Kenwood TK-3180 great GMRS HT!

[hill]

The Kenwood TK-3180 is a great GMRS handheld radio.

I many different types and models of Kenwood radios and this radio works well for my limited use of GMRS. it's set up with all the repeater pairs with operator selected tone, plus having my local repeater allready programmed in a channel. Audio is very loud. An added bonus is that accessories and batteries are reasonable in price, plus plentiful on the market.

Now find the mobile version the TK-8180 to possibly use at home used at a good price, even with having other radios that work on this band already.

I think this my favorite radio to use on GMRS for an HT.

 

[AM909]

And they're the Timex of the class – nearly indestructible. That's why they were made so long and so many are still around at 20 years+ (based on manual date; anyone know the timeline for sure?).

 

[mmckenna]

Original FCC certification was done in 2004, and that matches up with my service manuals.

So, yeah, 20 year old product, still going strong. The chassis/accessories are the same as the Kenwood NX-x10 series, as well as others, so a ton of accessories out there.

I've got an TK-3180 that was my shop UHF radio for a long time, and it got used hard but never gave me any issues. There's a lot of those still out there in use. Add a TK-8180 high split 30 watt version, and you have a really good and perfectly legal GMRS mobile.

The KPG-89 is probably one of the easier programming softwares to learn.


And, these radios will run circles around the CCR's, sound better, last longer and have actual filtering in them so they don't crap the bed in a high RF environment.

 

[MTS2000des]

The 80 series Kenwoods can be had for not much more than a Bowelturd costs, and you actually get a radio that works, with superb performance and people won't ignore you because unlike the turd radios the Kenwoods come through CLEARLY.

 

[hill]

Plus can use the radio for an adjacent county fire department that tones out on UHF when wish to silently monitor for calls from few nearby stations. Using the two tone.

Also for the little bit of UHF that I have for receive only it works well. Mostly just a few local shopping areas security that still use analog.

 

[MTS2000des]

The other plus (especially over SOC CHinaturd trash can radios, is scan. The Kenwood can support radio wide and zone scan, and scan is very fast. There is no comparison between a child's toy walkie-talkie chip radio and a purpose built REAL radio. While the 80 series may have been put out to pasture and replaced by digital capable NX series radios by JVC Kenwood, there are plenty of good, serviceable used 80 series (and others) that have plenty of life left, are superior performing radios, and aftermarket accessories like batteries, antennas, audio devices are widely available and affordable.

 

[hill]

Yes, scan with very on the Kenwood radios. I always set them up to have the priority on the selected channel, so it transmits on it.

 

[kayn1n32008]

I never owned a TK-x180, but owned a NX-700 and NX-200. The TK-x180 series are very decent radios. Sadly, I just do not have a use for an analogue only radio these days.

For GMRS/analogue only ham, the TK-3180/8180 radios are an excellent choice. They absolutely run circles around any of the garbage $30 radios being dumped into North America from weird Chinese manufacturers.

 

[sgnlsekr]

Yes, scan with very on the Kenwood radios. I always set them up to have the priority on the selected channel, so it transmits on it.

Is there any way to stop scanning and remain on the channel with traffic? I thought pressing the PTT might do it but no luck

 

[jeepsandradios]

Press scan button to stop scan. Or take out of mic holder (as long as you have hub stop scan).

 

[sgnlsekr]

Press scan button to stop scan. Or take out of mic holder (as long as you have hub stop scan).

When I do that it does not stay on the active channel.

 

[mmckenna]

Go into the scan tab. Under "Revert CH/GID", select "Last Called". That'll let you transmit on the last channel that heard traffic.
It won't stop the scan, though. It'll go back to scanning when the Dwell Time timer tells it to. Set your Dwell Time to something long enough to let you hit the scan button.

If it's a mobile, uncheck your off hook scan function to suspend the scan when the mic is taken off the hanger.

 

[sgnlsekr]

Go into the scan tab. Under "Revert CH/GID", select "Last Called". That'll let you transmit on the last channel that heard traffic.
It won't stop the scan, though. It'll go back to scanning when the Dwell Time timer tells it to. Set your Dwell Time to something long enough to let you hit the scan button.

If it's a mobile, uncheck your off hook scan function to suspend the scan when the mic is taken off the hanger.

Thank you - I'm giving it a go today.

 

[kayn1n32008]

When I do that it does not stay on the active channel.

IF you are using a portable, this is because it reverts back to the channel selected by the channel selector switch.

 

[hill]

Go into the scan tab. Under "Revert CH/GID", select "Last Called"

I never used last called when use scan. On all my Kenwood Radios I always use the selected channel as scan revert and that works best for how use the radios to always transmit on the selected channel.

I also use revert channel display, as don't need to scan on it and tell it's scanning by scan icon.

 

[mmckenna]

I never used last called when use scan. On all my Kenwood Radios I always use the selected channel as scan revert and that works best for how use the radios to always transmit on the selected channel.

I also use revert channel display, as don't need to scan on it and tell it's scanning by scan icon.

And that's how I set up our ~500 or so NX series radios at work.

But, professionals and hobbyists use their radios differently. However, I discourage users from using the scan function unless they really need it.

 

[steve9570]

I have a TK-360 HT thats got to pushing 25 plus years old and still works like new.(UHF)
Used it for work back then now as a back up to my many scanners. Picks up my local PD better then the junk 30 buck HTs out there.

 

[AM909]

Yeah – there are scenarios for selected (especially on rotary-knob-channel-selector HTs) as well as last-called (multi-site/system). That's why they both exist. Scan, in general, requires a level of radio awareness and training that is difficult to achieve in professional/business users. We don't use it unless absolutely necessary. Even on multi-site systems, professional users are surprisingly able to understand coverage areas and manually switch channels as needed.

 

[captaincab]

We used the Tk-780 and Tk-7180 for years on a vhf ltr system in the cab business great radios nearly indestructible and trust me cab drivers are rough on radios 😂 The only radios I liked more were the Maxar 80 my dads cabs had in the 80s I drove for a company in the early 2000s that used Maxtracs on a 800mhz conventional system they were great radios but occasionally drifted off frequency.

 

[KK6ZTE]

Is there any way to stop scanning and remain on the channel with traffic? I thought pressing the PTT might do it but no luck

Program a button with "Channel Recall". I use this daily.