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Reviews For: Kenwood TH-F6A

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

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Review Summary For : Kenwood TH-F6A
Reviews: 249MSRP: 425.00
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.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.kenwood.net/ama_page.cfm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002494.3
KD7TXL Rating: 2006-11-22
Good for the first year Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Radio worked great for the first year I owned it. After I had it for about 1 year & 3 months, it stopped working on battery power. That means I'll have too eat the cost of repairs. Good timing Kenwood. I think I'll stick to Icom in the future.
KB1FFX Rating: 2006-11-17
excellent radio, superb recieve Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I loved this radio. I got rid of it to buy an hf radio. I wish I had kept it. It was very good quality. The battery lasted excellent. The stock antenna was good enough for most situations. I did have the diamond srh320a triband ht antenna on mine and it worked great. I would not hesitate to buy another.
OE3SGU Rating: 2006-10-01
Fine Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I own the European model which is called TH-F7E and is a duobander. This model is easy to use and quite handy. I like the menu system which is so easy to use compared to my VX7-R. I find the unit a bit deaf for FM-broadcast, but the AM-receive is great with the built-in bar antenna. I rather take this one with me as the VX7-R as it is smaller.
VA7CRH Rating: 2006-09-01
Superb handheld Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After two years in HF, it was time to get into VHF and UHF. Narrowed the search to a handheld, with an all band receiver, which would include 1.25 m, due to the inactivity of 6 m in this area. This allows use at home as well as remote in one rig.

The Kenwood TH-F6A is the ticket. I second all the great reviews here below, with only a few nitpicks.

First of all, I've hit more repeaters in the last few days than is decent. In a QSO on a repeater 35 miles away, me at ground level in a building at low lying land, the fellow said, "I don't know what you're using, but at 5 watts I'd hang on to that handheld if I were you."

Since getting this Kenwood I've been shopping around for tri-band antennas with SMA connectors, both as an upgrade for the included rubber ducky, as well as (perhaps) for a base-station antenna with some height. However, for now the included rubber ducky is hitting repeaters 30 - 40 miles away (with no height and within a closet in a building!) so those extras are down the road.

I was up and running with about 50 freqs and alphanumeric tags programmed in within an evening. Have worked some IRLP as well.

The battery is as advertised in the manual. Takes about 6 hours or less to fully charge - lasts all day, with a 1:8 ratio of TX to RX.

The only nitpicks are the keys assigned to some functions - ie. scanning on a bank of memories is done hitting the MHz key. I'm still trying to get my head around the dual RX bands - sometimes the radio seems to be receiving BOTH A & B band frequencies at the same time.

The other nitpick is that the supplied AC charger does not allow for TX while charging. I got the cigarette lighter charger for the car which does allow for TX while chraging. (I don't know if competing models have this shortcoming out-of-the-box, or if one has to buy extra.)

There was only one occasion where the front-end seemed to be overloading. Have not been able to repeat that experience, though I've tried.

While shopping, looked at the ICOM IC-T90A, IC-T91A, and the YAESU VX-6R and VX-7R. Some did not have 1.25 M, and the YAESUs ran only 1.5 W and 300 mW respectively on 1.25 M. Dual banders of equal cost also did not have a general coverage RX. It was worth the extra money to get 5 W on 1.25 M, as well as 400 memories in the Kenwood. (The ICOMs were more expensive.)

I've owned handheld scanner receivers before, and the TH-F6A outperforms them. Some expensive scanners I've owned had bad front-end overloading problems in our area. The Kenwood seems not to. I need to tear myself away from scanning to actually do some QSOs.

All in all - do your shopping, perhaps even test drive them if you can.

But for the price, the triband coverage, the all-band receiver, the 5 W on 1.25 M, there is no comparison.

This is a keeper.
KC4CP Rating: 2006-08-21
SUPERB! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Bought my first one in April of 2006. I just got my second one. You can read my previous review for details ... but needless to say, I have had no problems and performance has been "superb."

