Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Kenwood TM-3530A

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

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Kenwood TM-3530A
Reviews: 8MSRP: $300
Description:
220 MHz FM transceiver made by Kenwood in the mid to late 80's.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://None
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0084.9
N6HPO Rating: 2022-03-20
A Wonderful 220 MHz Rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Here in SoCal, there are over ONE HUNDRED 220 MHz repeaters. Early on, I began searching for a 220 MHz rig; I am a CERT instructor and wanted my ham students to be aware of just what is available and why, I believe, that 220 MHz is a very important and strategic band of 5 MHz.

I bought my Kenwood rig from a ham buddy in Santa Barbara. I haven't used it much, just preferred my Alinco 235. Was thinking about putting the Alinco in the car, but this rig is the one for the truck. I've had my 3530A for about 15 years.

I really like the Alinco which I programmed with the RT Systems software. Works flawlessly. Not many 220 rigs around that you can count on like these two workhorses! I have an Anytone 878UV also has provisions for 220 MHz; I use it for local and semi-distant nets.

The only drawback with the 40 year old Kenwood radio is that parts can be a problem to obtain. The programming is something you have to do a couple of times for it to get into the muscle memory, hi-hi. All in all it's a great radio and I thank my friend for offering it to me.

If you are a "ecomm" ham or have aspiration to be so, I would strongly urge you to purchase a 220 MHz rig. Here in California with the wildfires and continual threat of earthquakes, the two-meter and 70 cm bands are going to be absolutely packed with comms when a disaster does occur. You may have to contend with "jammers" perhaps. With 220 MHz, not so much due to the 1) scarcity of available rigs and 2) some hams may think that the worst could ever occur to them or their community. They may be correct...maybe not.
N9SSU Rating: 2018-03-23
Hottest RX & Best sounding TX, ever for 220Mhz Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This unit was a great offering from Kenwood. Long in the tooth these days, but it beats all the current Chinese made or relabeled Japanese offerings (made in China). If you want 50 watt radios which overheat, have noisy front ends and 200 memories with PC programming, this is not for you.

If you want easy front panel programming, solid front end which is hot and has no intermod, awesome Kenwood TX audio, 25 watts TX, 23 Memories, Scanning and an Optional VS1 Voice Synthesizer for vision impaired folks, this is it.

The PL tone CTCSS is NOT installed from the factory. Piexx aftermarket plugin works great but will set you back some $$$$.

These are over 30 years old, so the parts which are failing are a) the squelch knob b) Make sure your memory backup battery isn't leaking.

There is (sadly) no 440 equivalent to this even though a rater here was assuming one was made, but there are 3 different 2 meter offerings under the TM-25xx badge, offering either 25, 45 or 70 watt versions.

One of the best radios I have ever owned.
N2MDV Rating: 2017-01-11
Great full featured FM 222MHz rig, even today! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was at the 1993 Elmira Winter Hamfest and had seen that a friend of mine had this 222MHz rig for sale. Since Elmira, NY has two 222MHz machines, I bought it. I made my own 1/4-wave GND plane for it and was able to work the area's two 222MHz machines. I got to be a trustie later of the 223.980-/R NR2P machine. (Still up at 2017.) The rig will do over 30W and has a nice big heatsink to take it. Don't have to worry about the added expense of a DTMF mic since the rig has a DTMF front faced keypad built on. NICE!!!! Programming is the Kenwood easiness and it does include all the CTCSS tones. Not every 2M rig from the mid to late 1980's had that even. This rig still works 25 years later since I bought it, and it's a keeper. Now, going on 30 years. Good Kenwood RX / TX audio quality with it as well. If I see the 2M, or 440MHz, version of this rig, I would be very tempted to buy it, whether I need it today, or not.
AA1PR Rating: 2012-04-25
Best of the Best Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Wish I had never sold mine

it was very easy to use & program

loved the sound of a reciever like only Knwd can do
KC4CP Rating: 2006-07-30
WOULD BUY IT TODAY! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought a couple of these in the early 90s. I loved them. Sadly, over the years, I sold them both. I would love to find a mint one for the shack. They are really too big for mobile ... but they make an impressive shack rig. Simply put, if Kenwood reintroduced this radio ... I WOULD BUY IT TODAY!
K6USI Rating: 2004-10-19
I am very happy with mine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a 220 radio
I bought mine new about 10 years ago and installed their accessory PL board. It worked right out of the box and has been working ever since. I would not sell mine. It is easy to use but you will need the manual to get started.

Kenwood also makes a radio like this for 2 meters. I never owned one, but understand they are very good also.
KG6NIE Rating: 2003-06-02
Good older Kenwood 220 rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the radio from another ham for $100 bucks, and so far I am pleased. The radio is an older rig,(probably late 80's I think) but is still halfway modern looking. It has a large digital lcd display, which along with the other controls/keys is backlit in an easy on the eyes green. I like it(to much amber these days). You can also turn off the backlite for the keys seperate from the display. The rig is a little larger than the current mobile rigs out today,(about the size of a Cobra 29 CB) so consider that when thinking of running it mobile like I do. That said, the radio is built solid, they don't make them like this anymore.

The radio is pretty easy to program and use, though you might need the manual a bit until your used to it(as it programs a little different than the current Kenwoods). It has built in ctcss encode, selectable from the display, and storable in any of it's 23 memory channels. 23 channels isn't a lot by today's standards, but it will get you by, at least on 220. The rig will from TX 225 mhz down to 220 mhz by the way... The radio also has a numbers keypad on the face of the radio for direct frequency entry, and DTMF, even if you don't have a DTMF mic(mine came with the MC-48 DTMF mic however).

I have gotten good audio and signal reports so far, and I'm happy with it's overall performance. The rig puts out 25 watts on HI and 5 watts on LOW. While on LOW the the s-meter acts as a mic/audio modulation meter while TX'ing(kinda cool). I have had no problems getting into the local repeaters.

One last thing, the rig sports Kenwoods DCL system(if equipped with the optional DCL module.
Digital Channel Linking-DCL is kinda like the same concept as trunking. Two or more DCL equiped radios(using the same user selectable DCL code) monitor a control freq. TX'ed by the control radio, which tells the other radios what freq. to go to when any of the radios key up to talk. That way you are always TX'ing on a different freq. every time, making your conversation hard to scan/listen to by other hams etc. Also alows more users on less freqs by organizing TX.

Overall a good rig, I recomend it if you find one in good shape for $100-150 bucks and compactness and tons of memories are not a must. I certainly would buy another. Thanks for reading, and 73's -Kenneth, KG6NIE.
N6JPA Rating: 2003-04-26
Good Rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased this radio for $300 back in 1989 and have used it mobile, base and portable all over the country and it is a solid performer. They don't make rigs like this any more.