Kenwood TM-481A to be released soon

[SCPD]

Just a quick FYI -- Kenwood will be releasing the TM-481A in the coming months. It has virtually the same specs as the 281A but the power output is 45/25. The sensitivity is .20 uV versus .18 uV and the frequency range is 400-470 Mhz.

The Kenwood programming software (for the 281A) has been updated. The new version was released to support the 481A (and probably some bug fixes.)

I found this PDF from a Japanese Kenwood site:

http://home.comcast.net/~cnick6/kenwood.pdf

 

[N4KVE]

This is nice, as many times there is a UHF version of a VHF radio, but not sold in the US. There was a UHF version of the 271 called the 471, but never imported here. Most of the companies just import a VHF, or dualband radio. Yeasu makes a VHF FT 1900R radio, & their catalog shows a UHF version called the FT 1907R, but says Asia only, but then shown the freq on the US band plan. Yet European version radios end in "E" It all boils down to marketing. GARY N4KVE

 

[SCPD]

Yep this is quite true. I haven't seen or heard anything but I would expect Kenwood to release an updated V71 model.

 

[w2smw]

Are you sure this will be in the US market or just Asia as it has always(471) been?

 

[MTS2000des]

the big question is price, ASSuming it will be offered for sale here (anyone checked the FCC OET to see if anything popped up yet?).

in the past, Kenwood's 440MHz monoband mobiles were OUTRAGEOUSLY priced compared to the same 2m cousin (think TM-461 vs. TM-261).

 

[SCPD]

(anyone checked the FCC OET to see if anything popped up yet?)

Nothing in the FCC OET but this doesn't mean anything - except that has not been submitted yet. My guess is that it'll be announced at Dayton.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

the big question is price, ASSuming it will be offered for sale here (anyone checked the FCC OET to see if anything popped up yet?).

in the past, Kenwood's 440MHz monoband mobiles were OUTRAGEOUSLY priced compared to the same 2m cousin (think TM-461 vs. TM-261).

Just wait for it to show up on Ebay. The FT-1907r was going for about the same price as the FT-1902.

 

[N4KVE]

Years ago Yaesu had a 2400 VHF mobile. In a Japanese catalog, I saw a 7400 UHF mobile, & I called Yaesu to ask about it. They said yes, it will come to the USA. 18 months later it did, but cost $479 instead of $279 like it's VHF twin. I waited until Yaesu cleared them out for $200, & got a pair. Excellent radio. GARY N4KVE

 

[N0PGI]

Kenwood TM-481A

Does anyone know if Kenwood will ever make the UHF version of the TM-281A (TM-481A) available for purchase here in the USA? I love the 281 and would love to add the 481 to my station. Are there any US dealers who carry this radio? I do not want to order one on EBay or elsewhere from overseas. Thanks in advance.

 

[WB4CS]

Does anyone know if Kenwood will ever make the UHF version of the TM-281A (TM-481A) available for purchase here in the USA? I love the 281 and would love to add the 481 to my station. Are there any US dealers who carry this radio? I do not want to order one on EBay or elsewhere from overseas. Thanks in advance.

To my knowledge, no.

A couple of years ago I emailed a Kenwood Rep about the TH-K40 (the 70cm version of the TH-K20A). The owners manual of the TH-K20A is also written for the TH-K40, but I couldn't find any mention of the radio anywhere on the internet.

The Kenwood Rep told me that (at that time) they had no plans of pursuing any other monoband radios other than 2 Meters. Some UHF monoband radios were made and sold to other parts of the world, mainly areas where either 70cm was most popular or where 2m was limited.

Considering that Kenwood hasn't updated their VHF/UHF lineup in a VERY long time, I highly doubt the TM-481 will ever be available.

I've seen several TM-471 (UHF version of the older TM-271) go on eBay for decent prices. However, most of them would require an out-of-band-transmit modification in order to fully cover the US 70cm band.

I know that Yaesu makes a few UHF only handheld radios, but I don't believe they make any mobiles. I think Alinco is the only manufacturer that has monoband mobile radios (10m FM, 6m FM, 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm).

 

[Project25_MASTR]

You may look into commercial rigs. Kenwood has had a nice line up of field programmable radios over the years. I love my TK-880's (they will have to be realigned to go down into the ham bands). FFP is fairly simple on them...

What you're after is probably available on the commercial market.

 

[KG4NEL]

You may look into commercial rigs. Kenwood has had a nice line up of field programmable radios over the years. I love my TK-880's (they will have to be realigned to go down into the ham bands). FFP is fairly simple on them...

What you're after is probably available on the commercial market.

I've thought about this too, but unfortunately it seems like the commercial rigs are built for a much lower duty cycle than the typical ham units are...

When I got in the hobby in the early '00s, I remember Kenwood and others offering monoband 70cm rigs. Wonder why that changed

 

[kayn1n32008]

I've thought about this too, but unfortunately it seems like the commercial rigs are built for a much lower duty cycle than the typical ham units are...

When I got in the hobby in the early '00s, I remember Kenwood and others offering monoband 70cm rigs. Wonder why that changed

I would stack my nx-700 against my tm-v71 in a key down test. Im guessing my nx700 would win...

 

[N4KVE]

Simple reason. When the big 3 did make monoband UHF radios, they were priced substantially higher than the similar VHF radio. EG, in the early 90's a Yaesu 2400 VHF mobile was $300, while the 7400 UHF version was $489. Initially the 7400 was not going to be sold in the USA, but after a few years, they were here, but for a few bucks more, you could purchase a dual band mobile radio. Also I would have to agree with KG4NEL. I have some commercial Kenwood TK 840's, & TK 880's, & while they are excellent radios, they get hot very quickly while txing. They were designed for a repairman to say "where's the next repair" or "I'm going to lunch now". They were not designed for ragchewing on a trader's net. I had to put a fan behind the cooling fins, to keep it cool, & then it was fine. Today dualband radios are much cheaper than they used to be, & might even cost less than a UHF radio.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Simple reason. When the big 3 did make monoband UHF radios, they were priced substantially higher than the similar VHF radio. EG, in the early 90's a Yaesu 2400 VHF mobile was $300, while the 7400 UHF version was $489. Initially the 7400 was not going to be sold in the USA, but after a few years, they were here, but for a few bucks more, you could purchase a dual ban mobile radio. Also I would have to agree with KG4NEL. I have some commercial Kenwood TK 840's, & TK 880's, & while they are excellent radios, they get hot very quickly while txing. They were designed for a repairman to say "where's the next repair" or "I'm going to lunch now". They were not designed for ragchewing on a trader's net. I had to put a fan behind the cooling fins, to keep it cool, & then it was fine. Today dualband radios are much cheaper than they used to be, & might even cost less than a UHF radio.

Most Icom LMR radios (and some Motorolas) are setup for 40mm fans. They just aren't installed. Fans aren't the most durable things in commercial LMR applications.

 

[AK9R]

Given that this question goes back 6 years and was dormant for 4 years, I'm closing this thread.