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| Reviews Summary for Kenwood TH-F6A |
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Reviews: 241
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Average rating: 4.3/5
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MSRP: $425.00
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Description: Compact triband H.T. (144/220/440) with dual receive, wideband receiver (Longwave through 1.3 Ghz), SSB/CW rcv. Bar antenna for A.M. broadcast reception. 5 watts all bands.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://www.kenwood.net/ama_page.cfm
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KA1PKN
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 4, 2012 16:59
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Nice little rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Good little tri-bander. Works good thru our local repeaters. Easy to program the offsets and tones. Well written easy to understand manual. Battery life is good. I went and ordered the AA battery pack for it and have yet to use it. I get good audio reports with it. Nice to take fishin' if the fish arent bitting and the band is quiet I can tune in the local am radio station and listen to a ballgame at least. Also good to tune in the local public safety folks and the town trucks and see who's up to what.
My only complaint is the buttons are a little small for my big fat fingers and the volume control could be a little bigger. Thats the only reason I gave a 4 instead of a 5.
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SAPPHIRE
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 8, 2012 12:42
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Very Good
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Great laptop with unique characteristics, a good battery life. Very easy to use with great intuition.
Disabling an internal antenna and connecting stylus loaded HF SSB receives well.
There is a laptop in the world with similar characteristics. Very sensitive to the signal VHF end UHF band A.
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N4FBW
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 2, 2011 22:26
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Good, not stellar
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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After about twenty-five years out of the hobby, this radio was the first piece of ham gear that I purchased. This handheld is almost too small although it has lots of features packed into it. The radio is fairly easy to use and it could use a nicer display. The manual is well written and it does take some work to figure out how to get to all the features via the keypad. The rubber ducky that comes with the radio is a complete joke. At first I thought my HT was broken, but then I found out about the antenna issue. I recently purchased a Diamond SRH320A and now my radio can actually hear. I've never gotten the radio to receive any shortwave broadcasts. I'll leave that to my wonderful HF radio!
I expected to use the TH-F6A a lot more but due to lack of VHF/UHF activity around here it mainly just stays off. I'll probably keep it as this is earthquake country. If something better in triband HT world comes along I will likely sell my TH-F6A.
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N6TEA
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 2, 2011 14:37
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Quick Correction - Keys Backlit
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I erred. Last night I realized that the keys are indeed backlit when the auxillary LED's are turned on. I apologize if I mislead anyone below, entirely unintentionally. I'm still having a ball with this little HT.
73 de
N6TEA
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N6TEA
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 28, 2011 23:45
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Good but Quality Control Lacking
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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As a new ham, I was heavily influenced by the reviews of others and our club president. I like the radio. It is quite small (about the size of a pack of cigarettes if people remember those). The audio quality is typical for Kenwood - excellent. Even with the least expensive after market audio tube earphone and lapel microphone, I invariably receive good audio reports although I don't ask for reports. The same holds true just using the built in speaker as a microphone, also. The buttons are quite small so you have to chose carefully and in good light but they are not illuminated. The light button on my radio is extremely difficult to turn on, hence my quality control downgrade. I'm having too much fun with it to send it to Kenwood, however. They already offered to fix it under warranty. The stock antenna works but not nearly as well as an aftermarket version. I chose the Diamond SRH320A, again based on eham.net reviews, particularly its gain over the OEM on the ham bands. My first contact with the Diamond antenna resulted in being told that I was "booming in". It is a particularly noticeable improvement on 220. My experience is limited to the ham bands so no comment on the general band reception. The lithium battery takes a long to charge, far longer than the time the radio may have been on the air but I have learned that I can reduce power from high (5 watts) to either the low or even the extra low outputs and the little HT does just fine. If I had to do it over again, I would still by the little Kenwood. For a new ham, there is enough to learn without added layers like GPS, packet radio, ad infinitum which no doubt really please others. If you want a great little radio with only a few minor flaws, buy one. I think that you will enjoy it as I do.
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WX0NWS
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 27, 2011 05:57
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Nice Radio
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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This radio is nice overall and works very well.
