Kenwood: New Kenwood TH-D75

[wd9ewk]

Hi!

Things lined up for me yesterday to finally try my TH-D75 with the 145.825 MHz ISS packet/APRS digipeater. That digipeater had been off-line for a while, and recently operating with different settings (145.800 MHz instead of 145.825 MHz, using RS0ISS as the packet path instead of the normal ARISS path). And it was a weekend without work!

I was out at the DM52/DM53 grid line working satellites yesterday, along US-70 near Safford AZ (southeast of Phoenix, northeast of Tucson), and had a couple of ISS passes around the middle of the day. I worked the FM repeater on the first ISS pass I had that went to my east, and then tried the digipeater on the later pass. It seems like the TH-D75 did better decoding packets, especially near the start and end of passes. Otherwise, its functionality is almost identical to the TH-D74 for packet (not a surprise).

Rather than duplicating what I already wrote, here's a link to those posts:

Patrick WD9EWK (@wd9ewk@mastodon.radio)

Another thread... I bought my Kenwood TH-D75 a few weeks ago. I tried the packet/APRS functionality on the local 144.390 MHz APRS network shortly after buying the radio, but haven't had a chance to try it with an orbiting digipeater... until yesterday. The ISS packet digipeater was operational...

mastodon.radio

73!

 

[MTS2000des]

Got mine yesterday and am glad I did. First impressions is a nice cosmetic upgrade, PTT button feels more solid. Downloaded the FREE D75 MCP and RCP. I loaded her up with local repeater and my HotSpot and went to town. The audio coming out of this is quite a bit louder and fuller than the D74. Will spend some time with the RCP software and report back.

Performance is excellent and this radio is worth every penny. It is a QUALITY subscriber unit from a heritage company that builds QUALITY subscriber radios. If cheap hams cry about $749 being pricey, they'd lose their minds over what REAL radios cost. I own a Kenwood VP8000 with is their top tier P25/DMR multi-band portable and I paid $3300 out of pocket for it- which is about half of what agency pricing is. Hams have little clue how much quality LMR stuff really costs.

I have an ID-52 and I like the Kenwood form factor better.

 

[AF1UD]

Got mine yesterday and am glad I did. First impressions is a nice cosmetic upgrade, PTT button feels more solid. Downloaded the FREE D75 MCP and RCP. I loaded her up with local repeater and my HotSpot and went to town. The audio coming out of this is quite a bit louder and fuller than the D74. Will spend some time with the RCP software and report back.

Performance is excellent and this radio is worth every penny. It is a QUALITY subscriber unit from a heritage company that builds QUALITY subscriber radios. If cheap hams cry about $749 being pricey, they'd lose their minds over what REAL radios cost. I own a Kenwood VP8000 with is their top tier P25/DMR multi-band portable and I paid $3300 out of pocket for it- which is about half of what agency pricing is. Hams have little clue how much quality LMR stuff really costs.

I have an ID-52 and I like the Kenwood form factor better.

How's the battery life? Or are there aftermarket batteries?

 

[MTS2000des]

How's the battery life? Or are there aftermarket batteries?

Ran it all day out of the box, so I got a solid 9 hours of use with no battery saver and A LOT of TX time on L1-M power on VHF/UHF. Uses the same batteries as the D74. I have a couple of KSC-25LS chargers that I use with my NX-3200 LMR radios so I have drop in chargers already. Will probably be buying a second battery.

 

[palmerjrusa]

Got mine yesterday and am glad I did. First impressions is a nice cosmetic upgrade, PTT button feels more solid. Downloaded the FREE D75 MCP and RCP. I loaded her up with local repeater and my HotSpot and went to town. The audio coming out of this is quite a bit louder and fuller than the D74. Will spend some time with the RCP software and report back.

Performance is excellent and this radio is worth every penny. It is a QUALITY subscriber unit from a heritage company that builds QUALITY subscriber radios. If cheap hams cry about $749 being pricey, they'd lose their minds over what REAL radios cost. I own a Kenwood VP8000 with is their top tier P25/DMR multi-band portable and I paid $3300 out of pocket for it- which is about half of what agency pricing is. Hams have little clue how much quality LMR stuff really costs.

