Kenwood: Kenwood at 2023 Hamvention

[mmckenna]

I’ll bide my time like the miser I am. Nothing wrong with XTS/XTLs or 1st/2nd/2.5gen XPRs.

I don't really have any plans to buy another ham only rig, except maybe HF when I retire.
All my gear is retired LMR radios. A mix of Motorola CDM's and Kenwood TK and NX stuff.
They all do what I need.

I think with the flood of new multiband commercial stuff hitting the market (Harris, Tait, Motorola, EFJ/Kenwood), we'll see some of the older stuff get pooped out the bottom of the system and onto the used market. Might be some good deals, eventually.

But, yeah, CCR's. For those on a tight budget, an option. A lot of good used single band radios on the used market, however. I've still got an old VHF HT-1000 that kicks butt, as long as you only need 16 channels.

Would be nice to see Kenwood and Icom bring some of the low tier commercial stuff into the ham arena.

 

[AK9R]

They need to stop this ridiculous D-Star push

This is not the place for yet another debate about D-STAR vs. DMR vs. System Fusion vs. NXDN vs. P25 vs. amateur radio digital voice mode du jour.

 

[N4DJC]

Kenwood has, in my experience as a ham, been slow to bring new products to market and slow to abandon existing products. Part of the reason is that ALL communications products are only about 25% of JVC Kenwood's business. With limited engineering, production, and marketing resources, they've been putting their efforts towards the land mobile radio market because, well, that's where the money is. Whatever resources are left, if any, go to amateur radio.

Given the specific chip shortage cause by the Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) fire in October 2020 and the general electronic component shortage caused by COVID-19 related shutdowns (which went on much longer in China than the U.S.), I think Kenwood just found themselves stretched too thin. Amateur radio was the first part of the company to be temporarily "parked" while they concentrated on other things. Now that the supply chain has improved, JVCK can get back to amateur radio products.

I am hopeful that their presence at Hamvention and planned attendance at Ham Radio Friedrichshafen and Tokyo Ham Fair along with the announcement of the TH-D75 is an indication of future good things from Kenwood. Maybe a new flagship mobile radio next year followed by a new SDR-based HF radio in 2025. We can hope. But, they will never be like a certain other Japanese competitor who seems to bring out new products every month (yes, I exaggerate).

I agree, Kenwood is slow to introduce new products, and has been for years. I’ve no doubt the D74 would still be in the lineup had it not been for the AKM fire. A mobile will be likely the next update, plus I think your timeline is spot on. The D74 was already an advanced radio, a little tweaking is really all that was needed.

 

[tweiss3]

I don't really have any plans to buy another ham only rig, except maybe HF when I retire.
All my gear is retired LMR radios. A mix of Motorola CDM's and Kenwood TK and NX stuff.
They all do what I need.

I think with the flood of new multiband commercial stuff hitting the market (Harris, Tait, Motorola, EFJ/Kenwood), we'll see some of the older stuff get pooped out the bottom of the system and onto the used market. Might be some good deals, eventually.

But, yeah, CCR's. For those on a tight budget, an option. A lot of good used single band radios on the used market, however. I've still got an old VHF HT-1000 that kicks butt, as long as you only need 16 channels.

Would be nice to see Kenwood and Icom bring some of the low tier commercial stuff into the ham arena.

If the NX lowband deck could be opened to 54MHz, I'd be all over it, that would be deck 3. But, I've found out I am a very small minority.

I guess I'm waiting till the Tokyo announcement for the Mobile, I bet it's a revamp of the D710, minor changes and available chips like the D75 is.

 

[AF1UD]

If the NX lowband deck could be opened to 54MHz, I'd be all over it, that would be deck 3. But, I've found out I am a very small minority.

I guess I'm waiting till the Tokyo announcement for the Mobile, I bet it's a revamp of the D710, minor changes and available chips like the D75 is.

I agree 100%. If the NX-5900 could do NAS it would be my third deck. Or the NX-5600 if it did 6m like you stated or could at least be retuned to do so.