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eHam Forums => Company Reviews => Topic started by: N4NYY on November 17, 2021, 01:51:33 PM

Title: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N4NYY on November 17, 2021, 01:51:33 PM
Any news from them? No one seems tp have any of their radios. They have been on backorder for what seems to be forever. News from the retailers is, "when we know something, we'll let you know". One person even went as far as to say that the new head of Kenwood is not a "ham" guy, and would rather focus on the   hi-fi business. But even he could not confirm is that was true. All this because I was looking at the TS-890 back in the spring, and have been keeping eye on the prices. That turned into no one ever having them in stock. I can't blame the worldwide materials shortage, as the other 2 manufacturers seems to be dishing them out in numbers. I went to HRO a couple weeks ago, and they had piles of Icoms and Yaesus.

Anyone know anything?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N6MST on November 17, 2021, 02:19:21 PM
I see four of the six radios HRO sells as being in stock...
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: GRUMPY2021 on November 17, 2021, 02:34:02 PM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KO4CFV on November 17, 2021, 02:35:20 PM
https://www.gigaparts.com/kenwood-ts-890s.html
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: VK3LZ on November 17, 2021, 03:20:41 PM
They are certainly no longer in the Ham business in Australia, are no longer offering new radios for sale and many hams are saying that they are not to be servicing ham radios they have sold in the past at any Australian service center.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N4NYY on November 17, 2021, 03:26:22 PM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

Then why are the other 2 companies seemingly not effected?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N4NYY on November 17, 2021, 03:27:27 PM
https://www.gigaparts.com/kenwood-ts-890s.html

Both stores out of stock. Distribution centers have stock. Whatever they hell that means.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N4NYY on November 17, 2021, 03:32:12 PM
I see four of the six radios HRO sells as being in stock...

They have good stock on the vhf and uhf rigs. Of the hf rigs, they have one store with TS-590SG stock (Phoenix), and nothing else.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N6MST on November 17, 2021, 03:52:38 PM
I see four of the six radios HRO sells as being in stock...

They have good stock on the vhf and uhf rigs. Of the hf rigs, they have one store with TS-590SG stock (Phoenix), and nothing else.

Right. So... Exactly what I said.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: SOFAR on November 17, 2021, 03:56:48 PM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: WB9QVR on November 17, 2021, 04:10:28 PM
I just checked Gigaparts and DX Engineering and both listed the TS-890S as being in stock.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N6MST on November 17, 2021, 04:27:50 PM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K6SDW on November 17, 2021, 05:02:01 PM
A couple weeks ago at Pacificon in San Ramon, Elecraft and ICOM showed up in full force.....Yaesu and Kenwood no-shows. I know, Pacificon not a major event for ham manufacturers but Yaesu and Kenwood used to attend in past shows.



GL/73
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: GRUMPY2021 on November 17, 2021, 05:40:46 PM
Just keep buying your Zei-goop garbage because "it's good enough for the price" and you won't have to ask about Kenwood Icom or Yaesu anymore.  How many rigs has Kenwood put out in 10 years?   What the 570DG (late model), 590s, 590sg, 990 and 890...  Kenwood has been known for doing it right and then not trying to reinvent the wheel.   A contact is a contact so I'm not sure how much new stuff you really need.  Maybe you need a better antenna.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: WD4MTW on November 17, 2021, 06:31:43 PM
They appear to be active in Land-Mobile radio. JVKenwood now after merger. EFJ,Tait,Zetron,and Helper Instruments, were among their communications holdings.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: VK6HP on November 17, 2021, 06:35:57 PM
A look at the user groups would have pointed to dealer supply chain issues, no doubt related to factory fire issues but also, most recently, to container unloading issues at US West Coast ports. 

TS-890s's are certainly available and, in fact, a VK6 friend just bought one from DX Engineering, where I bought mine a couple of years ago.  His radio is the latest in a local cluster and was bought after a direct comparison with the other contenders, and complements an Apache Labs and related SDR suite.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K7LZR on November 17, 2021, 08:53:41 PM
Just keep buying your Zei-goop garbage because "it's good enough for the price" and you won't have to ask about Kenwood Icom or Yaesu anymore.  How many rigs has Kenwood put out in 10 years?   What the 570DG (late model), 590s, 590sg, 990 and 890...  Kenwood has been known for doing it right and then not trying to reinvent the wheel.   A contact is a contact so I'm not sure how much new stuff you really need.  Maybe you need a better antenna.

