Kenwoood NX5200

Anyone have any feedback on the nx 5200 portables pros and cons? Haven't really heard much about these radio.

We had a meeting the other day with a rep and might possibly be purchasing over 30 of these radios but would like some feedback.

The rep was pushing these radios with VHF (what we need) and nxdn but the thing is no one uses nxdn is the area some depts use p25. Is Nxdn the next big thing? Isn't that like Kenwoods version of starcom?

These radio can do both NXDN and P25. I have some video on it on YouTube. Good question. The NXDN is not like starcom. Trunking wise, it's like Motorola type 2i or in any case, p25 trunking. Control channel and several (up to 29) voice channels.

Keep asking, we will give your your fair share of info.

kd4efm Evans, sent using TapTALK on my HTC M9

Thanks KD. I know they can do nxdn or p25 along with VHF I just didn't know why the rep was pushing VHF/nxdn while no one in the area uses this (yet)

Do you have a link to your you tube?

Personally I think nxdn has better voice clarity then p25. Only little quirky issue I am dealing with is mixed mode scan, but other than that they are amazing radios.

Can you customize channel announcement names?

I haven't tried, but I would think so. Dont have my computer in front of me to check. EFM can answer that better.

I have not tried, but I'm am told yes, you customize voice.

kd4efm Evans, sent using TapTALK on my HTC M9

I know programming software is a pain to buy/ activate as I read in other forums. The rep said it wouldn't be an issue
But what's the cost or rough guess?

I don't have an NX-5200, but did just get an NX-5700 and so far I'm pretty happy with it.

NXDN/NexEdge probably won't be useful for you, but it's an option to have, it's included with the basic radio package.
A few handy things you can do with it, if you wanted:
Over The Air Programming.
Encryption (not super strong encryption, but encryption none the less)
Over the air alias
GPS integration

P25 sounds like it may be a better option for you. Nice thing is you can buy the radios now without P25 and save some money. If operational needs change later, you can buy the P25 license and activate it.


The new programming software KPG-D1NK is a bit different, but I didn't have any issues setting it up. It's tied to one PC, so you can't load it on multiple computers. List price is $155.00 for the software. Negotiate the prices down. As a state facility we are on a List - 30% contract. You should be able to get close to that.

Have you tried over the air programming is it easy? Don't tell me the newer software is confusing like the other competitor's software :/

The rep never gave an option not to only get analog. They said their are 3 modes to pick from and we should have the VHF/NXDN
Encryption has no factor here these will be in the fire service and we don't use ENC.
is the the GPS plug and play or do you need add on equipment?

What do you mean by over the air alias? You mean mdc1200?

I know it sucks to pay 155 but that sure beats prices from the other radio competitor software prices. Does suck you can only install it on one computer though.

I've used OTAP on my NexEdge trunked system. I love it. You just modify the file and push it out to the radio. Saves a lot of work. It only works in NXDN mode, not analog, though.

Software is taking some getting used to, but it isn't bad. My first programming experience was the old DOS MTS-2000 software for a trunked system. After that, -everything- is easier/better.

The basic radio includes analog, NXDN conventional and NXDN Type C (NexEdge) trunking. That's included in the base price.
The options are numerous, but adding P25 and P25 conventional are license options, so you just buy it as you need it.

Agree, in fire service there is no place for encryption, unless your fire investigators want it. The NXDN 56bit DES encryption is included in the basic package, so its already there. Voice Inversion scrambling on the analog side is also included, but I digress....

In NXDN mode the radios send out their ID with each and every transmission. That ID could be a unit number, vehicle number, someones name, pretty much anything you want. Most of my radios here are either programmed with the users name or the department name/unit number.

The radio will do MDC1200 and FleetSync in the basic package.

If you are looking for an analog VHF radio there are a few options. For public safety where you have the (even remote) possibility of needing P25 some day, this one is a good option. You can purchase the basic radio now and add P25 -IF- the need arises. I also believe this radio would meet the requirements for federal grant funding, which usually requires a radio be "P25 capable".

