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Reviews For: Kenwood TW-4000A

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Kenwood TW-4000A
Reviews: 12MSRP: $600.00
Description:
The first Dual Bander for 144/440.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00124.5
KEOWRU Rating: 2021-01-18
great old radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
person had 2 for sale on ebay saying 2 will make 1 $25. + shipping. i bought them, lights burned out n dead memory battery,$8. bag of green lights from hobby lobby and a remote battery kit for $5. and 1 is working great. i get reports how rich my voice sounds on that radio. the other radio might work also .but i need all screws n a mic for it. in time it will happen. even came with original boxes,owners manuals but 1 mic n screws gone out of that 1 radio. hope to find screws n mic soon. both have voice n tone boards. love the cool green screen color. i leave it on programmed to local 440 repeater n use my tm 271a on 2 meters. sad we cant buy new radios like this.
N2AYM Rating: 2020-08-13
Excellent mobile dual bander Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had this mobile radio back in the 1980's for about 8 years in my car. Excellent performing mobile radio but with some flaws. Bulky radio and difficult to mount under vehicle dash. The tone board for this radio was encode only so you had to deal with listening to the repeaters off in the distance with the extra hot receiver, no decode mode. I had it mounted with the bracket under my dash but one day after going over several pot holes the heavy jolts broke the dash board metal and the radio dropped to the floor. After that I remounted it on the floor with a ramp facing upward to be able to see the display. This radio was very heavy. The metal used in those days for the dash board was white brittle metal and broke under the weight of the radio and the pot hole jolts but I tolerated those things back in those days because this radio did have a hot receiver and the power output of 25W was great. Oh well not a perfect radio but had its good points also. One last flaw - the chiclet type face plate buttons were difficult to use while mobile and sometimes you had to push them very hard multiple times to make them work.
W8SOL Rating: 2015-01-08
Great Receiver Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased my TW-4000A new 30 years ago. It's stored away on a shelf now but I dug it out a couple weeks ago and fired it up. Still works as good as day one. As a previous post said, all I've done is replace display lights. Best receiver of any FM rig I've had to date.
K1MBR Rating: 2007-07-02
Golden Oldie Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This was my 2nd fully synthesized mobile radio and my first dual bander! I picked this up at the Dayton Hamvention the year that Kenwood released it. (about 20 years ago, I believe). It was a great mobile and I installed the PL option and the Voice option as well. It has been used as a link receiver to tie repeaters together for special events and as a packet radio for events as well as my home.

About the only thing I have done to it in all these years is change the display lamps, add the options, replace the backup battery and modify it with a true discriminator hook up for packet.

Yes the word TANK is certainly appropriate. I still have this unit but have retired it due to the problem with multiable CTS frequencies in the area. It does have a great set of ears with the GasFET front end.

Larry "I'Gor" K1MBR
VA7CZ Rating: 2006-12-09
Great old dual-band rig Time Owned: N.A.
I first purchased my TW4000A when it was "new." Well, actually, it had been gathering dust on VE1AI's store shelf for a while and I made him an offer. Turned out to be one of my better decisions. The radio has separate GaAsFET front ends for UHF and VHF and is simply the most sensitive receiver I've ever seen in a mobile FM rig. Mine does not have the factory tone board and is currently laid up due to some minor problems and the need of a memory battery, but over the years it has given excellent service, both as a mobile and a base radio. It's not the most powerful transmitter around, but its ears more than make up for that. On simplex, I'm able to clearly hear people who cannot make me out at 25w on 2m or 20w on 70cm. And, though we poured a cup of water out of it after hurricane Juan tore the roof off my home in 2003, it worked fine after I dried it out for a month!

KB1NHD Rating: 2006-11-23
Great performer Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased this from the original owner who bought it new 20+ years ago with the factory PL tones installed.....a rarity then. I'ts used as a base radio an avg. of four hrs. daily and is rock solid, built like a tank and just keeps on doing the job. A friend was so impressed with it that he has since acquired two of them! My only complaint is being locked into a single PL tone unless I change the dip switches on the board but that's the nature of old technology and really isn't a big problem in a base radio application anyway. If you find one, don't be afraid to pay top dollar, maybe almost as much as a new, but lesser quality single-bander 2m rig...... the TW-4000 will likely be working long after the new one is gone. Jerry-KB1NHD
M3DPE Rating: 2003-01-16
Good basic radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought my TW4000a off a guy from the local radio club when I first got my Foundation Licence. It was cheap (think I paid £125) and dual band which was exactly my criteria.

Have had one problem with the microphone cable which I had to replace, apart from that it's performed flawlessly and with excellent audio quality. I understand from others that they make good packet rigs too.

As long as you don't pay too much for one, you can't go wrong. The only thing I miss is DTMF for a few of my local repeaters, although it does have tone burst so can get the majority.

W6PMR Rating: 2001-08-03
Try again Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Well always open to being wrong I went out to the garage and searched some boxes and lit up the TW4000.
WY6S says I can do 20khz spacing, well then lets try it!
Well my 4000 will not go to 5khz spacing on the 450 band, his does-mine wont. There is then some updating to the radio I am not aware of so if you are looking at one of these check to see if you can get 5khz steps on 450. I now live in Northern California and can use open 450 machines....what a concept.
W0VP Rating: 2001-07-25
Keep your eyes open for the TW-4100A also Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The TW-4100A is an updated version of the TW-4000A (no PL dip switches to fool with). It's built like a tank and is very reliable. I used one in my packet station for years and (other than replacing the dial lamps) never had a single problem with it.

Nice radio!

KC
W0VP
Cedar Falls, IA
WY6S Rating: 2001-07-25
Great old rig! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've got one for sale (to pay off my new FT-817), so keep in mind I could be biased <grin>. I absolutely love my 4000A, it's been with me through thick and thin and has always served me well.

W6PMR, with all due respect, the 4000A will work in the 20KHz bandplan. I use mine all the time. It's merely a matter of pressing the 'FS' button and walking through the band in 5Kc steps (maybe there's an issue with deviation, but I have yet to hear any complaints).

The one problem with the radio is the PL - you set one tone for each band through dip-switches on the bottom. In SoCal,
there is an incredible diversity of PL tones in use, so you have to make your choice wisely, or buy an outboard PL box like ComSpec's...