Not all Chinese products are garbage. I owned a Xiegu G90 for awhile and it was a very nice working and quality radio. I only sold it because I wanted to return to older rigs which I can likely repair if needed and not have to send them out. Now I'm back to my old reliable Icom IC-745 circa 1983.

Trouble is that most people will try to save money when buying, especially now. Trouble is that they usually buy something that really is total crap before they even look at the well known brands and in most cases it would have been better to spend a bit more and buy a good Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood to begin with.

I don't think that the Chinese are hurting Icom, judging from the popularity of the IC-7300 and maybe the IC-705 too. Not sure about Kenwood & Yaesu though.....
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: G8FXC on November 18, 2021, 01:10:35 AM
They are still there, but I don't think they have as much commitment to ham radio as Yaesu or Icom do. I think that, at least in part, this is down to their non-ham markets - take a look at the web sites of the three companies and look at their ranges of non-ham equipment. Both Yaesu and Icom have a significant presence in the commercial analogue markets - marine and aeronautical VHF AM and FM radios and HF SSB radios. Kenwood commercial activity focusses more on digital radio. Hence, I think there is more scope for Yaesu and Icom to leverage their designs across both the ham market (which is relatively small) and the far larger commercial markets.

Martin (G8FXC)
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: SOFAR on November 18, 2021, 01:19:47 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: AC7CW on November 18, 2021, 03:01:37 AM
The TS-890 is not an SDR. Kenwood is not pushing the state of the art, not investing in SDR
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N6MST on November 18, 2021, 05:15:23 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.

The only Kenwood I have is an HT that I very seldomly use, no emotion there.

Who are you?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on November 18, 2021, 08:08:31 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.

The only Kenwood I have is an HT that I very seldomly use, no emotion there.

Who are you?

SO FAR he hasn’t been willing to tell us that.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA4DPO on November 18, 2021, 09:20:00 AM
The TS-890 is not an SDR. Kenwood is not pushing the state of the art, not investing in SDR

Really?  When you say SDR, that means a lot of things.  The receiver chain in the Kenwood is dual conversion superhet, 2nd IF is DSP.  If by SDR you mean Direct Digital Sampling, then no, the Kenwood is not that.  At this time, no Direct Digital Sampling radio can handle the signal levels that the TS-890S controlled high level mixer can, they will simply fold because A/D technology is just not there yet.

Kenwood pushed the state of the art in Analog technology and did a great job, the only other receiver that can come close to it's mixer performance is the Yaesu FTdx 101D, which also uses a high level analog mixer front end.

Sorry premature funeral committee, but Kenwood is still in business until Haruo Kawahara says it's not.  Why don't you stop telling him how to run his business, give him time to do it his way.  Be patient, it takes time to push the state of the art.  They will build a Kenwood ham radio Death Star, that will shut the premature funeral committee up good.

Consider yourself lucky if Kawahara doesn't show up here very soon to threaten and chastize you severely. 
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: WA3CUJ on November 18, 2021, 10:47:09 AM
They are still doing a lot of advertising in QST. I doubt a company that was out of business would be doing that.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N6MST on November 18, 2021, 10:52:13 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.

The only Kenwood I have is an HT that I very seldomly use, no emotion there.

Who are you?

SO FAR he hasn’t been willing to tell us that.

Precisely. So, a nobody. That's all I need to know :)
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: WA9AFM on November 18, 2021, 11:40:28 AM
Just keep buying your Zei-goop garbage because "it's good enough for the price" and you won't have to ask about Kenwood Icom or Yaesu anymore.  How many rigs has Kenwood put out in 10 years?   What the 570DG (late model), 590s, 590sg, 990 and 890...  Kenwood has been known for doing it right and then not trying to reinvent the wheel.   A contact is a contact so I'm not sure how much new stuff you really need.  Maybe you need a better antenna.

