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Reviews For: Kenwood TMV71A

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

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Review Summary For : Kenwood TMV71A
Reviews: 106MSRP: 399.00
Description:
The advanced Kenwood TM-V71A dual bander provides sophisticated, high-powered performance on 2 meters and 440 MHz. Power levels are 5/10/50 watts on both bands. The large radio display clearly conveys the status of the radio and can be set to green or amber.
Product is in production
More Info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kenwood_TMV-71A
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001064.5
KN4DQE Rating: 2017-08-13
EASY to learn and use! Packed full of features! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I absolutely love this radio! I read all of the reviews of this radio, versus the Yaesu and Icom models and decided on this model. I didn't get the 710 as I don't need APRS right now, but like the fact that I can always upgrade the faceplate and obtain that functionality. The radio itself is extremely easy to operate, and program. I was up and running in literally 10 min without reading the manual.
K4MJV Rating: 2017-07-26
Great dual band radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I just picked up my second TM-V71A because the first one works so well. Pretty straight forward transceiver that is easy to program, cross band repeats, echo link if you need it, and more. As long as you're not looking for one of the digital modes then this is the radio you want. It is 50W on both VFH and UHF which is a big plus. The fan is a bit loud but since these are in my mobiles it's not an issue for me. I can see why when mounted in a nice quiet shack it could be annoying. I like the feel of the mic - it feels solid and fits my hand well. Also, this is a little thing but Kenwood supplies the best mic hangers with their rigs compared to the other manufacturers. There are a few minuses but not enough to drop my score to a 4, the most being the cost of the Kenwood remote mount kit. Too easy to make one with stuff laying around the shack to pay $50 for the factory kit.
N7AY Rating: 2017-05-07
Just works, and works well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my TM-V71A for 2 years now. I use it daily and am very happy with it. It just works and does it well. Notable features are cross-band capability, Remote control from HT, ease of use, dual channel, direct computer connect for digital work, 180 degree flipping head, clear and readable display, sound quality.

It isn't perfect, in my opinion it has a few minor flaws, but not enough to rate it a 4. They are: Med power level is 10W, it should have been 20-25W. Fan noise could be a little lower. I wish is was 75W instead of 50W on high power.

I would recommend the radio to anyone - money well spent.
K9OBX Rating: 2017-02-02
Good Mobile Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This little radio surprised me. I have owned a number of Yaesus and this is my second Kenwood ( I still have the other one). It works flawlessly in cross band repeat mode and is a perfect match for my TH-D72A handheld. Together, with almost any HT, I can completely control this radio from outside the car. I can put it in and out of cross band repeat and even change frequencies and a whole lot more. I would highly recommend this or the 710

I would definitely buy it again.
K4KXX Rating: 2016-11-13
Dead carrier byitself? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought two of these TM-v71's one for my mobile adn one for my base hoping to set up an Echolink Link at my QTH. For abot 3 weeks we ( meaning the local hams on simplex) have been encountering a problem with a dead carrier on 145.600. After messing around trying to track the signal I noticed it was coming from my house !!! Apparently my radio would automatically send a dead carrier all by itself for upwards of 10 minutes ! I'm going to call Kenwood in the morning. This radio is only about 2 months old!!
N4WFK Rating: 2016-10-17
Good radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Good radio and I have 3 of them. My only gripes are that two of the radios have PTT button issues and none are even a year old yet. After a while, they seem to bind when you are keying the microphone and it gets annoying.

Do not buy the VGS-1 option if you are expecting to get voice confirmations to the DTMF tones you send while remotely controlling the TM-V71A. My ICOM 2410 did this wonderfully 20 years ago so I don't know why Kenwood dropped the ball on including this functionality for the optional and expensive voice board.

Time will tell if the rest of the radio holds up but I'm a Kenwood fan so I'll try to be optimistic.
IW2BSF Rating: 2016-08-28
Amazing radio ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
i just buy this nice radio last week....is amazing ! my dubt is to buy or this radio (a old kenwood model, hi) or the new icom-2730 , i prefere kenwood.

The radio scanner is very sensible, and the power is too high.

The program to program this radio is FREE by kenwood (that is good!!) but bad that the cable cost over 40 dollars... i have buy a "normal" RS-232 to USB adapter and i home-made the cable by my-self for 3-4 dollars !



