Kenwood: TH-D74: Pros and cons?

[SPL15]

So your saying I should just get an ID51 for much cheaper?

Nope... Didn't say anything close to that; however, if that's what you want & believe the price to be right, then it's certainly not a bad option at all. Hell, I'll probably end up buying one for a spare "knock around" HT, & to throw in my day hiking backpack.

The local repeater search function for FM stations certainly gives it an edge if that's something you're wanting (not important to me). APRS is something I wanted in a new HT; the ID-51a only does DPRS & there's no Dstar repeaters where I go camping & overlanding.

 

[HudsonScannerGuy]

Oh, ok, thank you for the info on the D74. Wish people would do more videos on that HT.

 

[kayleesdad]

74 is quite complicated, screen cover should be used, triband is cool, super easy to change banks. 74 seemed more solid than the yaesu ft2d which did not survive a 30 inch fall in the parking lot....the touchscreen on the ft2d cracked in several places and the touchscreen didn't work anymore.

 

[SPL15]

Oh, ok, thank you for the info on the D74. Wish people would do more videos on that HT.

Seems Icom has a lot of the large amateur radio youtube channels under their financial care, so not too many "high production" value videos on the TH-D74... The ID-51a series of HT's have lots of really good in-depth videos from the large youtube channels.

In my own opinion, the big factors for choosing between the TH-D74 vs the ID51a Plus2 really boils down to:
- APRS (D74), vs DPRS (ID51)
- Local FM Repeater Search Function (ID51 only)
- 1.25m band! (D74 only)
* Not too many radios that can do this band, the folks who talk on it are often really good folks in my experience
- Price ($500 D74, vs $350 ID51)
* Total "realistic" cost after buying accessories will add another few hundred to both, the initial price difference of the HT really isn't that big of deal in the end, as they'll be close to one another due to differences in accessory costs)
- Full Keypad (D74 only)
- Audio Quality, DSP, & Rx & Tx EQ (D74 only)
- Very capable (for an HT) HF receiver w/ SSB, CW, AM, and SSB in VHF & UHF (D74 only, some folks do SSB on 2M in my area)
- Terminal & Access Point Dstar Mode (ID51 only)
- IPx7 IMMERSION resistant at one meter for 30 minutes, vs "Splash Resistant" IP54 rating of the D74 (VERY important difference if you kayak or canoe & tip over)
- Form factor (ID54 is tangibly more compact than the D74)

From the list above, it really distills down to a matter of personal opinion & individual wants / needs in a "luxury" HT. They're both "luxury" class Amateur HT's, where basic utilitarian functionality & performance in talking & hearing others on nearby repeaters is pretty much identical to much cheaper radios from Icom, Kenwood, & Yaseu HT's.

The "learning curve" for any of the "luxury" HT's that have a lot of features takes some getting used to until you use them enough to commit their basic operation to "subconscious competence" where you no longer have to consciously think about the basics, leaving more cognitive bandwidth for analytical brain function needed for tactical and / or creative usage of the device.

This is true for any feature packed electronic device, including cellphones, computers, software, and the navigation / infotainment system in your car... If you're able to competently use a confusing Whistler scanner radio on the fly from the keypad, you'll find any of the Japanese amateur radios pretty easy to get familiar with. The TH-D74a is magnitudes more easy to program & use via the keypad than a Baofeng HT...

 

[AK9R]

Add full access to the TNC in the TH-D74 for use with external APRS client software (APRSISCE-32, PinPointAPRS, etc.) or with traditional AX.25 packet communications including Winlink. This is a common feature in all of Kenwood's APRS radios that the other don't have.

Don Arnold W6GPS has posted several videos about the TH-D74. While he is not a Kenwood employee, he has worked closely with Kenwood's US-based staff in the past. Don Arnold

 

[SPL15]

I haven't yet gone into testing out the KISS TNC function of the TH-D74, but that's a really great point as well.

It's another $150+ in separate equipment for a KISS mode TNC, plus having to make a custom cable / adaptor that you'll need in order to connect the TNC to the HT, as well as the annoyance of needing to separately power the TNC if it's connected to the laptop via bluetooth (ie no USB power to the TNC)...

If you've ever done this before, you'll know that using an outboard TNC connected to an HT can sometimes be pretty finicky when operating in marginal signal conditions due to the additional funkiness in receive & transmit performance when operating the HT not in your hand & connected to random pieces of gear with long wires that are effectively at a different RF ground / reference plane, or are not acting as an effective RF ground plane for the HT... With an HT, your body & hand is the capacitively coupled ground / reference plane, receive & transmit performance can change pretty drastically, for better or worse, if the HT is not in your hand & if it's connected to a bunch of random pieces of gear, as well as how the cabling to the HT & auxiliary devices are oriented, spread out, & strung up...

I've been using a bluetooth enabled Coastal Chipworks TNC-X (now sold by MFJ) connected to an Icom ID-5100a mobile w/ a laptop & a Garmin GPS for positioning, for APRS position relay, texting, & winlink email when I'm out in BFE without cellular reception. It works well & reliable enough, but the entire system is kind of a pain to setup & use, especially when I'd rather not be messing around with radio equipment after setting up camp & chopping wood well after sunset & after a long drive with roads full of incompetent people. Having to occasionally need to string up a 1/2 wave 2m vertical dipole high up in a tall tree (that may not exist at the campsite), to even reach out to distant digipeaters, is often the last straw that makes me dig into my cooler full of cold beer, rather than my radio bag full of tangled up rats nest...

Crossband repeater function on the ID-5100a mobile to send / receive the APRS signal @ 50 watts out w/ a capable mobile antenna, combined with the TH-D74a & all of it's built in APRS capabilities with very long battery life on L & EL transmit power: Easy peasy to quickly beacon location & a brief message on just the TH-D74a to the non-licensed XYL who tracks my callsign & messages on APRS-FI when I'm camping, as well as connect the laptop to the TH-D74 via bluetooth for WInlink email when I need to tell my boss that I'll be taking a few extra days off

 

[kayleesdad]

74 is quite complicated, screen cover should be used, triband is cool, super easy to change banks. 74 seemed more solid than the yaesu ft2d which did not survive a 30 inch fall in the parking lot....the touchscreen on the ft2d cracked in several places and the touchscreen didn't work anymore.

I should add that yaesu fixed the ft2dr touchscreen screen "under warranty" although it was an accident, and they also fixed an sma female connector on my ft70dr that was damaged when it fell off the table onto a wrench, also "under warranty". Just had to pay shipping to them.

 

[N8FNR]

I use it occasionally. It's handy when I'm out gallivanting about and feel like listening to the few English SW broadcasts are out there (or if I need to monitor WWV to check the time to verify the computer clock).

And of course you can use the builtin GPS to set the time on the radio and look at that instead of listening to WWV.

 

[HudsonScannerGuy]

Update: ended up getting a Anytone 878 for christmas, but one day will get a D74!