....and lets not forget the TS-480SAT/HX, TH-D72, TH-D74, and TM-D710.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: AC7CW on November 18, 2021, 11:58:17 AM
The TS-890 is a multiple conversion rig with DSP in the lower IF. Hams have been using those for decades.
The TS-890 is not an SDR. Kenwood is not pushing the state of the art, not investing in SDR

Really?  When you say SDR, that means a lot of things.  The receiver chain in the Kenwood is dual conversion superhet, 2nd IF is DSP.  If by SDR you mean Direct Digital Sampling, then no, the Kenwood is not that.  At this time, no Direct Digital Sampling radio can handle the signal levels that the TS-890S controlled high level mixer can, they will simply fold because A/D technology is just not there yet.

Kenwood pushed the state of the art in Analog technology and did a great job, the only other receiver that can come close to it's mixer performance is the Yaesu FTdx 101D, which also uses a high level analog mixer front end.

Sorry premature funeral committee, but Kenwood is still in business until Haruo Kawahara says it's not.  Why don't you stop telling him how to run his business, give him time to do it his way.  Be patient, it takes time to push the state of the art.  They will build a Kenwood ham radio Death Star, that will shut the premature funeral committee up good.

Consider yourself lucky if Kawahara doesn't show up here very soon to threaten and chastize you severely.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N6MST on November 18, 2021, 12:01:39 PM
Just keep buying your Zei-goop garbage because "it's good enough for the price" and you won't have to ask about Kenwood Icom or Yaesu anymore.  How many rigs has Kenwood put out in 10 years?   What the 570DG (late model), 590s, 590sg, 990 and 890...  Kenwood has been known for doing it right and then not trying to reinvent the wheel.   A contact is a contact so I'm not sure how much new stuff you really need.  Maybe you need a better antenna.

....and lets not forget the TS-480SAT/HX, TH-D72, TH-D74, and TM-D710.

I don't always work satellites, but when I do it's with a D72.

In all seriousness, I wish KW had been able to keep this radio in production or had been able to come out with a worthy replacement for satellite work. I'll be keeping my D72 til the cows come home.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: AC7CW on November 18, 2021, 06:37:53 PM
Just to clarify there seem to be four architectures in use today:
--Tayloe; example being KX3
--Direct sampling; IC7300, IC7610 and others.. There is nothing ahead of the A/D except a preamp
--Sampling in the first IF; FTdx-101D. Yaesu calls it direct sampling but that is marketing talk. If direct sampling means state of the art then they have direct sampling in abundance....
--Multiple down conversions with DSP at a low IF. This has been around for decades.
 
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: G8FXC on November 19, 2021, 12:06:32 AM
...
--Sampling in the first IF; FTdx-101D. Yaesu calls it direct sampling but that is marketing talk. If direct sampling means state of the art then they have direct sampling in abundance....
...
I don't think Yaesu call that direct sampling - read the brochure more carefully. The current generation of Yaesus is described as "hybrid SDR" with a direct sampling receiver for the panadaptor. Because they sit the main SDR behind a roofing filter a few kHz wide, there is not enough bandwidth there for a full panadaptor, so they add a second low performance direct sampling receiver in parallel...

Martin (G8FXC)
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: AC7CW on November 19, 2021, 04:53:13 AM

Thanks for clarifying!
--Sampling in the first IF; FTdx-101D. Yaesu calls it direct sampling but that is marketing talk. If direct sampling means state of the art then they have direct sampling in abundance....
...
I don't think Yaesu call that direct sampling - read the brochure more carefully. The current generation of Yaesus is described as "hybrid SDR" with a direct sampling receiver for the panadaptor. Because they sit the main SDR behind a roofing filter a few kHz wide, there is not enough bandwidth there for a full panadaptor, so they add a second low performance direct sampling receiver in parallel...

Martin (G8FXC)
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: W3WN on November 20, 2021, 09:05:39 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.

The only Kenwood I have is an HT that I very seldomly use, no emotion there.

Who are you?
Who is on First.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N6MST on November 20, 2021, 10:14:55 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.

The only Kenwood I have is an HT that I very seldomly use, no emotion there.

Who are you?
Who is on First.

Not exactly.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA4DPO on November 20, 2021, 11:40:09 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.

The only Kenwood I have is an HT that I very seldomly use, no emotion there.

Who are you?
Who is on First.

I know people who know people who have relatives in Japan, some of whom, work for JVC Kenwood.  They told me some stuff,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Not sure how much I should say here.

