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Reviews For: Kenwood TM-D710A

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

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Review Summary For : Kenwood TM-D710A
Reviews: 73MSRP: 599.95
Description:
The TM-D710 Data Communicator 144/440 MHz Dual Bander has the following features:
• APRS Ready
• APRS Weather Station ready
• KSS II+ (kenwood Skycommand II+)
• NMEA 0183 GPS I/O port
• Built-in 1200/9600 bps TNC
• Echolink Ready
• High RF Power Output (V/U: 50 watt)
• 1000 multifunction Memory Channels
• Dual Receive on same band (V+V, U+U)
• NOAA Weather Alert/RX (US Only)
• Voice Guidance & Storage option (VGS-1)
• MCP Compatible with ARRL "TravelPlus"

Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00734.2
AE7G Rating: 2011-02-19
Huge improvement Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got the D710 a few days ago and have been able to give it a test run. I should say I have used the D700 for a number of years for APRS work and found it to be a good product.

The D710 is a huge improvement for APRS. Many more features, and considerable thought went in to finding improvements that are practical and useful.

I was able to get things configured, memories transferred and firmware updated without too much difficulty. There were a few wrong turns but nothing out of line for learning new equipment.

The best thing about these radios is that they make APRS practical for active use in the field. Important information is made available quickly and easily without too much equipment or distraction.

My one complaint is that when you have APRS running heavily and new signals are constantly arriving, the screen tends to flip back and forth between APRS reports and the regular operating screen. This can be annoying when you are simply trying to operate.

I have much to learn and I will report back later.



W4IEN Rating: 2010-11-16
Great Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have seen so many knocks against the mic cord not being long enough. It is nothing but an RJ-45 cable - just get a connector and some RJ-45 cable and you set the length to what you want. Very easy and inexpensive. This little rig is perfect mate to my TS-480HX and my TS-480SAT.
SV2HTC Rating: 2010-11-07
Even now, I can fix it Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My previous review was 6 months ago. I've contacted local Kenwood dealers and sent the radio but had no luck. Replacing the TNC will cost me as much as buying a new 2-VFO radio without APRS. I've done again and again the firmware updates, nothing. Pulled out TNC internal battery(as somebody suggested this would fix it), nothing. Now remains in my shack only for voice ops since its APRS capabilities no longer exist. Please note that beyond TNC failure I've changed twice the problematic ceramic filters that made VFO A/B deaf. I was hoping that this later review would be better, but no.
K7RFW Rating: 2010-08-23
Good Radio, poor company support Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have used the D700 as part of an ARES group for about four years now and I recently bought this D710 for compatibility and the TNC to run packet and play with APRS (plus there was a good sale on it :) ). I am still a beginner at this rig so basically I will say that so far I echo K4OC and N7KFD.

Other positive features are the programming software, a small plus for Kenwood over the Y company, and the true dual speakers come in handy when you are monitoring traffic on two channels. Packet works, but I am still learning that, and APRS tracks like it should with my (non-)Magellan Meridian Color GPS, I just need to learn what all the settings do. Plus inter-mod is almost non-existent as compared to my Kenwood hand-held, one of the fears I had since I am in a high VHF/UHF RF environment a lot (it is quiet like my FT-8900). And unlike a few friends' radios, my $10 USB to serial adapter works on Packet, firmware upgrades, and MCP.

My reasons for giving the radio a 4 instead of a 5 (would do a 4.5 but that is not an option):

First - unlike the FT-8900 which is my other mobile rig, the display is not a quick glance-and-see-what-side-am-I-on with an enlarged active channel. I have not found a way to do that on the D710 and I find that I miss seeing the little PTT (have bi-focals, need quad-focals!) that shows the active channel and will sometimes key up on the wrong side (small mark down).

Second – the documentation is poor compared to the feature rich menus. Just my personal opinion, but I have noted that almost every newer document is not as well done as some of the older ones I have. Labor costs are probably the big issue (small mark down since I have seen much worse).

