Kenwood TH F6A Belt Clip

[Nicholas440]

I looked through the forum and did not see this posted so I thought I would pass it on. I have a Kenwood TH F6A hand held, and I really don't like the cheap steel spring clip they put on it for a belt clip. I looked around and I find that they have a plastic belt clip that fits the F6A and I ordered one. I have to say it's like day and night as far as comfort and how it wont come loose if you bump your ht.

The belt clip is a Kenwood KBH-10 and it's a little longer than the stock chinsy clip that comes with the radio, and it also has a small curl at the bottom of the clip so if you pull up on it and it's on your belt it's not coming off until you unhook it off your belt, this assures you it won't slip off if it's bumped accidentally.

I put mine on and it fits perfectly, the clip comes with several screws, like 6 screws came in the bag with mine and I don't know why but they are just slightly different in length, possibly to fit different radios.

I'm assuming the cheap steel clip that kept on slipping off my belt or waistband is simply due to the radio being 12 year old technology. I like the features of my F6A and it works ok other than the speaker audio sounds crappy compared to all the Chinese ht's I collected recently but you get used to the tinny speaker sound eventually.



You can buy one of the KBH 10 belt clips for less than $10 with shipping if you look on Google for it.

 

[jhooten]

Must be a really crappy 12 year old radio. Kenwood hasn't replaced it yet and still sell everyone they make as fast as they make them. Next you'll be telling me my TS-2000 is an antique and should be replaced also.

While everybody denigrates the strap on the new Alinco radios they are the only radios I have that have not fallen off my belt.

 

[Nicholas440]

Must be a really crappy 12 year old radio. Kenwood hasn't replaced it yet and still sell everyone they make as fast as they make them. Next you'll be telling me my TS-2000 is an antique and should be replaced also.

While everybody denigrates the strap on the new Alinco radios they are the only radios I have that have not fallen off my belt.

I wouldn't say the radio is crappy, it's far from that even though it's a 12 year old thats still in production, what I'm saying is that the belt clip to me, and many others I read about, is a piece of junk for a clip. However, the clip does work, and Kenwood still uses it but they have switched to the new plastic spring loaded clip on the new ht's. What is crappy to me is the audio on this radio , it's very tinny or I could say treble sounding compared to the other 6 ht's I own. The F6A is nice little radio, with nice features, for anyone who wants a radio that can receive the HF bands and goes all the way up to 1300 mhz on the receiver, and it will transmit a full 5 watts on all 3 bands, 2 meters, 440, and 220 , I dont know of any other radio that gives you a full 5 watts on all the bands. So, no it is not a crappy radio by any means it's very well made, has a shock rating and it does work good, however having said that it does not work as well as the Puxing UV973 I have, I made side by side comparisons on both as far as how they hear several repeaters. The battery on the Kenwood is a 2000 mah battery and it fail miserably , it only last one day with very little use, the Puxing runs for 2 days on an 1800 mah battery listening to the same repeaters. This is one reason why the Kenwood is on the shelf, it simply does not hear as well.

As for the Kenwood TS 2000, it's a great radio I've got 2 good friends who own one, and they love them. I personally have an antique Kenwood for HF, it's an old TS 940 SAT with matching speaker and it was sent out to Texas for a complete tuneup and alignment and came back working like a brand new rig, full 100 watts out, a whisper quiet fan, known issues were all fixed and it's a real work horse. It does not have one single mark, or scratch on it, and I have had many of my friends ask me to sell it since its' in such mint condition. I love the LED display, the real meter, and the overall color scheme of the radios display, and the TS 940 hears signals that my old Yaesu FT 1000 D could barely hear on the same antenna which is a G5RV at 40 feet.

So no 12 year old radios are not crappy, many are outstanding, what I didn't care for was a belt clip, and the not very sensitive receiver, the poor battery life, and a display lamp that you have to keep pushing the button to see the display when it's in a dim enviornment I think Kenwood could have made it so that when you turn the encoder knob the display lights up, of if you press any key it lights up. like the other ht's I have. Its a good working radio, but it does fall short in several areas in my personal opinion. On a scale of 1 to 5 I would rate mine as 4.