There is information here.  https://kenwoodcommunications.co.uk/comm/news-stories/jvckenwood-ham-radio/

Now take your premature funeral committee somewhere else. ;D ;D :P
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: AC7CW on November 20, 2021, 05:00:05 PM
Most business sectors come down to a Big Three situation. It's hard to get to the top but it's easy to stay there.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: US7IGN on November 21, 2021, 01:13:22 AM
It seems to me that it's just already difficult to come up with something new in analog radio and not make it worse than it was. Technology and reliability have long since reached their maximum level. Any radio works fine for 30 years. Any radio is enough for an ordinary radio amateur. No wonder they focus on the lifespan of their models. Probably cooler only ICOM with its IC-718, which is still in production.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA3TJI on January 08, 2022, 03:58:23 AM
All I know is that it's a sad day in the amateur community if they are biting the dust. They discontinued the TM-V71a, which in my opinion SUCKS! I'm so glad I now have 4 of them. The V71a is my favorite dual band radio. Built like a tank and virtually indestructible. Both my motorcycles have their own V71a on them. Hopefully the rumors of Kenwood abandoning the ham community are wrong.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N8AUC on January 08, 2022, 11:04:32 AM
Kind of surprised this is even a question.   Well no not really.   Let's see there's been a factory fire at a major chip making plant, government restrictions over a virus and now a supply chain break on damn near everything.   

It's a legitimate question. How many new transceivers have they released in the last decade?

More than you.

Now, that is an immature comment.

Seems the Kenwood FanBoys get emotional.

The only Kenwood I have is an HT that I very seldomly use, no emotion there.

Who are you?
Who is on First.

I don't know.....THIRD BASE!
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on January 09, 2022, 07:19:08 PM
My TR-7950 still works great and it's coming up on 4 decades.
Boy, Kenwood made some good stuff back then!
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: SWMAN on January 10, 2022, 04:43:24 AM
 Who is not on first, they are the back up band.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on January 10, 2022, 05:03:54 AM
Who is not on first, they are the back up band.

Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again.

P.S. Tommy was the Catcher
🙉🙈🙊
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: SWMAN on January 10, 2022, 06:25:28 AM
 I always though that Tommy was the Pinball Wizard.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on January 10, 2022, 06:54:20 AM
I always though that Tommy was the Pinball Wizard.

No; meet the real pinball wizards:
https://www.ifpapinball.com/menu/wpc/
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: SWMAN on January 10, 2022, 08:03:55 AM
Nice, but I guess Tommy didn’t make it this time. 😩
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on January 10, 2022, 08:07:57 AM
Good one!
🤣
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: VE3WGO on March 29, 2022, 06:04:37 AM
So now the TS-990S is discontinued.  https://www-hamlife-jp.translate.goog/2022/03/21/ts990-vr160-discontinued/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The number of Kenwoods in production just keeps dropping.

I guess between semiconductor shortages and the fact that hams are infatuated with the cheaper Chinese brands like Baofeng and Xiegu, it's hard for Kenwood to remain interested in this market.

73, Ed
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA4DPO on March 29, 2022, 09:57:28 AM
So now the TS-990S is discontinued.  https://www-hamlife-jp.translate.goog/2022/03/21/ts990-vr160-discontinued/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The number of Kenwoods in production just keeps dropping.

I guess between semiconductor shortages and the fact that hams are infatuated with the cheaper Chinese brands like Baofeng and Xiegu, it's hard for Kenwood to remain interested in this market.

73, Ed

I wish I could agree with you, but I think the TS-990S is just too expensive and sales are too few to justify production.  I also think that even if there were not cheap Chinese radios things would be the same.  The bean counters at JVC Kenwood have peered into the crystal ball of market share and they know that profits from amateur radio will continue to dwindle.  The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

 It's just economics, no profits, no radios.   I think they are investing their R&D budget into other technologies, technologies that just don't translate to amateur radio products.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on March 30, 2022, 06:39:35 AM
So now the TS-990S is discontinued.  https://www-hamlife-jp.translate.goog/2022/03/21/ts990-vr160-discontinued/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The number of Kenwoods in production just keeps dropping.

I guess between semiconductor shortages and the fact that hams are infatuated with the cheaper Chinese brands like Baofeng and Xiegu, it's hard for Kenwood to remain interested in this market.

73, Ed
What does a Boefeng have to do with a Flagship HF Transceiver?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: WO7R on March 30, 2022, 02:59:30 PM
Quote
The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

We keep repeating this to ourselves as if it were true.  It is not.