Third – email support is rather on the stupid side. The TM-D710AE_IDM_R1.pdf document from the web page has a password on it to prevent cutting and pasting it to get a smaller document to put in the grab-n-go kit as a quick memory jogger. The person I emailed via the Kenwood USA site claimed that I could not get the password because the document was "proprietary". There are many easy ways to get that PDF into a form that you can cut and paste ranging from optical scanners to password removal tools, and I did so in less than an hour. That stupidity alone is worth a solid half a point off and a warning that you better not expect much intelligent help from the Kenwood people, at least for some things.

This is my opinion as of today, and I do not intend to give up my D710 unless I get an offer I just can not refuse (One D710 for sale, USD 1799.99 - FIRM, FOB). Oh, and have you noticed that 710 upside down is OIL?

Ray
K7RFW
W5JDA Rating: 2010-08-16
a little complicated, but it is a good radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
As always kenwood has made a another fine radio. though the menu can be a bit complicated at times. i use mine for aprs and it works great! could not ask for more. only thing i dont like is that you really have to use a computer to program the repeaters, frequencies, and every thing else - or you'll be stuck there all day putting in every repeater you have in the area
N7KFD Rating: 2010-08-10
Fine Rig Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased this rig in February of 2010 and I like it. Some previous reviewers have given it low numbers for various reasons but I have encountered none of the issues that they have.

One reviewer commented that the cross band repeat function didn't work, I tried it just for fun and it was easy to setup and worked perfectly. Another reviewer didn't like the microphone (too many buttons) I personally like the layout of the mic, it's setup is designed in a way that allows the user to change some features like changing memory channels or switching between VFO's without having to look at the radio. The APRS feature was easy to setup and works great as well and I like the weather features which include automatically switching to the preset weather frequency when weather alerts are broadcast. The layout of the buttons are easy to get used to and even the menu's are easily navigated and I found that they are set and forget. Programming the memory channels is easy through the control head and easier with the free software provided by Kenwood.

Of course there are a few things that could have been done better. For mobile installation, connecting the microphone to the control unit would have been a better choice than to the rig. Putting the speaker in the rig is also not suitable for a mobile installation when putting the rig under a seat or in a trunk. The user is forced to run another cable and purchase a separate speaker. I have mine in my home mounted to the end of the desk and found that an external speaker made listening easier. I would like to have seen more power options also, 5, 10 & 50 are it. Maybe throwing in a 25 watt option would be nice for when you want some juice but don't need 50 watts.

All in all I would definitely recommend this radio to anyone looking for a good mobile rig especially one with APRS. The price, ease of use and options make it a good radio in my book.
KY6M Rating: 2010-07-21
Wow! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I really can't beat/add to the previous poster, so I will just say - Roger that! It is the most impressive uhf/vhf _mobile_ I have ever owned in my 30 years of Ham Radio. I don't really think it is any harder to learn than any other modern rig. I think that anybody who wants to get into APRS should read the PDF file that covers the subject from Kenwood (or on the internet) if you are going to fully enjoy all the aspects of APRS.
K4OC Rating: 2010-05-09
Best bang for the buck Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I got into APRS several years ago after a close friend put up a Wide coverage digi @ 1,200ft.
I then purchased 2 TM-D700a's and used them for several years. Then the TM-D710 came out and I started to see more of them on the air. I then noticed that the TM-D700 would not be able to be upgraded by any firmware update from Kenwood thus starting the process of phasing out the 700 all together.
I decided to go ahead and get the TM-D710 and give it a shot. At first I was overwhelmed by all the features it has and found myself wondering how the heck am I going to use this radio. I was overwhelmed and started to see others handling their confusion by doing the following which is ...if you do not understand how something works and do not want to take the time to research how to work the radio...then why don't you talk bad about the radio. Well fortunately enough for me I realized that as not being an option and I decided to TAKE THE TIME necessary to READ THE MANUAL and joined the 710 yahoo group to POST QUESTIONS. After all Hams are supposed to be technically oriented people who have at least some basic electronics knowledge and realize that it is through trial and error that one learns. Persistence and the will to learn how to do something have always motivated me and that is why I am so upset at the people who are attempting to BASH Kenwood because they are too impatient to take the time to LEARN HOW TO OPERATE THEIR RADIO and will not accept responsibility for their own actions.

