|
New to Ham Radio?
My Profile
Community
Articles
Forums
News
Reviews
Friends Remembered
Speak Out
Strays
Survey Question
Operating
Contesting
DX Cluster Spots
Propagation
Resources
Calendar
Classifieds
Ham Exams
Ham Links
List Archives
News Articles
Product Reviews
QSL Managers
Site Info
eHam Help (FAQ)
Support the site
The eHam Team
Advertising Info
Vision Statement
About eHam.net
|
| Reviews Summary for Kenwood TMV71A |
|
Reviews: 21
|
Average rating: 4.5/5
|
MSRP: $399.00
|
|
Description: The advanced Kenwood TM-V71A dual bander provides sophisticated, high-powered performance on 2 meters and 440 MHz. Power levels are 5/10/50 watts on both bands. The large radio display clearly conveys the status of the radio and can be set to green or amber.
|
|
More info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kenwood_TMV-71A
|
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this review.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
|
You can
write your own review of the Kenwood TMV71A.
|
WF0GM
|
Rating: 5/5
|
May 30, 2009 08:05
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Great radio for mobile op in non-daylight hours
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
I drive 75 miles a day on my drive to work and back. I bought a small car in May 2008 when gas was $4.00/gallon. It was important to me to have a detachable control head becasue of the small space. I came close to buying the Yaesu FT-8800, but decided on the TM-V71A because the buttons are backlit. My commute time is during non-daylight hours most of the year. But the display is also very readable in bright sunlight.
The radio installed nicely under the seat, with the remote head on the center console.
I don't really care about the EchoLink features but I really love this rig. I like the extended receive coverage, and how I can program the mic keys and control so much from the mic. I drive from the country into the city, so the 50W high power (especially on UHF!) is really nice when I'm on the fringe. It has too many features to get into here, but enough to keep me interested. I have an old Kenwood TM-721 in my pickup truck which has been a very solid rig for 15 years. I hope the 71A lasts just as long.
I don't really like the RJ45 type mic connector on most new rigs, but my solution was to use a tie wrap to secure the mic cord to a tie wrap anchor. This provides strain relief for the connector.
If you are undecided about which mobile rig to buy, download the user manuals. That's what I did, and it gave me enough info on each one to help me decide that the TM-V71A was the rig for me!
|
|
KE7OSV
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jan 31, 2009 14:26
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent radio
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
|
I love this radio. I also have a Yaesu FT8800r, and I rate the Kenwood just a little higher. They're both great radios, but, the kenwood TMV71 a has backlit buttons, 50 watts on UHF and VHF (the Yaesu ft8800r only has 35 watts) and, at he Kenwood web site you can get FREE programming software! I had to buy the software for the Yaesu. One more thing..If you need to do the mars/caps mod, it's very easy to do on the Kenwood. Very difficult to do on the Yaesu.
|
|
N2QQF
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 22, 2008 08:48
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Great Radio
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
I have owned the radio for about three months now and I will say it is without question one of the best mobiles that I have owned to date. The radio is not commercial grade but certainly a good radio. I think the radio is very neatly laid out and the menu structure is also very intuitive. I thought that Kenwood did a very nice job with this radio and the flurry of other features they included.
I think the addressing of the CW ID for cross-band repeat was a good idea and certainly nice to have as mentioned previously in quite a few other of the reviews so I wont go into to much detail about it because it already has been addressed.
I have owned the Yaesu FT-7800R and the Icom IC-706MKII G and this radio certainly performs much better. The receiver is quite in the sense that it isn't hindered by a lot of spurious emissions and intermod like the other two radios I owned previously.
The radio has a lot of great features such as being field upgradable by the use of a DB-9 connection. The radio also has multiple display colors as well as being able to monitor outside the ham bands with wide band receive capability. The free software by Kenwood makes the programming a cinch and it pretty well laid out and easy to understand. I thought a USB type connection would be nice but most people today have DB-9 to USB converters.