It is true that we do not seem to attract very many 15 year olds these days.

However, we seem instead to get them when they are between 25 and 45 and even older.

License numbers over the last 30 years in the US have been stable at about 650,000 or more.  We are not really growing, but we are not going away, either.

We need to stop wringing our hands about the dearth of 15 year olds.  If that was going to kill us off, it would have already happened.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on March 30, 2022, 03:54:53 PM
Quote
The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

We keep repeating this to ourselves as if it were true.  It is not.

It is true that we do not seem to attract very many 15 year olds these days.

However, we seem instead to get them when they are between 25 and 45 and even older.

License numbers over the last 30 years in the US have been stable at about 650,000 or more.  We are not really growing, but we are not going away, either.

We need to stop wringing our hands about the dearth of 15 year olds.  If that was going to kill us off, it would have already happened.

I was 37 when I was licensed in 1998. So this newcomer fits your 25-45 year old demographic.

Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K3XR on March 30, 2022, 04:36:36 PM
Like trees ham radio operators are a renewable resource. Both will be around for a long time.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: G8FXC on March 31, 2022, 01:04:53 AM
Quote
The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

We keep repeating this to ourselves as if it were true.  It is not.

...

The USA is a big market, but don't forget that none of the big 3 are US companies... In other countries, the numbers are not looking so stable. Also, from their point of view, you need to consider the profile of the market. The Baofeng jokes are only partly jokes - there are quite a lot of newly licenced hams who really do just buy a cheap Chinese HT for a chat through local repeaters or through a hotspot. You could have a million of them in the US and it would mean nothing to Kenwood!

Martin (G8FXC)
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K7JQ on March 31, 2022, 06:52:46 AM
I don’t think Kenwood is getting out of the ham radio business. They’re just evaluating and reacting to the current market, based on ham’s wants and needs with evolving technology and operating preferences. They probably just determined that having the long time TS-590sg and newer TS-890s HF radios are enough at their respective price points.

I understand their discontinuing the TS-990. Have you seen the current price “on sale” at HRO?…$7,700! The competition has their SDR two-receiver radios at less than half that price. And the more sophisticated Elecraft K4D is $2K less. A no brainer to knock it out of their lineup.

Also, even though Cycle 25 is showing promise for better propagation, and folks somewhat returning to the legacy CW and SSB modes, digital modes like FT8 are still humming along and jamming their band segments at increasing numbers. No indication of slowing down, so maybe the manufacturers are realizing that one doesn’t need expensive radios with all the bells a whistles to operated those modes.

Bob K7JQ
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N4NYY on April 02, 2022, 06:23:31 PM
I posted this in Nov 2021. It's April 2022. HRO does not have any 890s or 590s in stock. Forget the chip shortage and supply chain issues (that does not seem to affect the other big 2). Kenwood is done in ham radio. The only thing left is to make it official.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KS2G on April 02, 2022, 09:16:33 PM
I posted this in Nov 2021. It's April 2022. HRO does not have any 890s or 590s in stock.

Both radios are In Stock at Main Trading:
https://mtcradio.com/

The '890 is In Stock at GigaParts:
https://www.gigaparts.com/

DX Engineering shows April delivery dates for both -- indicating they are expecting stock within the next couple of weeks.

Kenwood has been advertising both radios with full-page and back-cover ads for months -- same amount of ad space as Yaesu and twice as much as Icom.

They wouldn't waste their money promoting radios that they don't plan to deliver.

Kenwood has been in ham radio since the '60s.

They're not going anywhere.

 ;)




Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N4NYY on April 02, 2022, 09:33:03 PM
Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on April 03, 2022, 04:13:28 AM
Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K7JQ on April 03, 2022, 06:51:25 AM
Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?

You know little of retail operations. You’re basing your statement on one retailer at one point in time. The global supply chain and chip shortage has thrown everything off kilter. A manufacturer has different stock delivery allocation times for each of their vendors, based on when a vendor orders inventory in relation to another. No correlation between them.

