Kenwood TK-380

[lugoffman]

Hello !! I have been looking for a Ham rig to start out in and really don't know what to look for , so I was at the flea market today and found this rig Kenwood TK-380 does anyone know if this is a ham rig I really know nothing about ham radio's but the guy told me he thought it was a two meater rig but was not for sure can anyone give me some insight as to if it is and if so what do i need to do to get it going and operating

 

[Grog]

That is a UHF commercial band radio that MAY cover part of the 440 ham band. You will also need the software and cable to program it.

 

[lugoffman]

That is a UHF commercial band radio that MAY cover part of the 440 ham band. You will also need the software and cable to program it.

Will it be good to start out in or is it junk

 

[Grog]

IF you can program it and IF it is in good working condition and IF it's not stolen (I mean it was at a flea market) and IF you have a good battery and charger with it.....yes, it will work and it would be batter than most of the ham rigs out there.

You also have to consider how much 440 activity you have in your area, I'm a few miles from the largest city in the Carolinas and there is a bunch of dead air on 440 up here. If you have some public safety UHF activity in your area then it could be used to RX there as well, but be careful when programming as it could be programmed to TX there too and that would not be wise.

 

[lugoffman]

IF you can program it and IF it is in good working condition and IF it's not stolen (I mean it was at a flea market) and IF you have a good battery and charger with it.....yes, it will work and it would be batter than most of the ham rigs out there.

You also have to consider how much 440 activity you have in your area, I'm a few miles from the largest city in the Carolinas and there is a bunch of dead air on 440 up here. If you have some public safety UHF activity in your area then it could be used to RX there as well, but be careful when programming as it could be programmed to TX there too and that would not be wise.

Well i hope it is not stolen how would I find out if it is ? and were can I get a programing cable at and software to do all this.
It might be better for me to join a ham club and then see what I need to program in it cause first off I don't even have a license yet but I would like to get it programed for monitoring but I don't want to get into trouble :lol:

 

[Grog]

You'll see there might not be much UHF activity to listen to. Aftermarket cables can be found on ebay, software can be bought from SOME dealers as not all sell it, or will sell to just anybody.

You can always call the local police or stop by during the day and see if they will run it to see if it is stolen, be sure to say where/who you got it from in case it is :lol:

Joining a ham club will do you no good in this instance because....

1. You're not a ham, so they will likely not want to help you too much with programing a radio for ham frequencies
2. 99% of hams don't know anything about commercial radio anyway :lol:

 

[lugoffman]

IF you can program it and IF it is in good working condition and IF it's not stolen (I mean it was at a flea market) and IF you have a good battery and charger with it.....yes, it will work and it would be batter than most of the ham rigs out there.

You also have to consider how much 440 activity you have in your area, I'm a few miles from the largest city in the Carolinas and there is a bunch of dead air on 440 up here. If you have some public safety UHF activity in your area then it could be used to RX there as well, but be careful when programming as it could be programmed to TX there too and that would not be wise.

What would be a good band to program it to if it could be programed for this area
lugoff , Kershaw county ,SC

 

[lugoffman]

Well Grog I just got back from the sheriff's office and they took the radio but they will give it back to me 7 days from now if it is not stolen like you said since it came from the flea market , they said it will take up to 7 days and if no one has claimed it or reported it stolen then it is mine

 

[Grog]

Hope you got a paper showing that you turned it over to them or you may never see it again anyway, not all cops are always on the up and up ya know


But really, sounds odd that they would take your property (since you own it) without showing cause that it is stolen. They can run it through NCIC and it's either there or not, there's not some serial number purgatory inside the interwebz :roll:

 

[lugoffman]

Hope you got a paper showing that you turned it over to them or you may never see it again anyway, not all cops are always on the up and up ya know


But really, sounds odd that they would take your property (since you own it) without showing cause that it is stolen. They can run it through NCIC and it's either there or not, there's not some serial number purgatory inside the interwebz :roll:

Don't know they gave me a property reciept for it though I don't think it is stolen at least I hope not If it is I know what table the guy sold it to me is at all they got to do is look at the table to see who it was regestered to at that time , anyways we are talking about Kershaw county now ,Kershaw county's finest :lol:

 

[Thayne]

Those are good radios; they quit selling new ones about 2 years ago; still supported with parts.

If it is password protected from reading you can just blow over it with a new program--

 

[N1SQB]

All you want to know about the TK-380......

First let me say this, the TK-380 is a Great radio. As such, it has some really great audio and is very well built. It makes a great receiver as well as a transmitter. I own 2 of them. I will definitely disagree with the idea or statement that 99% of Ham radio operators dont know anything about commercial radios. I am about to prove that to you right now. The TK-380 is usually found in 2 different band splits; 400-430 MHZ and 450-490MHZ. The 450 band split will go down to the 440 MHZ Ham band. The VHF brother of this radio is the TK-280 which is usually 150-170 MHZ and it too will go down to the 144 MHZ. Ham band.
They both come in either 4 button pads or with the full DTMF numeric pad. The numeric pad will not let you directly program frequencies in like a scanner. Each button on the pad can be programmed to do a particular function, so think of them like quick keys of sorts. The radio(s) can be programmed with up to 250 conventional channels. You can break the frequencies into groups (like banks on a scanner). The 380 has either 4 watts on high power or 1 watt on low power. It makes a great ham radio as well as a GMRS radio.
The software you need is called KPG49D. You can try getting it from a Kenwood commercial dealer or do a search on the web,it's not that hard to find like Motorola software. Here is a link on ebay for the cable you will need:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PROGRAMMING-CAB...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Here is the charger you will need:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kenwood-Rapid-B...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

The software is windows based but will not work with windows Vista so use XP. If you can program a scanner using software, this is like a walk in the park. Straight foward programming. You can program the radio like I do. I use it for Police, Fire, Ems stuff with the receive only programmed. For my ham stuff, I program both transmit and receive as well as all the pl/dpl codes. There are different batteries you can use. However, the best I have found is 2100MaH NiMH from several different places. Here is one example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BATTERY-KNB...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

The antenna will make a difference in transmit if you ever get your license. Most of the time you will see the antennas that come with the 380 radios look like this: KRA-15

http://www.moradio.com/Images/Products/KRA-15am.jpg

Thats fine for receive. For transmitting on the ham bands up to 490MHZ,Kenwood purposely made this one;KRA-27

http://images.kenwood.eu/files/images/products/product_id_286/category_8/KRA-27.jpg

Here are a couple of pictures of my two radios.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2625089040021435046uDSBkS

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2298251290021435046ewGNrs
Notice that the LCD screen is alpha numeric. the limit is 10 characters.

Finaly, if there is ANYTHING I have not covered, here is the brochure. Bring it up to 100% for best viewing.

http://www.radio-phone.com/Kenwood-PDF-Files/TK_280_380_po_k.PDF

By the way, I learned all this stuff from my Ham buds at our local Ham club who are VERY good at programming commercial radios. We volunteer for many events related to Homeland Security and/or Emergency Management. If you lived in our area and came to us with similar questions, we would help you program the radio ( receive only) and egg you on to take one of our Ham Radio Technician beginner classes. Turning people away simply because they are NOT hams, is not something we practice. We are in the business of recruiting not rejecting.......

http://www.gbarc.net/


Good Luck!

Manny

 

[lugoffman]

Hey Thanks for the good info there for a min. I though I bought a piece of junk now I just found out my cousin has a couple of them but he won't come off any of them :lol:
but Thanks for all the good info

 

[Grog]

I will definitely disagree with the idea or statement that 99% of Ham radio operators dont know anything about commercial radios. I am about to prove that to you right now.

Ok, you typed some specs but that does not disprove what I said which was only my opinion and I still stand by what I said. I've been using mostly motorola gear for a few years and the stuff I hear from the typical ham is enough to make me laugh for hours on the inaccuracies and just outright lies.

 

[N1SQB]

Ok, you typed some specs but that does not disprove what I said which was only my opinion and I still stand by what I said. I've been using mostly motorola gear for a few years and the stuff I hear from the typical ham is enough to make me laugh for hours on the inaccuracies and just outright lies.

Grog, I did more than type a few specs and you know that. When it comes to the TK-280/380 line of radios, I have a LOT of experience. I have totally refurbished my 2 380s by myself. I know that radio inside out. Anyway, I wanted to make sure Lugoffman had ALL the information he needed. The TK-380 is an awesome radio and I am very happy to help out anyone that wants/has one. You are entitled to your opinion. What would have been better said is that 99% of all the Hams YOU come in contact with dont have any experience or knowledge about comercial radios. You cannot put a figure that high on all the Ham community. In my experiences here, I have come across a LOT of Hams who have comercial experience far greater than mine. Second, to tell Logo that Hams would not welcome him because he is not a Ham is wrong too. Maybe the Hams YOU have dealt with in YOUR experiences are like that, but not everyone is like that. Anyway, I gave Lugo a better understanding of the radio he has so he can make an informed decision as to what he wants to do with it. That was/is my original intent and I believe I have achieved that......

73

Manny

 

[Grog]

Second, to tell Logo that Hams would not welcome him because he is not a Ham is wrong too

Get your facts straight, I said...

"so they will likely not want to help you too much with programing a radio for ham frequencies"


If someone does not have a ticket, they would not have a reason to have a radio programmed to TX.

 

[N1SQB]

Go Munsters

Whatever, It is still wrong because there is nothing wrong with programming a radio for LISTENING purposes like LUGOFMAN wants to do until he gets his license.....No hard feelings either way.We can agree to disagree I guess...... By the way, I love your avitar, I was always a big Munsters fan.......

Manny

 

[Grog]

I just found out my cousin has a couple of them but he won't come off any of them :lol:

Does he have the ability to program them? If so, you are golden provided it's in working condition (no reason it won't be if it looks ok).

The biggest issue with any used HT is the battery. For conventional analog use I would put a new kenwood against just about any motorola radio and would rate some of them higher. I was never able to use any of the 50/80/90 series but did use a 270 and a 270G later on.

 

[N1SQB]

I agree!
The other thing is that Kenwood software is not as hard to come by as Moto stuff is. Its like pulling teeth trying to get someone to sell you MOTO software. I went through that with my Saber 3 portables I used to have.

Manny

 

[Grog]

N1SQB

Sorry for me being snippy. I was going to send a PM but figured it's better to say it out in the open as a humbling experience :lol: