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Future of Kenwood's NX series?

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AK9R

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It's been widely reported in the amateur radio circles that Kenwood is stopping production of the TH-D74 dual-band analog/D-STAR/APRS handheld. Allegedly, the cause is lack of parts due to a fire at an Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) factory. Note that Icom had previously announced that their new ID-52 dual-band analog/D-STAR radio will be delayed for the same reason.

Which leads me to ask...Do the NX series of radios use any AKM products? Is the NX series in jeopardy due to lack of parts?
 

mmckenna

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I don't know. None of the service/parts documentation shows manufacturer names.

But since NXDN uses the same vocoder as P25 and DMR, I think any impact to production would likely impact those also. And most of the Kenwood/EFJ radios are multimode capable, even if not enabled (EFJ).

There are some large agencies using EFJ and Kenwood gear. I haven't seen anything from my sources to suggest an impact to product lines.
 

MTS2000des

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Our PD has civilian security for our buildings. They just ordered 32 Kenwood VP-5430s for use on our 800MHz trunking system. The local dealer brought out loaners as they said JVC Kenwood needs additional lead time to ship the radios from Japan but didn't give specific reasons
 

KK6ZTE

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NX-5000s are backordered right now, not sure if it's related to COVID, the factory, or any other excuse JVCK has.
 

fwradio

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NX-5000s are backordered right now, not sure if it's related to COVID, the factory, or any other excuse JVCK has.
Kenwood is always backordered. At least for the past 20 years that I've dealt with them. The same happened to EFJ when Kenwood got in and fully took it over. Stock levels are way down and they only order from the factory to meet the minimum forecasted demands. It has a large impact in what radios we offer to customers. We have to know that we can actually get the product in a timely manner.
 

KK6ZTE

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Kenwood is always backordered. At least for the past 20 years that I've dealt with them. The same happened to EFJ when Kenwood got in and fully took it over. Stock levels are way down and they only order from the factory to meet the minimum forecasted demands. It has a large impact in what radios we offer to customers. We have to know that we can actually get the product in a timely manner.

It's a shame. Their products have a lot of potential and flexibility, but there's also a lot of shortcomings as well. I may not love Motorola, but at least I know when I place an order I'll have the radios in less than a week.
 

DeoVindice

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Kenwood is always backordered. At least for the past 20 years that I've dealt with them. The same happened to EFJ when Kenwood got in and fully took it over. Stock levels are way down and they only order from the factory to meet the minimum forecasted demands. It has a large impact in what radios we offer to customers. We have to know that we can actually get the product in a timely manner.

Tell me about it - I was waiting on an order of KRA-21 antennas for about two months for this reason.
 

mmckenna

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Not sure what's going on right now.
I think a year or two ago I had a few week delay getting some radios. I talked to the manufacturers rep and he said that the company that did the molding for the radio cases had gone out of business and Kenwood had to get the molds over to another company and spin up production.

After that, I had no issue getting small orders. It's been a long time since I placed a really big order, though.
 

celltech25

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Biggest delays right now is getting the stuff off ships and into the warehouse in Cali.. They need to fly the stuff over and get it into texas where it can get out to the rest of us and forget Cali while this virus is running crazy there
 

EWC_BDN

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I think you're right that this factory fire might affect a lot of Japanese companies. Googled the name and looks like Honda is saying that lack of semiconductors from the AKM factory will cause production delays for them too. Yay waiting!
 
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