Kenwood - TM-281A a good transceiver choice?

[PJ007]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to Ham radio and am deciding on which to buy for the purposes of communication while storm spotting. Would the Kenwood - TM-281A be a good choice? I am interested in it because my local store has it on sale, and a review I read said it is very easy to work and has a weather alert system on it.

I hope this is in the right forum and thank you so much for your thoughts!

 

[SCPD]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to Ham radio and am deciding on which to buy for the purposes of communication while storm spotting. Would the Kenwood - TM-281A be a good choice? I am interested in it because my local store has it on sale, and a review I read said it is very easy to work and has a weather alert system on it.

I hope this is in the right forum and thank you so much for your thoughts!

I am getting ready to buy another radio I have the 271A and love it,what kind of price they have the 281A for in your area?

 

[AK9R]

As long as all Skywarn activity in your area of interest is on the 2 meter band, then that radio is probably a good choice. However, if Skywarn in your area is also using the 440 MHz band, then you'll need a UHF or a dual-band radio (Kenwood TM-V71A or Yaesu FT-8900 would be good choices).

Don't get your hopes up about the "weather alert" feature on these radios. The radio has to be tuned to your local NWS transmitter for that feature to work. In other words, you can't have the radio tuned to your local Skywarn repeater and get weather alerts at the same time.

 

[PJ007]

My local Skywarn is on the 2 meter band. Thank you so much for the information and advice!

I am getting ready to buy another radio I have the 271A and love it,what kind of price they have the 281A for in your area?

The price on it right now is about $155 at Associated Radio. Thank you so much for your input!