PROS:
*Small, light, and compact
*Dual recieve
*Green backlight
*Solid stock antenna
CONS:
*Belt Clip needs to be replaced with a Kenwood KBH-10 (it's fits perfectley)
*Only one S-Meter when operating in dual recieve so it's hard to tell if someone just transmitted on band A or B by looking at the screen. You have to look at the LEDs on top of the radio to see which band is being RX'd (this is the reason I sold it).
73 DE WXΨNWS Donnie
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W8STU
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 26, 2011 11:11
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GREAT FOR THE PRICE
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have two of them, along with a Yaesu VX-6R. I rotate all three. If you have 220M repeaters in your area as I do, you cannot go wrong with this radio. You can find them cheap on eBay now. Also they have came down in price new from retailers.
This HT is very easy to program manually. No need for a program and cable. Unless you are going to program 100 or more frequencies. Having a full five watts on all three bands is very nice. I would highly recommend this HT to the new ham and Elmer's alike. Thanks in advance. 73, Stu de W8STU
144/220/440 MHz with 5 WATTS on all 3 bands
8 Character Alphanumeric Display
Up to 8 groups of 50 channels per memory bank
Famous Loud and Clear Kenwood Audio
Dual Channel Simultaneous Receive even on the same band
Easy access Single Knob Encoder/volume control
7.4 Volt 2000 mAh Lithium Ion battery (largest & most power in the industry)
4 Selectable Transmit Power Levels
Backlit laser-cut keypad for durability
MIL-STD 810 for vibration, shock and light rain
Built-in CTCSS Encode/Decode / DCS Digital Coded Squelch
10 DTMF Auto-patch memories
1200/9600 bps TNC ready (no adapter required)
Single High Performance Antenna (no switching required)
AM Aircraft Receive
TOT Time Out Timer
Weight with PB-42L Battery 8.8 oz.
First Ever Compact Amateur HT with Built-in VOX
435 PC Programmable Memories (over twice the competition)
3 Call Channels plus 20 for programmable scan
Special (10) Channel Weather station mode
FM/FM W/FM N/AM + USB & LSB / CW
0.01~ 1300 MHz RX (widest transceiver in the industry)
Built-in battery charging system during DC operation
Battery Voltage Level Indicator
LARGE FONT mode for easy reading
Multi-Scroll Key for easy menu access
1750 Hz Tone Burst
Visual Scan to monitor adjacent channel activity
Automatic Simplex Checker
Built-in Ferrite Bar antenna for AM receive (0.1 ~ 7 MHz)
Wireless Remote Control
APO Auto Power Off
Optional BT-13 Alkaline Battery Case for Emergency use
Dimensions (W 2 5/26) x (H 3 7/16) x (D 1 3/16) inches
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KF7OCD
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Rating: 5/5
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May 22, 2011 21:55
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Great HT...
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Perfect for the new ham. The newer ones have been improved, bigger battery, better/rewritten users guide and better/tougher keypad.
Keep it up Kenwood.
-George (KF7OCD)
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WB6ZRP
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 18, 2011 14:05
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WOW great litle GEM
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Very pleased I got it in 2007. I use all three bands. I realy like the dual recieve and the short wave abilety is usefull to listen to myself on HF SSB so I can adjust my prossesor setting. It makes a perfect emergency radio. I got the Maldol MH-610 Ant, adds a s unit on marginal sigs., on all bands, over the stock Ant. Good match. Easy to program, low learning curve. Great battery life, especialy w/the 2 Amp battery. It has a full 5 watts on all bands including the 220 band. A great radio for the money, I Love it.
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KM9U
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Rating: 3/5
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Jan 10, 2011 21:34
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Warranty Repair-Moisture Damage
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This is an update to my previous review. After reviewing my concerns, Kenwood has notified me that, although they believe my unit was subjected to exposure beyond the limits defined in Mil-STD 810/e, they have decided to cover the damage under warranty. I will be happy to have the radio operational again but in the future I'll keep it indoors if there are any clouds in the sky. ;-))
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