While not related, I do have about 400 Kenwood radios on my trunked system. About 350 NX-410's portables and 50 NX-900 mobiles. Out of all those radios I've had two failures in 4 years. One was a dead display out of the box. The other was an unidentified RF issues. I've been very happy with those numbers. Also Kenwood has been really bending over backwards to keep us happy. Compared to the "other company" we used to use, it's night and day and I'd never got back to Motorola.

About a year ago I switched our PD over to Kenwood radios. Our officers are all carrying NX-210 VHF portables and the vehicles are TK-5710's. They were really happy with the radios. I had no less than 3 officers tell me how much better the audio was compared to their previous MTS-2000's and XTS-2500's. We just put a NX-5700 mobile in one of their transport vans and they like it.

I'm probably going to requisition myself an NX-5300 for my own use next fiscal year.

Would you be able to post a screenshot of the software so users here can get an idea of how different it is? Granted that would probably be multiple screenshots but just a basic one for a general idea (with no private info displayed, of course) might be helpful.

I know the rotary stops at 16 on these models by any chance can you program channel buttons to go past 16?

Thanks for all the help and feedback mmck.

The top rotary has a removable stopper, although you can only select 1-16 with the knob.
You can use the up/down buttons and get past 16. You can have up to 512 channels in a zone. So, while it'd be annoying, you could have channels 1 through 512 in one zone and select them with the buttons.

03msc said:

Would you be able to post a screenshot of the software so users here can get an idea of how different it is? Granted that would probably be multiple screenshots but just a basic one for a general idea (with no private info displayed, of course) might be helpful.

Click to expand...

It'd take a huge amount of work to do that. The windows scroll, so it's impossible to see it all in a screen shot. Also, having to post everything Photobucket and the like then link them is a real PITA.

I think if you google it you'll find some existing screen shots out there.

I'm running it on Windoze 7 and it works, although my new computer sucks. Also keeps wanting me to update to Windoze 10, (not going to happen).

mmckenna said:

The top rotary has a removable stopper, although you can only select 1-16 with the knob.
You can use the up/down buttons and get past 16. You can have up to 512 channels in a zone. So, while it'd be annoying, you could have channels 1 through 512 in one zone and select them with the buttons.

Click to expand...

I figured that's how it was. Is it still unlimited channels to a scan bank or does it stop at 15/16 like you know /\/\ lol


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

mmckenna said:

It'd take a huge amount of work to do that. The windows scroll, so it's impossible to see it all in a screen shot. Also, having to post everything Photobucket and the like then link them is a real PITA.

Click to expand...

OK, understood. No problem.

mmckenna said:

I'm running it on Windoze 7 and it works, although my new computer sucks. Also keeps wanting me to update to Windoze 10, (not going to happen).

Click to expand...

I love Windows 10. Took 7 and improved it and left out the bad stuff from 8 and 8.1. But back to radio talk...

nick223 said:

I figured that's how it was. Is it still unlimited channels to a scan bank or does it stop at 15/16 like you know /\/\ lol


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Click to expand...

From what I've been able to find it'll do 31 channels per scan list, it'll do 128 different lists.

That's if you do a list scan. You can just do a single zone or multiple zone scan. You can theoretically scan every channel in your radio at one time.

Just confirming even if you remove the stopper it will only go up to 16 and then loop back to channel 1? I thought the idea of removing the stopper was to enable users to select a channels higher then 16 (this is a big downfall i see with Motorola's portables) . I don't see why else you would want to remove the stopper if you can only go to 16 regardless.

mmckenna said:

The top rotary has a removable stopper, although you can only select 1-16 with the knob.
You can use the up/down buttons and get past 16. You can have up to 512 channels in a zone. So, while it'd be annoying, you could have channels 1 through 512 in one zone and select them with the buttons.

Click to expand...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk