Kenwood DMR

[SAFFA]

Kenwood have released a new DMR portable and DMR mobile in europe today.

Handhelds • TK-D240E Features • Kenwood Comms

 

[N4KVE]

And some of us are hoping these radios will be sold in the USA.

 

[mmckenna]

Kenwood has some nice products sold outside the USA. They've been selling DMR for a long time.

I talked to them at IWCE earlier this year and they suggested that they wouldn't be selling DMR in the USA since it would directly compete with the NXDN/NexEdge products.

A while back I did hear a rumor that suggested they briefly considered having a DMR option on the NX-5000 line, but I haven't heard it in a while and I've heard that they've since denied it. Since DMR, P25 and NXDN all use the same vocoder, it's theoretically an option. It would just be a software issue.

If it wasn't for MotoTrbo being a proprietary trunking version, I could see Kenwood selling a P25, DMR, Analog variation of the NX-5000 radio and stealing a bit of market from Motorola. As far as I know, I haven't see any suggestions that Motorola is considering a P25/Trbo/Analog radio.

I do think that these new color LCD displays will start to appear on future Kenwood products.

 

[bharvey2]

What are the band splits for the Euro DMR radios? Any reason that they couldn't be imported for HAM use only? - other than possibly ticking off Kenwood. I really like their products and would like to see a UHF DMR radio.

 

[mmckenna]

VHF 136-174
UHF 400-470

Naming structure is the same as they use here. TK-D340 would be the UHF version. It's all there on the linked to website.

Since it's a mass produced radio, it would need to meet Part 15 at minimum for the receiver.
But, yeah, amateur radio use.....

 

[kayn1n32008]

Kenwood has some nice products sold outside the USA. They've been selling DMR for a long time.

I talked to them at IWCE earlier this year and they suggested that they wouldn't be selling DMR in the USA since it would directly compete with the NXDN/NexEdge products.

A while back I did hear a rumor that suggested they briefly considered having a DMR option on the NX-5000 line, but I haven't heard it in a while and I've heard that they've since denied it. Since DMR, P25 and NXDN all use the same vocoder, it's theoretically an option. It would just be a software issue.

If it wasn't for MotoTrbo being a proprietary trunking version, I could see Kenwood selling a P25, DMR, Analog variation of the NX-5000 radio and stealing a bit of market from Motorola. As far as I know, I haven't see any suggestions that Motorola is considering a P25/Trbo/Analog radio.

I do think that these new color LCD displays will start to appear on future Kenwood products.

Motorola is going to start offering a Tier 3 compliant DMR solution. I'm guessing being locked out of bidding on large DMR networks by not being Tier 3 compliant has pushed them in the 'right' direction.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[kayn1n32008]

VHF 136-174
UHF 400-470

Naming structure is the same as they use here. TK-D340 would be the UHF version. It's all there on the linked to website.

Since it's a mass produced radio, it would need to meet Part 15 at minimum for the receiver.
But, yeah, amateur radio use.....

I would love to scare up a pair of Kenwood DMR radios for ham use. I love the NX-x00 series, but have no use for NXDN at this time. It would be nice if Kenwood would sell DMR subscribers in North America. While it would compete with NXDN, some prefer the 2 voice paths for 1repeater advantage of DMR. If Kenwood would bring DMR to North America I really think they could take a big chunk of the industry dollars from Motorola that would never be spent on NXDN.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[RayAir]

I would love to scare up a pair of Kenwood DMR radios for ham use. I love the NX-x00 series, but have no use for NXDN at this time. It would be nice if Kenwood would sell DMR subscribers in North America. While it would compete with NXDN, some prefer the 2 voice paths for 1repeater advantage of DMR. If Kenwood would bring DMR to North America I really think they could take a big chunk of the industry dollars from Motorola that would never be spent on NXDN.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'm sure they wouldn't be too hard to get. Try eBay.uk.

That is how I acquired some radios that were impossible to find in the U.S.

 

[mmckenna]

I would love to scare up a pair of Kenwood DMR radios for ham use. I love the NX-x00 series, but have no use for NXDN at this time. It would be nice if Kenwood would sell DMR subscribers in North America. While it would compete with NXDN, some prefer the 2 voice paths for 1repeater advantage of DMR. If Kenwood would bring DMR to North America I really think they could take a big chunk of the industry dollars from Motorola that would never be spent on NXDN.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Shouldn't be hard to do. I'm sure they'll start showing up soon.

I wouldn't rule out Kenwood selling these over here eventually. I specifically asked our Kenwood rep about this a while back and he said there wasn't any plans. NXDN was just getting established and Motorola was the only big US company selling any DMR gear. Since Kenwood, Icom, Ritron and a few others are actively all selling and marketing NXDN gear, and quite successfully, I doubt they'll want to upset that market any time soon. Anyway, lots of other manufacturers selling DMR gear in the USA now, so the markets kind of flooded.

Some do like the 2 time slot set up. Some just get sold on it by sales guys. Some of us had existing analog systems and didn't need the 2 time slots on each frequency. Instead we chose to stick with FDMA where when one repeater fails it only takes out one voice path, not 2.

 

[tbiggums]

Is the Kenwood DMR programming software locked down as tight as the new programming software for the NX-5000 series? If so, even if you buy a radio from overseas, you probably won't ever get the programming software installed on a PC in the US.

NXDN makes a lot of sense for railroad users and others that primarily use simplex, while having 2 timeslots with DMR is usually pretty handy when all your traffic is through a repeater. So I would think offering the NX-5000 with support for both formats wouldn't really kill off NXDN.