Also, for you TH-F6 owners, the Comet HT-224 antenna is worth the money. Though the stock rubber duck does well, the Comet antenna increases performances greatly. In actual tests, my transmit signal went up an average of 2 S units! (This was measured via local repeaters which have the capability to measure receive signal strength).

If you are looking for the ultimate tri-band HT, look no farther than the TH-F6.
WO8VET Rating: 2006-08-21
Perfect!!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I just became a ham on May 11th, 2006, and this is the best Walkie-Talkie. When I got my callsign and I got it on my 9th birthday which is about 2 months after I passed my test. We got it asembled and I was the air! When I had my KD8DOL callsign, I got about 20 contacts in about 2 months! Then since I got my WO8VET (vanity) calsign and I have 4 contacts and soon will be studying for my General class licese. The thing I like about the Kenwood Th-f6a also is the ability to get tv. channels and music along with sports radio stations.
WO8VET Ryan Dayton Ohio
KG4TZM Rating: 2006-08-09
Good for a surplus of all features Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Kenwood TH-F6A is my only HT, so I don't have much to compare it to. I have had it for roughly two years and have been very pleased with it as a "first HT."

I like almost everything about this radio. Reception with the internal bar antenna is cruddy on HF. However, if you disable the internal bar antenna and attach an external antenna to the HT, you will do much better at receiving AM BCB and SW. I tried what an earlier reviewer of this HT suggested; unplugged an old curly telephone cord from an unused phone headset, wrapped it around the stock duck antenna, and plugged the other end into the telephone line and used that as an HF antenna for reception. When I used the attenuator feature simultaneously with the "antenna," reception of SW and AM BCB significantly improved. It may be crude, but it worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

I don't typically use the dual receive function on the radio, although I do see the convenience of it and am thankful to have that feature.

TX has exceeded my expectations for this radio. The screen is a little scratched up from use, but the scratches give it character. I kind of wish the rig had a more "solid" feel to it though. 144/222/440 TX on an HT is nice; a real selling point for this rig.

Although a little pricey, this radio is a good buy for somebody who needs a good "all-around" 2 meter/1.25 meter/440 MHz radio. If you need TX on just one or two bands on the radio, I have my suspicions that you might want to go with another HT. For me though, HF reception and three-band TX was icing on the cake!
KA6FJR Rating: 2006-07-21
The Radio is Good, but the Accessories are Poor! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased this radio because I wanted 220 capability. I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of use as it is a lot easier to program and operate than the VX-5R I had. Considering only the radio itself I would give a rating of a low 5. When I consider the availability and quality of the accessories I would give it a rating of a low 1 at best and more realistically a 0.

The problems with the accessories start right from the time you open the box. You note that there is not an option to purchase a standup battery charger. I had to locate and purchase one from Batteries America and they have poor service and I didn't receive it for almost 6 months because they were waiting to ship it with the high capacity battery they are advertising for the TH-F6A, which have been on back order for over a year. When I finally checked with them I found this to be the situation and asked that the immediately send me the stand up charger. I was having difficulty keeping batteries charged as in order to not overcharge them you have to place your wall wart on a timer and the battery on the radio. A real problem for me.

Next, I tried to put the carrying case on the radio. It was like trying to put a pair of 28" pants on a 34" waist. I tried to stretch the thing as best I could but eventually lost all the rubber covers and switch covers on the radio. When I contacted Kenwood about this they did not offer to replace these items, instead giving me the address to Pacific Coast Parts. I've replaced two rubber covers and they are difficult to plug into the jacks on the side of the radio. Replacing the switch covers or heads on the left side of the radio requires taking the radio apart and although I purchased a spare set in addition to the replacements, I find it time consuming to make this repair. Then the PTT button fell out and I would have to guess that this is a result of the very tight case. I guess I made the mistake of pulling on the antenna, even though I tried very hard not too, while taking the case on and off. Next the center pin on the rubber duckie antenna broke off in the SMA female connector. I had to order this part and replace it myself as I didn't want the radio to be in for warranty repair for a prolonged period of time. I was very careful replacing the connector but about 3 weeks after completing the repair I began to lose the middle number on the channel display. I don't know if I somehow overheated the display leading to this problem, or if it happened independently. I continue to have problems getting the case on and off the radio without destroying the jacks cover, switch covers, PTT, and SMA connector.