This radio is awesome. The more I learn about this radio the more I love this radio. In fact I love this radio so much I went ahead and purchased another one.

Anyone who can read can see the list of features this radio has but let me just say a few things about what I have done with my radios.
I have 5 Programmable memories setup. When I want to change the radios configuration INSTANTLY I simply select one of 5 preset configurations that I CUSTOMIZED. Here is a list of my PM's
1. APRS Band A Voice Band B w/dim display.
2. APRS Band A Voice Band B w/bright display.
3. Voice Band A Voice Band B w/dim display
4. Voice Band A Voice Band B w/bright display.
5. ISS APRS Band A Voice Band B w/bright dplay

In addition to the 5 Programmable Memories, you can have another setup by choosing to turn the PM off thus giving you 6 possible configurations for the radio. So when I turn PM off I have that setup for Band A with the TNC in regular Packet Mode and setup for the International Space Station (ISS) so when I connect the data cable I use my computer to get into converse mode to input data to connect to the International Space Stations Packet BBS.

Now as you can see I have several different configs stored. In addition to doing this I am able to put the radio in Echolink Mode while connecting to the International Space Station. So while I am connected to ISS Digipeating APRS Packets off of it or reading messages on the ISS Packet BBS I have the radio connected to my computer and have the B Band is Echolink SYSOP MODE connected to my echolink -L node. So a friend in Florida is connected to my Echolink Node talking to a friend of mine on our UHF Repeater here in Cary, NC that is linked via Echolink Sysop Mode of the TM-D710a WHILE DIGITPEATING APRS PACKETS OFF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION on the A BAND. Oh yeah this radio is junk...at least one reviewer said....

That is right...ECHOLINK SYSOP MODE. You do not have to purchase a RigBlaster PRO to interface this Radio to Echolink in SYSOP MODE because the Echolink SYSOP MODE FIRMWARE IS BUILT IN. Just purchase (PG-5H) cable from Kenwood. This will give you the Echolink cables you need (and data cable). Oh yeah and of course if you want to connect to Echolink nodes via a repeater there are several Echolink DTMF Memories for storing the connect, etc. codes.

Now back to Echolink....Just so you understand...this radio has Echolink SYSOP Mode built in. If you have validated yourself with Echolink and have a -L or -R node all you have to do is put the radio in Echolink SYSOP mode and connect the Echolink cables to your pc ...set the levels and you are set! I am running a link to our local repeater since the radio is at my home but this allows my friends not in range of the repeater to connect to it via Echolink to talk to us on the repeater and vice versa.
I mentioned getting the PG-5H Cable which has both the DATA Cable and the Echolink Cables. The data cables you use to program the radio FREE SOFTWARE from Kenwood. I have my radios configs backed up to my laptop and whenever I want to make changes I just load the software and make the changes and then upload it to the radio via the laptop. Much easier than navigating through the radios menu.

If you need to set the audio levels coming out of the radio for Echolink you HAVE to use the Kenwood Programming Software MCP-2A to do so. This setting is NOT PRESENT on the radio itself. Which brings me to another point? As I mentioned previously Kenwood supports this radio by periodically releasing firmware updates. Something the 700A is NOT CAPABLE of. There have all ready been several firmware updates released for this radio. There are firmware updates for the TNC which is addressable by connecting the data cable to the Remote Heads Data Jack in the rear. That is right...the TNC is in the remote head NOT the main unit. The radio itself has firmware updates and you can address those by connecting to the data jack on the rear of the Main unit.

For example...Yaesu FTM-350 was released recently however when packets from that radio were received by the 710 the 710 was not able to identify what type of radio sent the packet and therefore in the list of heard stations there was not Radio Model next to it like others. Well Kenwood released a firmware update to address that.

Another feature of this radio is the Weather Alert. Whenever the NWS issues a severe weather alert of some sort the radio will sound an alarm and then change to the local NWS Frequency so you can hear the message. Of course this feature can be turned off. It is your discretion.