POSITIVE is:

- very sensible on MARS band
- have the trasponder mode (v-v u-u or v-u )
- as remotable with others radio via dtmf
- is possible to connect to digital DATA
(aprs , packet modem )



the NEGATIVE points of this radio is:

- the internal spekars is not very good
(in spacial mode if you use in car !)

- the fan is rumor when come on

- the micophone NOT have the same colours of the
frontal pannel !!! very bad.... the micro keys
have only the bad amber colorized !

i have MOD and fix this porblem with a nice "white" colour of this key, if you interest to
mod and fix this see on my web site:

http://rodolfo-parisio.jimdo.com/nuovi-articoli-2016/


with a 4 white led smd cost of 1-2 dollars you change the colour amber to a best white !

best 73 de Rudy - IW2BSF

HAMSTUDY Rating: 2016-05-13
Excellent VHF/UHF Transceiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I studied the similar VHF/UHF models from Yaesu and Icom and also the VHF-only models (including Kenwood's 281A VHF model). The Yaesu 2900R looked very good but once I decided to go for VHF and UHF I studied the competitive VHF/UHF models in more detail by reading reviews, watching Youtube reviews, studying the manuals, and actually operating the units at a local store. In some cases, even with the manual in hand some of the other models just didn't seem as logically designed as the TM-V71. While I wouldn't call any of the radios' user interfaces super intuitive the TM-V71's UI combined with the many favorable reviews regarding the transmit/receive performance persuaded me to go with this particular Kenwood.

I should point out that I use the radio as a desktop base station rather than in a vehicle, so my experience might not be relevant in all respect to users with mobile installations. I use a Diamond SX-400 which makes monitoring power levels and SWR easy and fun. The TM-V71 and the SX-400 are powered by an Alinco DM-330MV.

Another disclaimer is that this my first radio other than a HT so my ability to compare radios is pretty limited. My comments might be of interest to other first time users more than for experienced users. Along these lines even though I selected the TM-V71 over the competitive units in part because of it's "ease of use" there was/is a learning curve. Between the user interface and the manual you can figure out how to operate the many features without a lot of study but keep the manual handy because there are a lot of features and the manual can save some time. Youtube also offers a lot of help with this model. I've only had the radio about 3 months and it seems that the more you use it the more you can anticipate how to invoke features.

The TM-V71 makes it easy to monitor two stations at the same time - such as a VHF and a UHF station or whatever frequency and a weather channel. Learning to use the crossband feature and learning to use repeaters have been very cool parts of my early ham experience. One of the local clubs has good activity on both their VHF and UHF repeaters so it's easy to find and join in a good conversation at many times. The ability to easily work on two bands has become handy and fun. It's fair to say this radio has led me to a number of good new ham buddies.

As for the performance I seem to get plenty of good reports on the strength and quality of the signal both with repeaters and on simplex. I use the radio with an Elk Log Periodic antenna so maybe that helps; the transceiver and antenna make a great pair.

As mentioned by others one nice change Kenwood could consider would be adding a power setting between 10 and 50 Watts.

Overall this radio has helped make my start into hamland very enjoyable and I highly recommend the TM-V71.
K6BCM Rating: 2016-04-27
Good reliable radio lacking a feature Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Great radio, solid performer, my only real complaint is that the radio has a 30 mhz maximum reapeater offset. It would be nice if Kenwood would make the TM-V71A capable of "crossband offset". Being able to listen on one band and transmit on the other, from one VFO. If it did that I would give it a 5 rating.
VE6DO Rating: 2016-04-11
Great radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I absolutely love this radio. It is well thought out and the learning curve is pretty simple. I did watch some YouTube videos before getting the radio to learn a few things. That helped and the manual is not that bad for other things. I also have like 4 friends with either the V71A or D710A so they are there for my questions. The only thing I would have liked is 4 power levels .. 5,10,25,50. Just cause some times 10 does not cut it and you need to go to 50. A step between would have been useful. I do not like running on H unless I have to. I have owned several other mobile radios in the past and this one is a step above. In my mind .. you have the Yaesu radios (work well but just too messed up in the user interface department) to Icom (just plain messed up and often so confusing to use). Kenwood seems to have a nice balance between the needed items and just a radio that does not work well. As you can tell I am a huge fan of a good user interface and this is by far the best thought out design of the big 3. It does help that I am using it as a base so it is not like I will smash up anything, like my car, due to poor design.