| W3RX |
Rating:  |
2011-02-13 | |
| unstable, poor design |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have not had a good experience with this rig. After 3 months it died. I sent it to Kenwood, after 6 weeks it shows back up. It worked for less than 1 hour, and died again. It was a CPU-type of failure, it would just not come on except for a quick flash of a blank screen. Back again to Kenwood, and another wait. All along I was talking to the manager at HRO in Virginia, and after the second failure I was pleading for an exchange, since I felt it was a lemon, but he would not do it. It failed again today, and it is very close, if not past, the warranty period. So, one could say that my opinion is biased because of poor service, but I suspect that the design is unstable, so it gets a poor review from me. When it worked, I also noted a moderate amount of desensitization on some crossband repeat pairs, and it really cannot tolerate cross-band that well from a duty cycle point of view. I would stay away from this rig. |
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| N2YGI |
Rating:   |
2011-01-27 | |
| Intermod problems.... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The only BIG issue for me that i have with these two radios is with intermod, on both bands. I live in N.Y.C., had no problems when i was using a home made j-pole for the two bands, everything was working great rx-tx for that antenna until i put up the Diamond x510hdm. Forget about it..... The only way is the att or beam antennas.
As about mobile use, i use a larsen dual band 2/70, need to have the att for uhf on most of the times and whenever a city bus gets close, i get a full display of intermod on 2m across the band.
Everything else is perfect, remote control link etc. I don't think radios should have a wideband receiver or at least they should have better filters. When i bought these was the best i could find according my budget at that time, no Yaesu or Icom would come close to that price....
I guess i got my money's worth..... |
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| W4LCM |
Rating:      |
2011-01-22 | |
| Good |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
After my 1th try (April 2010) and bad experience, this is my second chance to this model.
Well after 4 months of use, I have no problems in any way with the radio.
The only complain, I have to adjust the radio in the “Service menu”, because the radio only
give me 40 watts in VHF and 30 in UHF, after this procedure; the radio is 50/50 watts in each Band.
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|
| KB1TRY |
Rating:      |
2011-01-12 | |
| Great radio. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Great, Really is, Menu is a bit confusing but coming from Yaesu`s its a great rig. 50 watts on 440 is unheard of, and great. The fan keeps the radio amazingly cool, and its quiet and i could care less how it sounds, speaker is a bit weak compared to my FT2900R but not something to fret about. . But hey, for the $, great 2/440 dualband radio! recomend it highly. |
|
| WB2IVU |
Rating:      |
2011-01-10 | |
| Great radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| No complaints whatsoever. I love the wide band receiver. Really made the radio very useful. It allows me the ability to listen to the F-16's fighter jets from Luke AFB the 337 MHz portion. And, the Sun Posse at 853.987, along with having a great U/V transceiver. |
|
| W8MPX |
Rating:      |
2010-12-27 | |
| VERY GOOD |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| A FRIEND HAD ONE A TRY IT IN HIS MOBILE AND THIS RADIO DO A EXCELLENT JOB. HE HAD THIS RADIO FOR 3 YEARS WITH NO PROBLEM. THE AUDIO IS VERY CLEAR AND LOUD, SO I GOT 1 MOW AND I LOVE IT |
|
| KD8LQT |
Rating:      |
2010-09-18 | |
| BEST RIG |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| THE KENWOOD V71A DO A EXCELENT JOB GOOD AUDIO I CHECK WITH A FRIEND , HE GOT ONE NO PLOBLEM I RECOMEND THIS RADIO FOR NEW HAMS EASY TO USE THE MANUAL IS FRIENDLY ITS ECHOLINK READY. I AM USING THE RADIO ON MY CAR WITH A DIAMOND ANTENNA VERY GOOD COMBINATION BEST 73 |
|
| KB4TPP |
Rating:      |
2010-08-28 | |
| Excellent dual band mobile |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Replaced a TM-V7 with this, as I needed DCS for cross band operation. This is a solid radio, well constructed. I own an FT-8800R, which pales in comparison build quality wise. The V71A's knobs don't feel cheap, the control head is backlit and even lets you choose green or amber to match your vehicle dash lighting.
It does GREAT on crossband, especially if you use DCS. No annoying squelch bursts, superb professional audio. Kenwood gives you a REAL microphone with a REPLACEABLE cord. It is commercial quality unlike the 8800 with it's flimsy mike and cheap cord that decays.
Kenwood also does something that Yaesu doesn't: field upgradeable firmware. And it's a FREE download (you will need the PC programming cable), and the programming software is also FREE.
Having this flash upgrade capability is good to fix bugs and add improvements without having to send the radio in to replace a board or chip.
The only thing I can find wrong is the ID feature in crossband. While it's great that Kenwood added this to make sure your crossband is part 97 compliant for ID'ing, it seems to be designed for simplex to simplex not simplex to repeater. When enabled, it will ID every 10 minutes REGARDLESS of use on BOTH VHF and UHF, forcing everyone on the repeater to hear your ID non-stop. This is not needed on the repeater side, hopefully Kenwood will introduce a firmware update to address this gripe. In the meantime, you can disable it, you just have to ID your crossband "manually".
Overall, it's a keeper. Full 50 watts on both V and U is also a plus. I am glad I bought this radio. |
|
| K7SFN |
Rating:      |
2010-07-16 | |
| Great so Far! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Only had the TMV71A for about a week, but it's been great so far. Easy to manually program, although the software would make it much easier if you wanted to load lots of stuff.
The main reason I purchased the radio was for it's capability to be used simultaneously for APRS operation. I have the "A" side configured for voice communications, and the "B" side set up for Data operation. Made up a simple interface cable to connect my APRS tracker to the data connector on the back of the radio, and I was up and running (K7SFN-9). It does not get any easier than this.
Power out and Receiver sensitivity seem quite good. I have several Yaesu radios, and think the Kenwood V71A is just as good, with more features.
Like most all of the new radios these days, there is a learning curve to get them installed and up & running, but once you do, you will be pleased.
Although this radio might not be for everyone, it is certainly work considering. |
|
| W1ZE |
Rating:     |
2010-04-03 | |
| Good true dual-bander |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Does everything ads says it will do.
PROS:
* good receiver performance
* crossband repeat a plus
* EchoLink interface a plus
CONS:
* Deviation set to high out of the box, 6kHz.
Should be more like 4.5kHz
* EchoLink interface cable costly and old serial port DB9 vs USB |
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