Battery Level
Pressing this key will activate the Squelch setting
mode. When the Squelch setting mode is active,
pressing the UP or DOWN keys will adjust the set-
ting. Pressing the Squelch key again will deactivate
the Squelch setting mode. Also, the user can press
any key (except the UP and DOWN arrow keys) to
deactivate the Squelch setting mode. The Squelch
control will have 10 settings 0-9. The WHAMx4 will
remember the last setting selected before being
turned off.The default setting will be set to 4. The
following screen shows the Squelch setting mode.
Operation
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 14 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Operation 15
Pressing and holding the Squelch key will activate
the battery level display screen. The battery level
range will be 0~9 (0 being empty and 9 being full).
Any other key will deactivate this screen.
Using Triple Watch
When pressed, this key will immediately tune to
channel 16. This will occur no matter what channel
the radio is currently tuned to. When the key is
pressed a second time from the channel 16 display
mode, the WHAMx4 and the radio will instantly tune
to channel 9. A third press of the 16/9 key will then
go back to the original working channel that the user
started from.
The TRIPLE WATCH function will be activated if a
user is on a channel other than 16 or 9 and presses
and holds the 16/9 key for 2 seconds. The TRI icon
will then be displayed and the radio will check chan-
nel 16 every 2 seconds and then channel 9 immedi-
ately afterward, then return to the original working
channel.
NOTE: If the channel other than 16 and 9 is a
weather channel, the radio will automatically enter
the TRIPLE WATCH mode and will operate the
same as the MHS350.
*NOTE: If the weather alert is activated, the radio
will also work the same as the MHS350 by going
from the channel other than 16 or 9 (working chan-
nel) to 9 then 16 then back to the working channel.
Every 7 seconds the radio will also check the active
weather channel for the weather alert tone.
NOTE: If FIPS codes are assigned and the weather
alert is activated, the SAME weather function will
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 15 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Operation 16
not work in the TRIPLE WATCH mode. The radio
will only search for the 1050Hz tone.
Using WX/Alert
Pressing the WX/Alert key will allow the user to lis-
ten to the active NOAA weather channel in the local
area. Upon pressing the key, the weather channel
number that is active will be displayed in the chan-
nel display. The WX icon for weather will also be
displayed.
*NOTE: The weather channels can be changed by
pressing the UP arrow Key (increasing) or pressing
the DOWN arrow key (decreasing). The radio will
always return to the last weather channel selected.
This will even apply if the radio is turned off and then
turned back on again.
Pressing and holding the WX/Alert key for 2 sec-
onds will place the radio into the weather alert
mode. A flashing WX icon will indicate that the radio
is in weather alert mode. If FIPS codes are pro-
grammed, the icon will still flash and the nature of
the alert will be displayed in the text area of the dis-
play.
Using STEP/SCAN
The user will press this key to activate the step
operation. Every time this key is pressed, the radio
will step to the next channel that has been placed
into Memory (see MEM section). Pressing and hold-
ing this key for ~2 seconds will activate the channel
scan feature and the 2 segment channel numbers
will show the channels that are being scanned,
starting with the lowest channel number to the high-
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 16 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Operation 17
est. Any time that the scan is activated, the TRIPLE
WATCH function will also be activated and the TRI
icon will be displayed. During the scan mode the
radio will automatically check channels 16 and 9
every two seconds in the scan operation.
NOTE: The user will be able to press and hold the
16/9 key to take the radio out of TRIPLE watch but
still continue to SCAN.
Using MEM/UIC
Pressing this key briefly will place the displayed
channel into memory. Once a channel has been
programmed into memory, the MEM icon will be dis-
played each time the channel is shown in the LCD
screen. All channels will have the ability to be
stored in memory for scanning (except Weather
channels). Pressing this key briefly again will
remove the channel from memory.
Pressing and holding this key for ~2 seconds will
change the radio mode from USA to INTERNA-
TIONAL, to CANADIAN channel modes.
NOTE: The radio needs to remember which channel
was last selected in each of U,I,C so that when the
radio is switched modes the next time these modes
are selected the last channel is displayed. Also, this
will apply even if the radio is turned off. The initial
default channel for each mode is channel 16.