If I were to have one complaint about the radio it would have to be the mic connection on the radio. The location of the microphone connection is located on the radio as opposed to the remote face which could be convenient for others but not for me. This caused the need for me to extend some Cat5 cable to the radio to extend the microphone connection in addition to the remote mount kit. I felt this should be included in the remote face option as it wasn't cheap and was such an inexpensive addition. Anyhow, overall the radio is great both functionally and cosmetically speaking but again a small option that would have been nice to include in the optional remote kit was the microphone extension.
|
|
K7NG
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Sep 21, 2008 18:30
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Does the job!
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
I put a TM-V71a in my work truck, as I may find myself traveling the length and breadth of the country...
The crossmod resistance is excellent, about as good as the comercial VHF radio also in the truck. I can use 500 memories in VHF and 500 for UHF, allowing me to rewrite a bank or two for long trips but leave the local memories alone...
I don't have a lot of use for the Echolink capabilities, but I guess they're good to have.
The manual doesn't really give you everything you need to figure out how to set it up like you might want, but with the free software and a couple of Emails to Kenwood I have it all configured.
It's still worth a '5' and honestly seems to be a contender to replace my TM-741 in my personal vehicle, tho I don't really plan on replacing the '741 just yet.
Good job, Kenwood.
|
|
AB0RE
|
Rating: 4/5
|
May 31, 2008 21:12
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Agree with previous review
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
I'll piggy-back on KE6Ns review, saying I also appreciate the solid 50W output on VHF & UHF. The display is pleasant to look at, although I'd like a more detailed S-meter. The faceplate can be installed either way for either an up-firing or down-firing speaker. The cooling fan keeps the V71 nice and cool, even in Crossband Repeat mode. Although I haven't used the extensive EchoLink features that is a nice capability to have in the future in case I decide to go that route.
Programming is a cinch with the FREE software from Kenwood. A straight-through cable (no circuit or components needed) can be made with a DB9F and Mini-8 DIN connector. The pin-out is printed in the V71's manual. The Mini-8 DINs are somewhat difficult to find. Large part vendors such as Mouser carry them, as does hamgadgets.com. The programming software works well with no noticeable glitches.
Also extremely neat about the TM-V71A is the ability to Field-Upgrade the Firmware! This can be done with the cable mentioned above and a firmware upgrade program available from Kenwood, again at no cost. I upgraded my firmware from 1.00 to 2.11. The upgrade fixed a problem with a very high static noise super-imposed on the CW ID when in Crossband Repeat mode. It also added some additional functionality, such as a menu-adjustable microphone sensitivity (which was previously only adjustable in the software). The programming software will tell you what version of the firmware you have.
One final comment regarding Crossband Repeat. Most people who crossband repeat do not do it legally because of the identification requirements. Kenwood somewhat addressed this issue by making a CW-ID available when crossbanding (it can be turned off, too). But, as KE6N reports, the V71 IDs back and forth on the UHF side AND the VHF side. If you're using your UHF HT to crossband into a VHF repeater you will drive everybody listening to the VHF repeater absolutely BONKERS having your callsign sent every 10 minutes in CW. The ID is sent whether or not there is activity being crossbanded. And, as KE6N pointed out, the ID in this instance is not necessary on the VHF side as it would be taken care of when I identify on UHF and my callsign is cross-banded on VHF. If Kenwood made the crossband ID band-selectable (VHF / UHF / Both) this would make the V71 a great choice for crossbanding legally (assuming you also have a control operator present in case there are issues).
One final note, I thought a great way around the Crossband CW ID issue noted above would be to hook the ID-O-Matic kit from Ham Gadgets(.com) to the DATA Port of the V71, then set the DATA band to UHF (band B in my case) so the ID is only sent on UHF. BUT Kenwood, in their infinite wisdom, has the DATA port disabled when Crossband repeat is active!! That's a shame because there would other added functionalities in Crossband Repeat mode if the DATA port was not disabled (one could disable Crossband Repeat by sending a signal to the SQL line - the radio would not transmit as it would think there was another station transmitting).
HEY KENWOOD: HOW ABOUT ADDRESSING THE CROSSBAND REPEAT ID ISSUE IN THE NEXT FIRMWARE UPDATE!?!?
(The CW ID Band should be selectable and/or the DATA port should not be disabled while in Crossband Repeat mode.)
|
|
KE6N
|
Rating: 5/5
|
May 31, 2008 19:47
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Very happy with this radio. I've got 3 of them!
