How to Program an HS4 — Step by Step

A 10 meter mobile, and the only radio on this page that is one band wide. 28 to 29.7 MHz in AM, FM, single sideband and CW, built in the shape of an export CB set — six banks of channels, an echo control, and a FUNC key with a second layer printed under the buttons.

This page covers: Ailunce HS4. One model, so nothing here has to be translated from a near relative — every step below was written for exactly this radio.

This is a 10 meter radio, not a general coverage HF rig

It lives on this page because 28 MHz is HF and because it does single sideband, but it is a different animal from everything else here. One band, 28.000 to 29.700 MHz, divided into six banks lettered A to F. Ailunce gives the channel count three ways without reconciling any of them: the feature list says six banks in total, where 60 channels at least can be individually programmed; the specification table says simply 60 channels; and the channel selector description, plainly left over from a CB manual, says forty citizens band channels. Whether sixty is the total or the per-bank figure, the book does not say — and the forty is not credible at all. It is channelized rather than VFO-tuned in the way the other radios on this page are: you pick a bank with a switch and a channel with a knob. But it is not fixed to the channel grid — the tuning step is selectable at 10 Hz, 100 Hz, 1 kHz or 10 kHz, and a separate clarifier knob moves you off channel in fine, coarse or RT modes. So you can tune it; you just do not address a frequency the way you would on an FT-710. The mode is a rotary switch rather than a menu, and it includes PA, which drives a public address speaker rather than the antenna. Power runs 1 to 12 watts on AM and CW, 1 to 40 on FM and 1 to 35 on sideband, which is more than most of what it resembles. And the warning Ailunce puts at the front of the book is worth repeating: measure your SWR before you transmit, because a badly tuned antenna can destroy the final amplifier and that is not covered by the warranty.

The F key, and what is printed under the buttons

Nearly every key on this radio has a second job silk-screened beneath it, and FUNC is how you reach it. Press FUNC — do not hold it — and an F appears on the display; release it and press the key whose lower legend you want. So NB/ANL on its own is the noise blanker, and FUNC then NB/ANL is the keypad lock. SCAN on its own scans, and FUNC then SCAN adds or removes the channel you are on from the scan list. RB is the roger beep and FUNC then RB is the key beep. DW is dual watch and FUNC then DW switches the whole LCD off — not the backlight, the display. Repeating the two keys brings it back. The plus-10 kHz key with FUNC is the high cut. And SWR with FUNC toggles the transmit time-out timer. Holding FUNC for more than two seconds is something else entirely — that is the menu.

Nine of the twelve are not features this radio has, or are not documented

Worth being specific rather than leaving them looking like gaps. There is no data mode — no DATA position on the mode switch, no data socket, and nothing in the book about digital operation. There is no computer control: the rear jack the manual describes is for the programming software, not for a logging program to steer the radio, and no command set is published anywhere in this book. With no data mode there is nothing to set a data drive level for. There is no notch filter of any kind, automatic or manual — the high cut is the only receive filtering the radio has, and it is a fixed treble cut rather than a notch. There is no split: the clarifier can be set to move transmit as well as receive, which is a different thing and a good deal cruder. There is no antenna tuner, and Ailunce's own instruction is to connect an SWR meter between the radio and the antenna and adjust the antenna itself until it reads close to 1. And there is no electronic keyer documented — the jack is described only as taking a CW key, and the mode switch has a CW position, and that is the whole of the CW story. Two more belong on the list for a different reason. The radio plainly has receive noise reduction — there is an NR label on the display and it is in the feature list — but the manual never says how to switch it on. And storing a channel has no front-panel route in this book at all, only the PC software. So seven of these the radio does not contain, and two it has but does not document.

The manual we have is not the whole manual

We build these pages from the manufacturer's own book, and for this radio the one that is published leaves a hole in the middle. It describes how to get into the function menu — hold FUNC for two seconds, press FUNC to move between items, turn the channel knob to change a value — and then never prints the list of items. Three of them are named in passing as CLA for the clarifier modes, PSH for the PUSH key, and SCA for the scan type, each with a cross-reference to a function menu section that does not contain them. Several features the radio plainly has are in the same position: there is an NR label on the display and receive noise reduction is in the feature list, and nowhere in the book does it say how to switch it on. The same goes for storing a channel — the specification table gives sixty programmable channels, and the only programming route the manual describes is the PC software. So this page covers what is actually documented and says so where it is not. If you have a fuller Ailunce manual than the one published at manuals.plus, we would genuinely like to see it.

What you can do on this radio

Rather do this on your phone, standing at the radio?

The app walks you through the same steps one at a time, on a screen sized for a phone.

Open Radio Rosetta

Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door on an HS4

There is no bandwidth control on this radio in the sense the other radios on this page have one. What there is instead is a single high cut, on the second layer of a key, and it is worth knowing about because it is genuinely useful on a noisy band.

