| AA2LD |
Rating:      |
2005-08-29 | |
| Wonderful |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
It's a great thing in Ham radio to have a piece of equipment you love and would never get rid of. This little radio is in my car and connected to a roof mounted antenna at times, at other times I use the 320 A Diamond rubber antenna. Wonderful audio reports, excellent receive, intuitive menu, and quality built.
Oh yes, the free program from Kenwood is excellent for computer programming (although the parallel port connection is a pain).
I've held onto my Yaesu 5R (which is really built like a tank) but I like the Kenwood better.
Echo the other reviewer's sentiments about the battery being great. No need for aftermarket stuff, altough a bucket charger would be nice.
Love this radio. |
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| W5MJL |
Rating:    |
2005-08-17 | |
| Great but |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This radio has many features, and I found those features very easy to learn and remember. I think the best part of the radio is the dual receive.
It definitely would be nice to have more choices on power other that 5watt, .5 watts, and .05 watts.
The radio is very expensive, and unless you need the 1.25 meter band it isn't worth the price. I purchased it because I wanted the hf. I felt that I could take it whenever I go out of town and I wouldn't need to bring a sw receiver to listen to hf.
Big mistake. It's performance on hf is absolutely atrocious, even with an external antenna. Unless you have someone running 1500 watts in your neighborhood you are not going to hear them.
AM Shortwave bands can only receive the absolute most powerful stations. A 39.00 shortwave receiver with an internal telescopic antenna is better than the hf portion of this Kenwood radio.
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| SHAGGY8675 |
Rating:     |
2005-08-16 | |
| Great little radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've got htis radio for several weeks now, and must say i'm verry surprised with the way it performs.
When working 2m and 70cm everything works perfect, even twin freq. recieve etc. great fun.
I use the radio mostly for recieving, and must say that it performs great. Put in a little bit of wire, and away you go. All HAM bands, i got signals here from all over Europe, and they sound great. SSB sounds verry clear for a HT.
400+ channels for scanning are enough for me, it doesn't go 100ch/sec, but it's fast enough for my needs.
And you can scan 2 bands at once using the duall VFO.
Audio is clear, but could us a little better/larger speaker perhaps. Buttons are small, but for me that is no problem with my hand-size.
Antenna...replace it please with a good aftermarket one.
Batery is perfect, the little Lithium/Ion batery can take a lot of work. But must say charging takes a while ( 6 + hrs. )
It's a shame you can't plug in the adapter and talk, because mine restarts itself. A small little PSU might do the trick.
Ohh, don't forget the SMA to BNC connector for better/external antenna's
All in all, great radio, for few money ( 299 Euro new ) With the batery, 0/1300 SSB/CW capable... what more could you wich for...
Blue backlight perhaps ;)
Nice yob Kenwood, finaly a HT with scanning capabileties and most importantly SSB/CW
Join me @ www.globallistening.tk |
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| KF5OK |
Rating:     |
2005-07-08 | |
| test before u buy |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
My rating reflect that i don't want to skew the ratings as this is an FYI post.
I picked this unit bases on the reviews here on eham to replace my venerable FT-50R. Not too many choices if you need/want dual receive.
Make sure you test the radio before you leave the store or request that it be fully tested before purchase.
From the moment I turned it on after charging I felt that there was something wrong. The noise from the receiver was atrocious. I could barely key a local 2m repeater in Norfolk, VA with the power set to Hi. It should have been an easy hit. I noticed the power out bar graph would bounce to full then fall off to the EL output level. Not knowing if this was normal for this new radio I wasn’t sure if it was broke and I had no test equipment. I was trying to use the little rig in a hotel room and the noise that I was getting was almost blanking out the full scale rec. from the repeater. I was in aw, again. Luckily, I had to make a return trip to NY so I stopped at the HRO Del store where I bought it and they checked it out and agreed that it was a broken unit. They seemed to be surprised also. I almost chose the VX7 but decided to take another Kenwood. With so many +++ reviews and the expected battery performance of this radio I figured, “give it another try” after all I have to go by there in a couple of days again any way.