I have an ID-52 and I like the Kenwood form factor better.

Now the question is, do I sell my D74 and go for the upgrade...

 

[01689720a]

Mine comes tomorrow. I have the Icom-ID-52 and the IC-705. This will be my first Kenwood unit. I am looking forward to APRS as I am an avid hiker.

 

[vagrant]

Now the question is, do I sell my D74 and go for the upgrade...

Wait to sell the D74 until you compare it to the D75. In particular, comparing sensitivity and selectivity.

 

[palmerjrusa]

Wait to sell the D74 until you compare it to the D75. In particular, comparing sensitivity and selectivity.

Have you read any reports re this?

Good or bad?

 

[eorange]

I can't believe the D75 would be significantly better in that regard compared to the D74 or most other big 3 transceivers. After all, we're only talking about FM, D-STAR, and APRS.

 

[vagrant]

Have you read any reports re this?

Good or bad?

I have not read/observed that comparison. My post was a suggestion to share your results should you purchase the D75.

 

[AK9R]

Here are the published receive sensitivity specifications for the TH-D75. I would expect individual radios to meet or exceed the published specs when tested with calibrated equipment. The first column of specs is for Band A and the second column is for Band B.


Note that 0.2 µV is pretty much the standard for superheterodyne VHF/UHF radios.

 

[palmerjrusa]

Well, purchased a TH-D75, should be here tomorrow, if UPS follows through that is...

A new radio is always exciting😁

 

[MTS2000des]

You'll love it. Mine sits next to it's GOD FATHER radio, VP8000. You can clearly see the lineage.

 

[AK9R]

You can clearly see the lineage.

Yes. Both have the "0" key in the correct location.

 

[palmerjrusa]

You'll love it. Mine sits next to it's GOD FATHER radio, VP8000. You can clearly see the lineage.
View attachment 161353

The proud father😁...

 

[palmerjrusa]

Had the TH-D75 for a few days now.

The radio has solid feel to it, no slight looseness detected between the radio and the battery as is present in my TH-D74 and that others have also noted.

The TH-D75's key backlight is now white as opposed to orange in the TH-D74. Aesthetically, I prefer the orange backlit keypad, however, the white backlit keypad is easier to read in the dark so functionality triumphs over aesthetics.

The TH-D75's sensitivity re the military aviation UHF band is not great, notably inferior to my IC-R30s and seems to be even a tad below my AR-DV10.

 

[N4DJC]

Had the TH-D75 for a few days now.

The radio has solid feel to it, no slight looseness detected between the radio and the battery as is present in my TH-D74 and that others have also noted.

The TH-D75's key backlight is now white as opposed to orange in the TH-D74. Aesthetically, I prefer the orange backlit keypad, however, the white backlit keypad is easier to read in the dark so functionality triumphs over aesthetics.

The TH-D75's sensitivity re the military aviation UHF band is not great, notably inferior to my IC-R30s and seems to be even a tad below my AR-DV10.

I love my D75A, I never expected it to perform well outside the amateur bands. The BCD160DN beats it easily for aviation and general scanning. Kenwood could have left all the wide band features out as far as I'm concerned.

 

[N4SRN]

D75 BT pairing works with my Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablet but not with my Google Pixel 7a phone, or at least the few times I’ve tried it. Might there be any trick to pairing I’ve missed? Perhaps reboots, BT on/off, sequence of steps, etc?

BRET/N4SRN

 

[wd9ewk]

Hi!

Kenwood has been distributing a TH-D75 in-depth manual booklet at Hamvention today. This booklet is also available as a PDF from:

https://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/pdf/TH-D75AE_IDM.pdf

73!

 

[N4SRN]

Hi!

Kenwood has been distributing a TH-D75 in-depth manual booklet at Hamvention today. This booklet is also available as a PDF from:

https://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/pdf/TH-D75AE_IDM.pdf

73!

For ~$20, I got that printed, spiral bound and delivered from LuLu. Nice to have at home, but the PDF manuals are on my phone for searchable help.