Another feature of this radio is the Cross Band Repeater. Even though this radio is capable of Full Duplex Cross Band Repeat, I use it for Locked Band Repeat mode. Pretty cool feature where I have it set so that one band is dedicated as the rx band and one band is dedicated as the tx band. I like this when I need to get in to a distant VHF repeater and I am lying down and do not have enough power with my HT to get in to the distant VHF repeater. I have the B Band setup with a UHF Simplex frequency and the A band set to the repeater. I do not want the repeater cross banded back so this fixed band setting is nice because I can hear the repeater enough on my ht but cannot get in to it.

Oh yeah...the display colors. For years I have been a fan of the Orange Amber display. Recently my friend said that he likes the Green display because it is less fatiguing on the eyes. I must say I never thought of it that way and it had my attention so I tried it. Long story short I love the Green Display and furthermore am glad that I have the choice with this radio.

Another feature of this radio that I must say that took me a while to find a solution for is the mute feature. In the D700 when mute is on....the "sub band" if you will is muted so as not to disturb what you may be doing on the band you are currently using. Say you have a conversation going on UHF on the B Band and you want to check in to the VHF evening net on Side A....well I press the mute button so that when any signal is heard on the band I am currently in the other side is muted so as not to disturb you. Kind of nice ...keeps you from having to constantly adjusting the volume levels to keep going back and forth. Well when I got the 710 I tried the mute feature but noticed that if there was audio present on both sides...the moment I pressed the PTT and let off the PTT I hear a brief moment of full volume audio from the other band. Yes it eventually got muted but for a split second annoying audio was allowed to pass through. I complained on the Yahoo Group and got no response. I read and read through the manual and FINALLY FOUND THE SOLUTION. IT is MENU 107 "Mute Hangup Time". By choosing one of 3 settings you can adjust the delay of the mute. PROBLEM SOLVED.
Another feature I like about the radio is the Microphone Sensitivity Setting. I find that "Medium" works best for me in the house and mobile. I have a MC-60 Desk Mic at home and the stock mic in the mobile. This allows me to talk at normal levels with the mic 5 inches away from my mouth for the hand mic and a foot away with the desk mic. In addition there are settings for Modulation which are "NFM", "FM" & "AM".

Another feature of the radio I like is the Digital Voice Recorder. I purchased the option and it was real easy to install. I like being able to record stuff for various reasons.


There are several other items I am sure that I am leaving out like the Smartbeaconing, the DTMF Speed, Weather Radio, and Sky Command.


You know after typing all of this stuff it is so obvious to me that the people who say that this radio is junk are right. Sorry there...I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT FOR A SPLIT SECOND. Take the time to learn what you have. Make an informed decision about the radio you are purchasing. If you do not like APRS then why get this radio. If you are not willing to learn how to operate this radio then WHY GET IT?

Before posting a negative review about any radio please take the time to ask yourself, "Have I honestly taken the time and effort needed to get the most out of this radio or am I just too lazy."

I found that by taking it slow I was able to gradually build up my confidence about the use of this radio. I do not think that this radio can be mastered in one week. It is my belief that this radio is not for the person is not willing to sacrifice some time an effort to study.

73 de K4OC
WA0TPN Rating: 2010-05-09
Disappointed Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The radio was ok until the TNC failed. Kenwood quoted $315 to repair the TNC, $275 for the TNC and $50 labor. A new Kenwood or Yeasu can be purchased for less than $500. So, I plan to sell the Kenwood TM-D710A really cheap and take my chances with the new Yeasu FTM-350R.

It poor business to charge $275 for a TNC that has the same functionality as a $43 TinyTrac3+. I am disappointed with Kenwood and will purchase from Yaesu and Icom in the future.
VE4NSA Rating: 2010-05-03
Just plain fun! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Have used a D700 and a TS2000. This radio is just plain fun with so much abilities it will take me a long time to get bored. Works as advertised, does more then I expected and will be in my airplane soon. Another nice Kenwood product.