The initial report of the replacement radio in much better than the first. HRO was good and gave me a different batch S/N radio. J I live in Queens near LGA airport and hit the 441.1 repeater in downtown Brooklyn full quiet. My guesstamation is about 9-10mi away.
I will place another report in the future…. Test
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| KC2LOG |
Rating:      |
2005-07-02 | |
| great little rig |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
had this rig for about a year and i dropped it by mistake atleast 10 times. you know what?, it keeps coming back for more. it does so much and i wish i could rate it a 10.
if you want the best small HT, get the TH-F6 |
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| DG7JX |
Rating:    |
2005-07-01 | |
| Average |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Sold it after two weeks of intensive use because of the poor receiver! TH-G71 was way better. Also the TH-F7E (TH-F6A in USA) is too small, its "cubic" shape makes it difficult to operate, especially with one hand. Antenna is poor, too. |
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| K7PKT |
Rating:      |
2005-06-10 | |
| Reliable, compact, quality. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Purchased my TH-F6A from another ham on eBay for $300, in used condition, bought an extra MAHA battery and all accessories I could find. I have owned and used it frequently for two years now. Being an ARES/RACES member helps give me opportunities to utilize this awesome HT.
Excellent as a handheld scanner, easy hookup for digital modes (9600 capable), versatile, compact and intuitive.
I don't use the 220, there is a lot of 2m and 70cm in my area. The 400 memories and extremely wide receive is very nice to have. While working on Element 1, I used it hooked to a random wire to hear the W1AW code test (more noise than there should have been, but no attenuation is possible for the HF frequencies). It accompanies me to work daily as it is so compact it takes up about as much room as an apple in the lunchbag.
Haven't had a problem charging either the old or new battery. I hope others find out why they have had problems.
For serious use I purchased a Comet tri-band antenna. Intermod isn't really an issue when I have this antenna attached. Since the radio is such a wide reciever, intermod is near guaranteed with the stock duck antenna; if you get a triband antenna for it, or even a dual bander you will limit it's receive capabilities. It's a tradeoff.
The SMA connector on this radio is really well attached inside - if the antenna moves, the radio moves. No wobble.
Battery life is exceptional.
Audio quality through unit, headset or hand mic is also exceptional - but that is standard for Kenwood, isn't it?
Please note that I am biased toward Kenwood radios. Their tech support hasn't treated me any differently than ICOM or Yaesu. If you ever need to contact any service center for upgrades or repairs, get all names and numbers of whoever you talk to - but that's just common sense, right?
73,
K7PKT
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| K1HPD |
Rating:     |
2005-06-01 | |
| update |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Now that I have a working radio back (thank you Bruce from Lentini) I have had about three weeks to re-appraise this radio. It does all that I bought it for and then some. Excellent recieve (some intermod issues as mentioned in other posts)a good performer on all bands (a full five watts on 220, thank you Kenwood as this band is alive in my area). The only thing that stops me from giving it a 5 is this one also has a charging issue. About every third charge the radio will not fire up off of the charger. I have to either a) wait for 10 minutes for it to cool, b) disconnect and reconnect the battery (which resets a curcuit breaker affair in the battery) or c) both of the above. I can live with this as the battery life is outstanding. This HT goes everywhere with me.