 

[mmckenna]

NXDN makes a lot of sense for railroad users and others that primarily use simplex, while having 2 timeslots with DMR is usually pretty handy when all your traffic is through a repeater. So I would think offering the NX-5000 with support for both formats wouldn't really kill off NXDN.

There's a lot more to the discussion than 2 talk paths on one frequency for DMR vs. 1 for NXDN. There are many reasons why NXDN or other non-TDMA systems are a better choice.

I'm sure hobbyists would love to have another choice for DMR, however I've heard directly from those inside Kenwood (as recent as this year) that they have no plans to market any DMR gear in the US market.
NXDN is selling well and they are happy with that. Jeopardizing it's market is probably not something they want to do at this point in the game.

 

[soundmanram]

Kenwood announces US lanch of DMR Tier II radios

Kenwood just announced DMR for US release!

Portables
TK-D240VK DECEMBER 2015
TK-D340UK2 DECEMBER 2015
Mobiles
TK-D740HVK DECEMBER 2015
TK-D840HUK MARCH 2016

Same price point as the NX 40 series radios.

▼ Initial Release Features
▼ DMR Tier II Conventional
▼ AMBE+2 Vocoder
▼ Two-slot TDMA
▼ Two-in-One Digital & Analog
▼ Max 32 channel / 2 zones
▼ Selectable 8/16 channels by channel stopper
▼ Analog QT/DQT
▼ Direct Mode
▼ Voice Services
▼ Emergency Call
▼ Late Entry
▼ Scan : Single / Multi Scan
▼ Open Voice Channel Mode (OVCM)
▼ Voice Annunciation
▼ VOX available
▼ Password Protection (Read/Overwrite)
▼ MIL-STD C/D/E/F/G & IP 54/55 (Portable )
▼ MIL-STD C/D/E/F/G & IP 55 (Mobile)
▼ Clear & Powerful Audio
▼ 2 pin Audio Connector (Portable)
▼ 2 digits / 7 segments LED display (Mobile)
▼ Dsub 15-pin (Mobile)
▼ Support GPS module (Mobile)

 

[mmckenna]

Well, I'll be danged. Glad to see I was wrong about this.

Prices seem pretty reasonable

VHF and UHF repeaters TKR-D710 and TKR-D810 DMR Tier 2 50 watt repeaters. coming "March 2016".

No trunking listed for future roll out (yet). Should be interesting to see how these do.

From the corporate power point, these are specifically marketed as "DMR Low Tier Digital". So, at this time, no trunking, so not really competing against NexEdge. 32 channel radios, portable with no display, mobile has a 2 digit LED display. Should be interesting to see if they roll out some higher tier gear.

 

[N4KVE]

This is the Kenwood DMR radio I'd like to see here.
Handhelds • TK-D300GE Features • Kenwood Comms

 

[kayn1n32008]

Well, I'll be danged. Glad to see I was wrong about this.

Prices seem pretty reasonable

VHF and UHF repeaters TKR-D710 and TKR-D810 DMR Tier 2 50 watt repeaters. coming "March 2016".

No trunking listed for future roll out (yet). Should be interesting to see how these do.

From the corporate power point, these are specifically marketed as "DMR Low Tier Digital". So, at this time, no trunking, so not really competing against NexEdge. 32 channel radios, portable with no display, mobile has a 2 digit LED display. Should be interesting to see if they roll out some higher tier gear.

Nice. Would really like to see the TK-D2/300 series as well as mobiles too... If the were to bring an 8/900MHz version I would guess they would make a dent in TRBO sales... Especially if it would do PS 800 MHz channels.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Product Introduction: December 4, 2015
Kenwood DMR Portables and Mobiles
DMR Tier II Two Slot VHF & UHF Models
The KENWOOD TK-D240V/340U, TK-D740HV/840HU, TKR-D710/810 with DMR Tier II


TK-D240VK 136-174 VHF Digital Portable 5/1(Power (W) - $245.00(Dealer) $409.00(List)
TK-D340UK2 400-470 UHF Digital Portable 4/1(Power (W) - $245.00(Dealer) $409.00(List)
TK-D740HVK 136-174 VHF Digital Mobile 50/5(Power (W) - $290.00(Dealer) $484.00(List)

Attached the PDF file.

 

[SAFFA]

Do you guys think this will be the death of nxdn conventional?

 

[mmckenna]

Do you guys think this will be the death of nxdn conventional?

No. Big difference between the two. Kenwood has too much invested in NXDN to sabotage it by releasing something that would kill it off. Kenwood is not currently offering any DMR trunking, so no competition with NexEdge.
Kenwood just released it's generation 2 NexEdge which is designed for wide area systems. Not something that DMR trunking is going to compete against.
Pretty good installed base of NexEdge systems out there. Not to mention the railroads.

I'm not going to post any of the Kenwood documentation/power points I have on their DMR products, but from reading it, it's clear that Kenwood is only marketing this at low tier users at this point. We'll have to see what comes in the future.

But, as a guy who runs a NexEdge trunked system with almost 400 radios on the system, I'm not concerned about my investment being lost. Kenwood has been very clear that they are serious about NXDN and NexEdge.

 

[FARMER522]

So is it safe to say that these new Kenwoods will work with my Motorola XPR 4350 running Conventional DMR ?

 

[mmckenna]

So is it safe to say that these new Kenwoods will work with my Motorola XPR 4350 running Conventional DMR ?

They should. Kenwood is following the DMR standard.