I've been in this hobby since 1977, and I have owned a lot of radios, HF, and VHF, UHF as well and I've seen a lot of nice gear, and some that I would say are just ok . Just my opinion , we all have one or we wouldn't be buying all the different brands that are on the market.

 

[jhooten]

Anytime you try to make a receiver do everything it will never be able to do everything as well as a more limited receiver especially in a handheld size package. There is only so much room to fit the amps and filters needed for sensitivity and selectivity.

Take the rubber dummy load off the F6 and the CCR and put a band specific antenna on each and repeat the test. Again when you try to make one antenna do everything...

I don't know what to say about your battery problem. Mine goes on the charger about every third day and still has the original battery it came with 4 years ago.

Hope the spring loaded plastic belt clip works for you. I destroy them in short order. The metal one I can return to near stock condition with a little effort and some pliers.

High frequency hearing loss helps with tinny sounding speakers. However it is not a solution I can recommend one purposely seek out.

This is an example of why this is such a great hobby. There are so many different ways to use the equipment and accessories available to make it work better for you. You do have to the limitations of the equipment and decide if those limitations are acceptable. The F6 for example, I know it is a compromise. It works for me when I want to have one compact package that does many things well enough. However when I know I need the extra performance on one specific band I also have a radio for that band I can take instead.

 

[Nicholas440]

I agree with you totally on the band specific antennas, I tried 2 of the multiband ones, and of course the stock rubber duck does not do to much although it is not all that bad. I did have a few band specific rubber ducks, these where a few I picked up years ago for my Yaesu dual band ht thats about 26 years old, I had to use a BNC adapter but you are correct, the receiver does come up a lot if you use one antenna at a time on each band. I did not have a 220 antenna but I assume it would be better too. It's a shame they can't load up a tri band antenna to give is some gain, and performance close enough to a mono band antenna.

I also feel as you do, anytime you pack as much as Kenwood did into that small package something has to suffer somewhere.

I wish I could find out when my battery was made, it just might be a few years old . My battery is I assume like the rest of the stock batteries, you have to plug it in with the radio to charge as it has no contacts on the outside of the battery at all. I do have a spare 2000 mah battery that I just picked up and a rapid charger that is a drop in, so I wont need to leave the ht plugged in overnight for a charge. I'm going to see how long this new battery will run it. They also have 4000 mah batteries for the F6 but they are a lot thicker, and you wont get the belt clip on it you will have to buy the clip thats made to fit with a 4000 mah battery. The 4000 mah looks really thick to me I don't think I'd want one. I don't see any dates on my original battery but there should be a way to find out when the radio was built. I think you can use the serial number on Kenwood's web site if I am not mistaken.

I do like the look and feel of it and its features, I just wish they would have made a few things a little different on it but thats something we all deal with whenever we get new gear, I think theres always something we list as a CON . What's interesting is the F6 is the only Tri Band ht that offers full 5 watts on all 3 bands. Yaesu only offers 2 1/2 watts on 220, and 4.5 watts on 70cm band I believe.

Thanks for the input, I'm still going to look for a tri band antenna I saw an Opek that is fully adjustable with bottom loading, and a center load similar to Diamond but the entire antenna is as thin as a spaghetti strand all the way up so I dont know how durable that would be.

 

[ThomasMcKean]

The belt clip is a Kenwood KBH-10 and it's a little longer than the stock chinsy clip that comes with the radio, and it also has a small curl at the bottom of the clip so if you pull up on it and it's on your belt it's not coming off until you unhook it off your belt, this assures you it won't slip off if it's bumped accidentally.

I put mine on and it fits perfectly, the clip comes with several screws, like 6 screws came in the bag with mine and I don't know why but they are just slightly different in length, possibly to fit different radios.

I must agree.

I was seriously disappointed in the stock belt clip and immediately set about looking for something else. I found the KBH-10 and it is fabulous. I would not even consider having an F6A without one. The difference is night and day.