  1. Press FUNC and let go. An F appears on the display.FUNCThe screen should show: F.This is the second-function layer. It is a press and release, not a hold — holding FUNC for two seconds takes you into the menu instead.
  2. Press the plus-10 kHz key. The legend underneath it reads HI-CUT.+10KHZThe screen should show: HI-CUT appears.It cuts high-frequency interference out of the audio. Ailunce's own description is that its usefulness depends on receiving conditions, which is a polite way of saying try it and see — on a hissy band it takes the edge off, and on a clean signal it makes a voice duller.
  3. Repeat the same two keys to switch it off.FUNC›+10KHZThe screen should show: HI-CUT disappears.

The actual selectivity of the radio is fixed in hardware and printed in the specifications: 6 dB at 3 kHz and 50 dB at 9 kHz in AM and FM, and 6 dB at 2.1 kHz with 60 dB at 3.3 kHz on sideband. That sideband figure is a respectable filter and it is not adjustable. Two other receive controls sit alongside the high cut and are worth knowing about. RF GAIN, the inner of a concentric pair, backs off the receiver's sensitivity — Ailunce's advice is to leave it fully clockwise and reduce it only in one specific case: when the station you are working is close by and does not have RF power control of their own. That pairing matters — a strong nearby signal is not by itself the reason, an overdriving one you cannot ask to turn down is. And the noise blanker on its own key deals with pulse noise. The NR label on the display is receive noise reduction and the radio does have it; how to switch it on is not documented anywhere in the manual we have.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn on the noise blanker on an HS4

One key, no adjustment, and it is two things at once — a noise blanker and an automatic noise limiter sharing a switch.

  1. Press NB/ANL. Press it again to switch it off.NB/ANLThe screen should show: NB/ANL appears on the display.Ailunce describes the pair as filters that reduce background noise and some reception interference. The blanker is an RF-type one and the specifications say it is effective on AM, FM and sideband alike, which is broader coverage than a blanker usually claims.

There is no level, no depth and no width here — it is on or it is off. If it makes a strong signal sound broken, which any blanker can, the only remedy is to switch it off. And be careful of the key's second layer: FUNC and then NB/ANL is the keypad lock, which disables everything except the push-to-talk, the band switch and the mode switch. If the radio has stopped responding to its buttons, that is the first thing to suspect — press any key other than the PTT, the band switch or the mode switch and a LOCK icon appears on the LCD to confirm it. LOCK is missing from Ailunce’s printed table of display indicators, so you will not find it listed there, but the keypad-lock section says plainly that it shows. The same two keys undo it.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Reset the menu to factory settings on an HS4

Ailunce prints two resets, and they are alternatives, not a sequence. Method 1 is the background reset — settings only, and by its name it should leave the channels alone. Method 2 is background plus channel reset — it takes the channels too. Pick one. Steps 1 to 3 below are the whole of Method 1; steps 4 to 6 are the whole of Method 2, starting again from a radio that is switched off. Running both means running the destructive one.

  1. Method 1, the background reset — settings only. Start with the radio off.switch the radio offThe screen should show: NoneThis is the one to reach for when something is behaving oddly. Ailunce's own names for the two are the whole of the evidence — Background reset against Background+Channel reset — so Method 1 should leave your programmed channels alone, and Method 2 plainly does not. The book never says so in words, so back up your channel list with the PC software first if losing it would hurt.
  2. Hold FUNC and SCAN together and switch the radio on. Let both keys go the moment RES appears.hold FUNC›hold SCAN›switch the radio onThe screen should show: RES.Watch out. The release is part of the procedure, not an afterthought — Ailunce's own step says to release the two keys when RES shows.
  3. Wait for REND. That is the radio telling you the settings are back to factory. Method 1 ends here — do not carry on into the steps below unless you actually want your channels erased as well.wait for RENDThe screen should show: REND.
  4. Method 2, background plus channel reset. This is a separate procedure and it starts from scratch, so switch the radio off again.switch the radio offThe screen should show: NoneWatch out. If you have just run Method 1, the radio is on. It has to be off before this begins. And be sure you want this one: it takes the channels with it.
  5. Hold FUNC and EMG together and switch the radio on. Release both keys when 1BAND appears.hold FUNC›hold EMG›switch the radio onThe screen should show: 1BAND.Watch out. Releasing at 1BAND is a required action, not a convenience. Nothing has been reset at this point — the radio is waiting for the next step.
  6. Now press and hold FUNC again. REND means it has finished.hold FUNC›wait for RENDThe screen should show: REND, and everything is back to factory — settings and channels alike.

Ailunce's own warning is the blunt one: all former settings are replaced by the factory values. What is worth adding is that this radio's channels are programmed with the PC software rather than from the front panel, at least as far as the published manual goes. So if you have had it programmed for you, Method 2 is the one that undoes that work and Method 1 is not. If in doubt, run Method 1 and stop.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

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