A few days ago, DXE had “more than 10” Icom IC-7610’s in stock (today only one), while HRO had zero in any of their locations. Does that mean Icom is going out of the HR business? DXE hasn’t had Acom amplifiers in stock since the beginning of the year, while vendors overseas has had them. Acom is not going anywhere. The demand is high, but the supply is short. The lack of components has severely curtailed the manufacturing process, so inventory allocations are sparse.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA4DPO on April 09, 2022, 10:08:46 AM
Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?

That is true however, if you look at the HRO ads in QST, they stopped advertising Kenwood some time ago, all you see is Yaesu and Icom.  Makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of tiff with JVC-Kenwood over sales.  They do still carry the full line of Kenwood products.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on April 09, 2022, 11:21:00 AM
Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?

That is true however, if you look at the HRO ads in QST, they stopped advertising Kenwood some time ago, all you see is Yaesu and Icom.  Makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of tiff with JVC-Kenwood over sales.  They do still carry the full line of Kenwood products.
Anything is possible. It could be something as simple as profit margins.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA4DPO on April 14, 2022, 09:59:20 AM
Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?

That is true however, if you look at the HRO ads in QST, they stopped advertising Kenwood some time ago, all you see is Yaesu and Icom.  Makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of tiff with JVC-Kenwood over sales.  They do still carry the full line of Kenwood products.
Anything is possible. It could be something as simple as profit margins.

I totally agree with you, but I am waiting for KA4WJA to show up here and insult you before I say any more ;). ;D ;D
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K1FBI on April 14, 2022, 06:03:58 PM
Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?

That is true however, if you look at the HRO ads in QST, they stopped advertising Kenwood some time ago, all you see is Yaesu and Icom.  Makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of tiff with JVC-Kenwood over sales.  They do still carry the full line of Kenwood products.
Anything is possible. It could be something as simple as profit margins.

I totally agree with you, but I am waiting for KA4WJA to show up here and insult you before I say any more ;). ;D ;D
Would not surprise me one bit. 🤣
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K3UIM on April 14, 2022, 06:41:49 PM
<hidden text>Darned kids! Sheesh!!<end text> ;D ;D
Charlie
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KW1L on April 18, 2022, 01:52:34 PM
Does anyone know if Kenwood will be at the Dayton Hamvention 2022?
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: VE3WGO on April 19, 2022, 06:04:55 AM
I don't see Kenwood or JVCKenwood listed on the indoor vendors confirmed or reserved list yet.

Hamvention points to this link https://www.make-it.ca/hamvention/   then scroll down to Indoor Commercial Vendors on the right-hand side.

Meanwhile Icom has 7 booths, and Yaesu has 10.

73, Ed
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: SWMAN on April 19, 2022, 08:56:47 AM
 They might just surprise everyone. You never know.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA4DPO on April 26, 2022, 01:55:23 PM
Looks like Kenwood is not going to be at hamvention this year.   Could this be an omen?  a sign of things to come? 
I seriously doubt it, my guess is they don't have any new products to advertise so they are not going to waste the money and manpower to go to Dayton.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N4NYY on May 26, 2022, 06:44:20 PM
Looks like Kenwood is not going to be at hamvention this year.   Could this be an omen?  a sign of things to come? 
I seriously doubt it, my guess is they don't have any new products to advertise so they are not going to waste the money and manpower to go to Dayton.

I was waiting to see if they went. They did not attend. They have not released any new HF rigs since the TS-890, which is a $4K radio. The 590 is going on 10 years. They have not responded with a product to compete with hybrid SDR or SDRs from Yeasu and Icom. I think they are done.

Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: VE3WGO on May 26, 2022, 08:19:28 PM
Not so fast. 

I tend to share your skepticism, but in reality since the entire radio industry is moving relentlessly toward commoditization of SDR hardware and software components, I expect any company involved in any aspect of receiver and two-way radio business to have it already in their technology toolbox, or will have it very soon.  That includes Kenwood which plays big in the audio and radio entertainment systems business.  Even AM-FM-Sirius car radios will become SDR...  it just makes economic sense.  I mean just look at the sub-$500 SDR radios that are hitting the market these days...  SDR technology seems to have already gone over the "early adopters" phase, and it isn't expensive or out of reach anymore.

The jump to SDR is likely going to be no harder than the jump from the hybrid tube/solid state to purely solid state radios that Yaesu and Kenwood had to make during the 1980s.  Icom led the pack to wideband solid state PAs much earlier.