NOTE: To delete a channel from the memory, the
user will tune to the channel that they wish to delete
and press the MEM key. At that time the MEM icon
will be deactivated.
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 17 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Operation 18
Using Select/SCRAM
Pressing this key briefly while in the Menu mode will
select the menu items. Pressing and holding this
key will activate the Scramble mode for the selected
channel. Briefly pressing this key during the normal
channel operation mode, will activate the following
scrolling information : Current Local Time, Current
Position (Latitude/Longitude), SOG (Current Speed
Over Ground, and COG (Current Course Over
Ground). Pressing this key briefly again will deacti-
vate the scrolling information and return the display
to show the current channel name.
*NOTE: The channel mode display information will
be the priority and will be displayed whenever the
radio receives an incoming transmission or when
the radio is transmitting. The user can also toggle
back and forth between the two displays by pressing
the SELECT key from the channel display screen.
Using HAIL/INTERCOM
Pressing this key briefly will activate the Hailer fea-
ture. To adjust the outgoing volume, press the UP
arrow key to increase and the DOWN arrow key to
decrease. To adjust the incoming Hail volume,
briefly press the Volume key, then the UP arrow key
to increase and the DOWN arrow to decrease. The
following screen shows the Hailer mode. Press the
Hail key again briefly to exit the Hail mode.
Press the select key or the PTT key to choose the
Hailer mode.
Press and hold the Hail key for ~2 seconds to acti-
vate the Intercom feature. The user can now choose
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 18 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Operation 19
the units that they want to talk to: base radio 1, base
radio 2, WHAM 2, WHAM 3, WHAM 4, All, Group 1,
or Group 2. For which WHAM’s will be on the list will
depend on which WHAM number the user is using (
for the above example, the user is using WHAM 1).
There are 2 user programmable Groups for the
intercom. The following shows the Intercom select
screen.
Pressing the Select key or the PTT key will choose
the Intercom mode.
NOTE: The user has to set-up the Group 1 and
Group 2 in the Setup menu.
NOTE: Base Radio 2 will only be active in the menu
after the WHAMx4 is registered to recognize this
radio for Intercom purposes only.
NOTE: To use the PA feature, the user would just
install a non-listen-back type of speaker horn.
Using LIGHT/LOC
Press this key briefly to activate the Low backlight
setting. Press this key for a second time to select
the Medium backlight setting. Press this key a third
time to select the High backlight setting. Press this
key a fourth time to select the backlight Off setting.
Press and hold this key for ~2 seconds to activate
the Keylock feature. The only active key while in the
keylock mode is the PTT key. Either by pressing the
Light/Lock key for ~2 seconds, while in the Keylock
mode, or by turning off then on the WHAMx4 will
disable the Keylock feature.
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 19 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM

Operation 20
Using Distress
This key will be used to send a distress signal.
Please refer to the documents previously noted in
Section 4 (Documents Required To Build a DSC
radio) for more details on this feature.
Using MENU/H/L
Pressing this key briefly will activate the menu. The
menu will control the following categories: DSC
CALL, SETUP, SYSTEM. Within each of these cat-
egories, there will be submenu options that are out-
lined in the flowchart below. Pressing this key for ~2
seconds will change the transmit output power for
the currently selected channel from HI to LO or from
LO to HI depending on the current setting. Changing
to HI power is dependent on the particular FCC/IC
channel power restriction.
Using DSC Call
This section will detail the operation of the DSC
functions.
Using Individual Call
This option will allow the user to select a name from
their directory and make a call to that one individual.
Press the SELECT key and the first name alphabet-
ically will be displayed on the LCD. By pressing the
DOWN arrow key, the user will be able to scroll
through the names list until the EXIT option is dis-
played. At this point the user can press the SELECT
key to exit the MENU mode. If the user presses the
DOWN arrow key again while in this menu, the first
name will be displayed again (wrap around feature).
When the Individual menu is first entered, pressing
WHAMx4 Paper OMNEW.fm Page 20 Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:34 PM