Kenwood TK-2170 Questions..

[alottabull]

Anyone know if the pinout on the TK-2170 is the same or will work with a Motorola shoulder mic? We are using Motorola shoulder mic's on old SP-50's and are considering getting some TK-2170's as replacements. I have no idea if the pins are even the same just thought that they looked similar.

On that note what are your thoughts about the TK-2170? We are a small VFD with limited funding that have been using SP50's for quite some time and are slowly starting to buy some new radios.

 

[scannersnstuff]

i've been very happy with my tk-2170. 128 channel's,128 group's,loud audio,rugged,good battery life.i like that kenwood include's all the acc's that you need. i don't know about the mic.question though.also,keep in mind.they are like around half the price of a motorola with similar feature's.

 

[alottabull]

Yeah we almost went with some CP185's and actually had an order in for over a month but apparently they are having a few problems fulfilling orders right now. We had mainly looked at those because of how cheap they were but I wasn't happy with the lack of features it had. I found the 2170 and noticed all the features even though it was a bit more I think it will be worth it. One thing I was wondering about was their durability. Do you know how their PTT ID works? I think you have to use fleetsync to be able to use ptt id? Is it like the MDC 1200 that sends a short burst at the end or will it be long noticeable tones? Will the 2170 decode the ptt id's?

 

[scannersnstuff]

i do know one thing about the kenwood i.d.'s.i know they will not work with a motorola base station.
i forgot to add,you can also setup your tk-2170's to act as a 2 tone pager.i think it can accept 4/2 tone pair's. you could possibly save pager money.

 

[alottabull]

That is one of the reasons I wanted to go with the 2170's vs those moto's. We have some bad skip/interference sometimes during the nights and I currently have my own ht1250 so I have it setup for 2-tone and I don't have to worry about it. I want to do the same for the other members... That is one of the main reasons I wanted to go with the 2170.

 

[scannersnstuff]

does your current 2 tone format open for someone on a skip ?. that's never actually happened to me.i have 8/2 tone pair's prog.into my minitor v.i also have my D position set to just monitor my dept's 2 tone format.the kenwood you can just do 1/2 tone at a time.at any rate it's an excellent radio imho.if you decide to go with them,leave the radio in the charger if you want it to act as you're home pager.it kill's the battery with paging.

 

[alottabull]

No we don't get skip with 2-tone going. I was referring to the fact that our current moto's and the ones we were looking at didn't support 2-tone and it will be a GREAT added feature of the tk-2170. I am no radio expert but I would have thought battery would be increased when listening for 2-tone. No big deal though as we would mainly only use it at night.

 

[Duster]

Anyone know if the pinout on the TK-2170 is the same or will work with a Motorola shoulder mic? We are using Motorola shoulder mic's on old SP-50's and are considering getting some TK-2170's as replacements. I have no idea if the pins are even the same just thought that they looked similar.

If you are talking about the two-pin plug-ins, no, they won't. The Kenwood pins and the Motorola pins are slightly farther apart on one than the other, and I THINK they are even wired differently. I asked the same question of a radio tech a while back, since my church uses /\/\ and I wanted to buy Kenwood accessories since they are soooo much cheaper.

 

[searchrescueff]

.... Do you know how their PTT ID works? I think you have to use fleetsync to be able to use ptt id? Is it like the MDC 1200 that sends a short burst at the end or will it be long noticeable tones? Will the 2170 decode the ptt id's?

Kenwood uses the FleetSync for all of it's commercial radios. It is similar to the MDC-1200 signalling as the short data burst at either the beginning or end OR both of the transmission. ALTHOUGH, recent updates to firmware and software on certain radios have allowed for encoding/decoding of MDC-1200 signalling on few Kenwood radios. I have a TK-2180 and just updated my firmware and software the other day, and have the capabilities to encode/decode MDC-1200. Of course you have to choose either FleetSync or MDC-1200 for your PTT ID. You can't run both at the same time.

 

[alottabull]

Cool. We have 2 Motorola mobiles with MDC-1200 and that is it so it really shouldn't be a problem to just use fleetsync on the handhelds we are getting. Does anyone know if the TK-2170 will also decode the ptt id and show you either the id or an alias?

 

[searchrescueff]

Yes, the TK-2170 will decode FleetSync id's and alias's.

Unsure if a new RSS/firmware update is available to the TK-2170 for MDC-1200 signalling or not though.

 

[fireman92]

Kenwood tk 2170 caller ids

I was looking at your question about the caller ids on the kenwood tk 2170. I have a 2170 and love it. The caller id works great and is an excellent feature to this radio. whatever unit number is on that radio will pop up on the screen on the radio. And like said by somebody else the battery life is GREAT!! Although just because your battery meter says it is getting low it may still be fully charged mine when you key up the battery meter goes straight to one bar but will still talk/scan/recieve for 3-7 hours. But mine is an older model so the new ones may be fine but if i was going to buy new radios for my dept i would Definatly have the kenwood tk 2170. Its small and durable!

 

[ramal121]

Do you know how their PTT ID works? I think you have to use fleetsync to be able to use ptt id? Is it like the MDC 1200 that sends a short burst at the end or will it be long noticeable tones? Will the 2170 decode the ptt id's?

The 2170 will display the ID (alias if you put it in) from the calling radio on your display. It will also do selective calling and short status messages via fleetsync. The data burst can be at the begining or end of transmission.

It also has DTMF and two-tone available for selective call also.