Maybe Chinese radio companies are hollowing out the low and middle ranges of the handheld and base station markets, and radio prices are racing to the bottom because many hams are attracted to low prices no matter what the quality is, but the high end market is still very strong.  So if Kenwood does exit the ham radio market, I would be disappointed and surprised.  I think they don't have a good excuse for doing that.

73, Ed
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: G8FXC on May 27, 2022, 02:24:54 AM
The jump to SDR is actually pretty easy from the engineering point of view - just make sure that you have a well specified A/D converter and processor and plenty of memory - then you can make major changes to the functionality and performance simply by releasing new firmware. An analogue design is a lot more risky - get a time-constant or the gain in some stage wrong and you are faced with recalling thousands of devices for workshop modification.

Martin (G8FXC)
Title: Hamvention Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: VE3WGO on February 13, 2023, 08:45:20 AM
Kenwood has reserved 3 booths at Hamvention.

https://www.make-it.ca/hamvention2023-indoor/     (see jvckenwood, in the lower half of the page)

73, Ed
Title: Re: Hamvention Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: K4GTE on February 13, 2023, 09:26:54 AM
Kenwood has reserved 3 booths at Hamvention.

https://www.make-it.ca/hamvention2023-indoor/     (see jvckenwood, in the lower half of the page)

73, Ed

It looks like JVC/Kenwood is no longer listed on the commercial vendor roster.
https://www.make-it.ca/hamvention2023-indoor/

Kenwood has not had a presence at a US hamfest for three years now.
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: WA2CWA on February 13, 2023, 09:45:43 AM
JVC Kenwood is still on the "Reserved"  list but they haven't "Confirmed" yet. Probably means they haven't paid for the space yet.

JVC Kenwood    1503 1504 1505    Reserved    Rebecca Hinton

Pete, wa2cwa
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: ZL4AI on February 13, 2023, 01:32:51 PM
Every Issue of QST in the last 2 years has 2 full page advertisements for 890s & 590SG. Kenwood are saying by this these models are for sale. HRO, Gigaparts, Martin Lynch and Sons all have stock for sale. Martin Lynch has just done a You tube video 2 days ago promoting the TS-990 and TS-890 with mics and speaker extras at apparently no extra cost.
ebay has 6 new 890s online now. All are way cheaper than the USA Dealers, One is only US$3048.

Seems new transceiver are definitely available but servicing is only provided by the Kenwood Service Centre in the USA
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: N8NK on February 13, 2023, 03:31:26 PM
If not, it doesn't mean they won't be back in amateur radio engineering.
Look what happened to Yaesu when Vertex Standard purchased the co.
Still...
I'd trade my own children away for a TS-890. I really would. lol.
Chuck
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: AB4D on February 13, 2023, 05:51:06 PM
The last I heard regarding Kenwood, it was announced at the Tokyo Ham Fair in 2022.  Kenwood stated they are still fully vested in Amateur Radio. 

The TS-990S, I don't know if it's still in production.  DX Engineering received two units about two weeks ago, but both apparently sold, and now it's listed on DXE's website as "Not Available".  MTC Radio received stock too, but only one is now available, it may be the last one ever.

HRO shows it still active on their site.

MLS out of the UK, released their typical periodic video, but mentioned Kenwood, stating we should look for something new from Kenwood in late 2023. :)  Listen around the 1:30 mark in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwCU1eVwlxE&t=105s







 
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: VE3WGO on March 22, 2023, 06:42:17 AM
Good news!  Kenwood is confirmed at Hamvention, and they now have 4 booths.   (as JVC Kenwood)

73, Ed
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KW1L on March 23, 2023, 07:19:35 AM
Good news!  Kenwood is confirmed at Hamvention, and they now have 4 booths.   (as JVC Kenwood)

73, Ed
Any word if Kenwood is going to make any announcements?  Paul
Title: Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
Post by: KA4DPO on March 23, 2023, 11:10:37 AM
Good news!  Kenwood is confirmed at Hamvention, and they now have 4 booths.   (as JVC Kenwood)

73, Ed
Any word if Kenwood is going to make any announcements?  Paul

Usually when Kenwood has a new product they announce it at the Tokyo Ham Fair.  I think the Hamvention appearance is more to squelch the rumors.  They might be oushing their digital land mobile stuff, but I suspect the TS-590SG and the TS-890 are still in the standard lineup.