Al
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Earlier 0-star review posted by K1HPD on 2005-05-12
As an active uhf/220/2 meter (in that order) user I was looking for an Ht to replace my old Tempo S2 for 220. After much studying of reviews I decided to sell my Yaesu Vx5R and replace it with the Kenwood TH-F6A as six meter FM in an Ht in NH is fairly useless. I purchased the Kenwood last Friday and as I have several friends who have them reviewed the charging "quirk" in the manual prior to its first used. I programmed the radio Saturday and gave it a workout and was thrilled with the performance (I bought the Comet aftermarket antenna as well). The battery life was good (better then the VX5R) and the recieve was good if not a little too hot (lots of intermod but again I was aware of this prior to purchase). So far it sounds like the radio deserves better then 0. Now the rub. I unplugged the radio today after charging it and guess what? Dead in the water zip zero. This after following the directions for plugging in the charger. As I bought the Ht mail order I now have to call the company tomorrow and arraign for its return most likly leaving me without a tri-band Ht for a week(s). A 300 plus dollar radio and three uses before having to ship it back. Excellant quality control Kenwood. I may change my rating depending on how much trouble I have to go through aquiring a replacement and whether the replacement lasts longer then a week. Thankfully I kept the Tempo and a VX150.
Allan Young
K1HPD |
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| JOHNS3620 |
Rating:     |
2005-05-26 | |
| Good little radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Let me start by saying that I am new to the hobbie. I went on all the sites and did the research, and everything pointed to kenwood. I bought one, used, but I bought one anyway. The good points Audio from the radio good. Output from the speaker good. Receieve is a little hot but not bad. Yes it does have some birdies, no you cannot go near computers. O.K. I can Live with that. as far as TX output very good, audio as well. Band coverage good. Battery Life execelent. O.K. now the things I do not like. The button to turn on the light and the attenuation button very hard to press. You will definetaly need to change the factory antenna, not because it doesnt perform o.k. but I get better results with the after market. I have not had any issues with charging the unit. The radio does heat up if you talk alot. My overall opinion on the radio is for the price and as a walk around town radio it is worth the money. |
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| OZ1LQO |
Rating:     |
2005-04-19 | |
| 3 years and still happy! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Wrote my first review Jan 29 2002, and now, 3 years down the road, I'm still a happy duck! :)
The HT works as well as ever, the battery charging issues I mentioned back then was definitely just a hoax.
I considered selling it when I got my FT-7800, but I realize now, that it is really going nowhere except I'm with it. This HT is definitely for keeps guys :)
The only reason I haven't upgraded my rating to a clear and clean 5/5, is because the text on the keys seem to wear out. Not a major issue, but still a bit annoying.
cheers and best 73
Soren- OZ1LQO
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Earlier 4-star review posted by OZ1LQO on 2002-01-29
Hi, hope you don't mind a little comment from Europe :)
Having been around IC-2SET, IC-W2E and VX-1R, this HT is definitely for keeps!
Got my TH-F7E (European version, without the 220MHz band) a couple of months ago, read the one page in the manual, that sets you off right away, and had a whole weekend of fun :)
Best:
User interface and display backlight. Coming from the VX-1R, this really is heaven.
Medium:
The whip antenna. Works best in the designated amateur bands, and basically not at all, when you get below 70-80MHz. Not that I expected anything else, but still.. ;)
The built in ferrite antenna helps alot in the SW/MW bands, gives you the most powerful AM stations in the area (in my case: Europe), but
at the end of the day: not much more....
Try hooking up an external longwire tho, and howdy-ho hear this little critter come to life! :)
Which brings us to
Worst:
Intermodulation and spurii. When listening the shortwave bands with an external antenna, you'll almost for sure need to use the built-in 20dB attenuator to reduce intermod.products.
Also the radio suffers from a zillion beats/spurii. You can reduce/shift these with and option in the menu, but this won't help you when vfo-scanning a large band.
Well, I guess you can't have it all :)
Weirdest:
What is the comments in the manual abt 'overcharging' the battery all about?
I seriously doubt, that Kenwood would design a hich-tech HT like this one without securing the battery against overcharging. One sure way to get bad reviews and unhappy customers.
Anyway it turns out, that when the two led's switches off, indicating "end of charge", the battery and the wall-adaptor also cools down to a more normal temperature so my guess is, that charging stops i.e. no overcharging.
I always have it charge overnight, so if there really was an overcharging issue, I would've fried the battery by now for sure ;)
All in all conclusion:
The best HT I ever had.
best 73
Soren / OZ1LQO
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