When you look at the number of parts available from Pacific Coast parts it is remarkable how many parts are not available and how many that were are now discontinued. This does not bode well for the future of trying to maintain this radio.

Next came the breaking of the belt clip for the case. I use the radio at work and am occasionaly working in tight places. When the radio gets hung up on something the belt clip spring easily breaks out of the plastic. The plastic breaks in a way that it cannot be repaired with super glue. To much tension is placed on a very thin layer of plastic to have a glue joint hold. No problem, just replace the clip right? No, you have to buy another one of the poor quality cases just to get another belt clip and they don't come cheap. Now I find myself with two cases that are nearly imposssible to get on and off the radio, two broken belt clips, and almost $40 expended. I'm fed up with the case and haven't been able to find a good replacement. For now I'm using an old VX-5R after market case, which was designed for the location of the VX-5's speaker, and it covers the TH-F6A's speaker and I can hardly hear it.

Next comes the software used to program the Kenwood. It does not allow for cutting and pasting of the frequencies or moving a channel or group of channels up or down so making changes is cumbersome. I have scanner programming software and software for my Yeasu mobiles that is much easier to use than this Kenwood software.

In summary, I love the radio itself but would rank the accessories so poor that I will probably not purchase another Kenwood handheld when my wife passes her tech. The ease of operating the radio (as others have said it is more intuitive than the Yeasus) is a huge plus, but those accessories!!
K9XYZ Rating: 2006-07-19
Good but not the best Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Kenwood thf-6a is a good HT but it is not the best one. Everyone wants to compare this one to the VX-7R so I will as well. The 6a has some good features but not anywhere near the number the 7R has. I have owned several of each one and have one of each brand new ones sitting on my desk right now. The receive on the Yaesu is much better, if you can't hear em you sure can't talk to em. The kenwood is nice looking and feels good in the hand but it does not feel anywhere near as solid as the 7R, the 6a feels more "fragile".
Its nice that the 6a has 5 watts on 220 but if you know what you're doing you can tweak the power on the 7R on 220 up to around 2 watts giving you the only true quad band HT on the market. 6 meters is usable I made a 1000 mile contact on the supplied 6 meter antenna standing outside with 5 watts on my 7R, who says 6 meters on an HT is a waste?? You also get 1 watt on 6 meter am!
The 6a has some features that you can access with one key press some of the features on the 7R take two keys, no big deal to me.
The 6a has no clock function at all.

This comparison could really be long but to make a long story short, if you can afford it get both.

If you want only one HT and get many of the accessories then you would be hard pressed to find one that will beat the VX-7R, the THF-6A is good but it's just not the best.

In fact the last two 6a's I bought one of which is on my desk brand new out of the box, wobbles, that is neither of them sit flat and true, they both have some wobble, how tacky is that?

73


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Earlier 5-star review posted by K9XYZ on 2001-12-05

Great size, nice feel. Easy to use Ht with a lot of features. Would like to have seen terminals on battery pack so a drop in charger would be possible, like my VX-5R. So far good audio both transmit and receive, works well on all three transmit bands. Hook up an external wide range antenna to it and recieve anything you want, great reciver on SSB as well. The battery on this HT lasts forever I have not been able to completly discharge it.
73
N3ORX Rating: 2006-07-19
Best HT I've owned. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
If I had to own just one HT, this would be it. I have two ICOM HT's and had an Alinco and a Pryme...this one is the one I use most often. It is easy to take with me on trips, is the most versatile and is the easiest to use. I have had it for three years now, and would recommend it to anyone who has any need or desire for an HT without any reservations whatsoever.