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
I've had this radio for about 7 months now. (Got another one for my wife and one for the house, too.) I really like the high power on both VHF and UHF. I also really like that I can use VHF and/or UHF on either side of the radio. And there's no way I'm going to run out of memory channels at 1000 of 'em, either!
I've got the voice chip option and separation kits on the two radios that we use mobile. I like being able to change channels from the mic and know where I am without having to take my eyes off the road to verify where I'm at. I also like that this radio allows me to cross band repeat when I'm out of HT range to my favorite repeater. I can hike around away from my car and know that I've still got communications when I'm way out in the bush.
Kenwood was thinking (somewhat) when they added the ability for the radio to ID while in cross band repeat mode but they goofed it up a little. If I'm cross band repeating using UHF on my HT and going out and receiving VHF on my car, the only transmitter that really needs to identify is my car on the UHF frequency it is transmitting back to my HT. There is no need to ID going out of 2m when retransmitting my signal from UHF to VHF because *I* identify my own transmissions. Kenwood thought it would be good to alternate the ID on VHF and UHF when in cross band repeat. They almost got it right. I was really hoping that Kenwood would address this oversite in a future firmware upgrade. If I'm listening to 2m repeater via cross band repeat on my UHF HT, there is really no need to transmit my ID on the 2m repeater I'm listening to when I'm not actively transmitting on it. IDing on the UHF frequency that is carrying the listened to 2m repeater traffic is most appropriate however, if it would only ID on the one band instead of alternating.
Other than that, the fact that I own 3 of these radios should give a clue that I really like it.
|
|
KJ4AXU
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Apr 29, 2008 03:46
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Quality product!
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
|
Very pleased with my choice of the TM-V71A. Spent a lot of time choosing between models (Yaesu 8800 and 8900)and feel very confident I made the right choice for me. All of these models are great, but the Echolink features and the extra-wide receive capabilities on the high end of this unit really set it apart. I also like the 50 watts on both 2 meter and 440. I did purchase the data and control cables, and when I purchased the unit the ARRL Travel Plus CD was included - a great addition. If you're on the fence trying to decide, you won't be disappointed with the Kenwood.
|
|
M0NYW
|
Rating: 4/5
|
Mar 1, 2008 12:40
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Very Nice
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
I have the E version. So far its great nice clear display, Easy to use buttons and menu. Love the N-type connector and front panel orientation and recording feature.
Just cant understand why you can change the colour of the backlight on the display from amber to green and on the mic its only orange.
I know its silly.
|
|
KB9QEC
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Feb 14, 2008 17:00
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Kenwood does it again
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
I HAVE ONLY HAD THIS RADIO A FEW DAYS BUT I LOVE IT . IF IT LASTS LIKE OTHER KENWOODS I HAVE HAD IT WILL BE A KEEPER . IF IT GIVES ME ANY TROUBLE I WILL GET BACK ON HERE AND LET EVERYBODY KNOW .
AFTER A FEW MINUTES IN THE SHACK GETTING TO KNOW IT AND PROGRAMMING ALL THE LOCAL REPEATERS INTO IT'S MEMORY , I WAS INSTALLING IT IN MY CAR . I HAVE A SMALL HONDA CIVIC AND THE TM-V71 IS SMALL ENOUGH THAT I DON'T HAVE TO USE THE DETACHABLE FRONT PANEL KIT . BUT IF YOU NEED TO MOUNT THE FRONT PANEL ON THE DASH YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN CABLE . KENWOOD USES A 4 CONDUCTOR WIRE WITH A 4 PIN MODULAR PLUG ON ONE END AND AN 8 PIN ON THE OTHER .
I USE THE CROSS BAND REPEAT AND REMOTE CONTROL FUNCTION AT WORK SO I DON'T MISS ANY LOCAL ACTION .
GREAT SO FAR !
|
|
W2OSR
|
Rating: 4/5
|
Dec 5, 2007 14:25
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Cables
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
|
I will be receiving one for Christmas. I don't know why Kenwood made the programing with a DB9 connector. Most new computers no longer have serial ports. USB ports are what are available on nerw computers.
|
|
If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions about Reviews,
please email your Reviews Manager.
|
|
|
|
|
