| WD8TIM |
Rating:      |
2002-04-06 | |
| Great Radio! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| im not a Kenwood fan but this rig is a great rig to have at home to remote. the reason i got the radio is there is not too much on the market for x-band remote mobile radios out there for $400.00 so i took a chance and it worked out great. i love the radio,the software could be better, but other than that no problems.. |
|
| KB8QKW |
Rating:      |
2002-03-26 | |
| A+ 144/440 Rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| What can a guy say. This is just a great radio. This radio and I have been many, many miles together. I've had it mounted as is, with the face detached, changed often between two vechicles, external speaker attached, NO external speaker attached, sideways, on a picnic table with a 12 volt battery attached, used as a cross band repeater for my HT...it just always performs. The ONLY complaint I would have would be that in direct sunlight, the display is a bit hard to read, but, what radio isn't? If you want a reliable dual-band rig that you will always be able to depend on, this is the one. |
|
| N5TAM |
Rating:     |
2002-03-18 | |
| Good Radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Have had mine since it first came out. Got mine for the DATA feature. Had it in my ASTRO and replaced it with a D700 when it came out (blue display is hard to see in the Texas sun. It was, and still is, used for APRS work. It's now my APRS base stastion. The only real problem I have with the radio (other than not seeing the display in the sun) is that the DATA BAND will interrupt a conversation on the voice band! Not very polite!
|
|
| KD5LDW |
Rating:      |
2002-03-06 | |
| Excellent Radio ! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Excellent Radio ! Kenwood again has out done themselves, the display is Excellent indoors however would be hard to read in mobile . If you are buying this one for a base unit you can not go wrong!
----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KD5LDW on 2002-03-06
Excellent Radio ! Kenwood again has out done themselves, the display is Excellent indoors however would be hard to read in mobile . If you are buying this one for a base unit you can not go wrong! |
|
| KD7GXU |
Rating:     |
2002-03-06 | |
| great radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This is a great radio. I have it in my van with the display remote mounted on the ceiling above the rearview mirror. The only bad thing is when you mount it low the sun really makes the display hard to see. It could also use wider receive. This has to win the coolest looking radio award for sure. |
|
| KC8APT |
Rating:      |
2002-02-19 | |
| I love it |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Cross-band repeat, split (1/2 crossband) repeat (as a feature), computer programmable, small detachable head, VxU, VxV and UxU, and memory labels on both bands, both visible at the same time...
This radio (and it's bigger brother, the TM-D700A) is the only radio on the market that has all of the above features. It'd be nice if other manufacturers would step up to the plate, but for now, this is the only game in town.
|
|
| KF6PBE |
Rating:      |
2002-01-17 | |
| Love this radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Got the radio June 2000. I use it 8 hours a day in my tractor while at work. It gets a lot of road shock, vibration and heat.
I have learned over the time that the display is way easier to see if you have facing you exactly. This way light coming in from behind you will not reflect off of the plastic lens and give you glare.
At first I thought the display could be washed out by bright light so I held it face up into the sun and it looked even better. This helped me to realize that the reflection on the lens was the main problem.
Cross banding is super easy. Just push D then C on the mic. I use the cross band feature a lot.
When cross banding I ask for an audio report and it is always (I can not tell your are cross banding).
Added two external speakers (Left 2 meter and Right 440) which helps me now which repeater came up.
It has a lot of features some I will never use.
We have 2 of them and would like a third for a full time base for the house.
Gripe, there is no replacement for the control head! As far as I know if you loose it or it is stolen that is it! I contacted Kenwood and they e mailed me back confirming the worst.
A month ago my display got some vertical lines in it. I sent the control head into Kenwood. They replaced the display for 267.43. The display was 187.00. The display and board came as one unit and was inside of the control head a very easy swap that I could have done and saved 80.00 If I had known I would have ordered the display myself and done it in about ten minutes. I looks great everything works great I am happy with this radio even though I spent 80.00 too much for the repair.
KF6PBE |
|
| MIETI |
Rating:      |
2002-01-10 | |
| Great Radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've had this radio since May 2000. It has been superb since day one and never had any problems whatsoever. I have used at home mainly on a Watson 300 antenna. RX and TX are superb, though I did find an external speaker to enhance the sound quality 100%, but that is expected with any mobile radio.
Build quality is superb, though I would agree that the knobs always seems a little cheap?...ish?.. Mine have never fell off or come loose, its just the way they feel...ya know what i mean?...LOL
I love the display and the options to invert the colour, change contrast and brightness. Even whilst mobile, whether day or night, I have no problems. I believe I use this radio to the full, utilising all aspects of the various control settings. There are plenty of enhanced settings which give this radio a personal feel:-)
BTW, yes, it does get breakthrough from packet and cellular in built up areas, but, so do the rest just the same. KW have an excellent advantage in the AIP which when activated, practically eliminates 100% of this problem. The AIP does affect signal slightly on RX, but, I have seem very little loss of RX audio :-) ...Great, and well chuffed, and a very happy UK Chappy.
I love it:-)
73s |
|
| GW0VNR |
Rating:     |
2001-12-30 | |
| Typical Kenwood |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have the TM-V7E, european version (obviously) but the comments apply equally since the difference is two jumpers.
I found the set aesthetically pleasing, the 'cool' (sic) blue display being easy to read and clear in most lighting conditions. The front panel is easily removable, which finally answers the idiocy of being able to remove the broadcast set's controls but not the ham rig.
Unfortunately, like most modern Kenwoods, the fron panel suffers from knob loss. Now cut out laughing and let me explain; the TM-V7 has a concentric pushbutton that controls the MHz step, and this can be very loose, as can the two volume controls. On the plus side these can be had from KSpares, and they are cheap, but they still shouldn't fall off.
Electronically, well, here's an area this set fell down on. I have had many Kenwoods, including a TM701 and a 732, and all have had excellent receivers and good audio on transmit. Whilst the transmit audio was Kenwood's usual finest, the receiver suffers from bad breakthrough from pagers/trunking with the AIP off. It's much better with AIP (advanced intercept point - supposedly improves dynamic range) on, but this is at the expense of received signal.
That said, the set is clean on TX, with only minor sprogs evident, an is on a par with most modern kit.
Would I recommend it? Yes, and I have. Despite my comments above (and I am critical when I review a radio) the set is well built, easier to use than most and a joy to look at. The microphone controls are easily modified to perform whatever function you require, and hands-free kits are easy to build for this radio (if you're a network guy with the RJ45 tool) and info is easily available. Best of all, the site has the MCP software as a free download, and the PG4S lead can be homebrewed easily using a MAX232 and a PS/2 mouse cable. |
|
| AB6WQ |
Rating:     |
2001-12-30 | |
| a good mobile rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I gave the TM-V7A a #4 instead of a #5 is the
display was the only thing really wrong with
the rig, at nite it is very easy to read but
in the daytime it's very hard to see the
display espically while driving. Its not
impossible to see but difficult to read...
There's alot of neat features on it which make it
a nice rig... I've been using the V7A in my mobile
for years & it still talking....no problems..
73... |
|