Query: Kenwood TH-F6A

[ThomasMcKean]

We all know this is a killer radio, we won't get into that. I want to ask about one of the lesser used features?

This thing can receive AM/USB/LSB/CW on a whole bunch of frequencies. Has anyone experimented with this? I mean, if yew were to plug in the appropriate antenna, just how well does this receive? I have been playing with a DX-400 short wave I have over here, and it got me to wondering to how the F6A would do with that as well. Has anyone really experimented with this?

I don't want to reinvent the wheel if this has already been done. And if so, what were your results? Enquiring minds want to know!

[robertmac]

As a ham, I am sure you have checked theKenwood TH-7E and TH-F6A reviews on there. Some do give examples of hooking these radios to your wire attenna you asked about in another post. Or as some has said GOOGLE is a friend.

[acyddrop]

I hooked my TH-F6a to a dipole up about 40 feet and it worked quite well as a receiver on all the bands I used it on. I had no trouble picking up WWV on 10MHz either which down where I live it's a bit hit or miss with propagation. I don't know if I'd recommend it as a shortwave receiver because this thing is TINY, and the buttons are annoyingly small. But as far as audio quality/reception goes if you hook it to a normal size speaker it does quite well. I've not tried it with just a random length of wire shoved out the window or anything like that. I sold my TH-F6a awhile ago before I got my 43' vertical setup so never tried it with that. I sold the radio (all of my analog hand held rigs) because 2m/1.25m and 70cm are all dead down here in South Florida.

Antenna info:
My dipole is an OCF (88/44) 132ft long cut for 80 meters it also works on 40. It was up 40 feet at the top of an aluminum mast (which became my 43' vertical).

[gewecke]

I'm a little curious if anyone has ever tried to listen to 2 meter ssb on the thf6 ?? I've never seen any mention of this from users so far.

73,
n9zas

[ThomasMcKean]

Originally Posted by gewecke

I'm a little curious if anyone has ever tried to listen to 2 meter ssb on the thf6 ?? I've never seen any mention of this from users so far.

73,
n9zas

I wasn't aware people were even doing SSB on 2 meters? *Blink*

[acyddrop]

As far as I know you can't switch the TH-F6a out of FM on any of it's TX ranges (2m/1.25m/70cm). You can do SSB or AM or whatever else on the other frequencies but I'm fairly sure you can't listen nor xmit in SSB on those bands. I might be misremembering as I seem to remember having a satellite down-link set to listen on 70cm SSB once...

Originally Posted by gewecke

I'm a little curious if anyone has ever tried to listen to 2 meter ssb on the thf6 ?? I've never seen any mention of this from users so far.

73,
n9zas

[n2nov]

Originally Posted by acyddrop

As far as I know you can't switch the TH-F6a out of FM on any of it's TX ranges (2m/1.25m/70cm). You can do SSB or AM or whatever else on the other frequencies but I'm fairly sure you can't listen nor xmit in SSB on those bands. I might be misremembering as I seem to remember having a satellite down-link set to listen on 70cm SSB once...

You can not change the mode from FM on the 2m/220/440 bands only in VFO A.
Any band can have it's mode changed (LSB/USB/CW/FM/WFM/AM) when using VFO B.

[jhooten]

Most thing you buy now days come with this thing called a MANUAL. It contains a description of the item and instructions on its use.

From chapter 10, on page 33:
"Although the A-band transceiver covers only the 2 m/ 1.25 m (TH-F6A only)/ 70 cm amateur radio bands in FM mode, the B-band receiver can receive signals from 100 kHz to
470 MHz in SSB, CW, FM, or AM mode, and from 470 MHz to 1.3 GHz in FM or AM mode."

SO, yes you can.

[gewecke]

Ok jerry thanks.

I don't have a thf6 and haven't yet, but the on-board bfo is a interesting feature especially on a h.t. with wide band reception.

73,
n9zas

[jhooten]

Sorry, the snarkieness wasn't meant for you. It was intended for the one who claims to have one but said "as far as I know you can't". Had he read his manual he would have known.