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Reviews For: Kenwood TM-281A

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

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Review Summary For : Kenwood TM-281A
Reviews: 83MSRP: 174.95
Description:
2 meter FM mobile transceiver providing 65 watts of power
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Communications/Amateur_Radio/HF_Base_Mobile/TM-281A
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00834.4
KE5EDV Rating: 2017-06-12
No Longevity Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought this unit last Mar. or Apr. Had it installed in my truck and it has worked fine so far. Good audio fairly easy to program . This weekend however I started having problems. It seemed to be stuck in the Memory Mode.
I called Kenwood and was able to get a technician the very first try within about 5 seconds. Unfortunately after doing everything for him as he walked me through it that I had already tried several times. After I did all of the things he asked, He said, that it needed to be serviced. He then asked if it was under warranty and I said I think it had just ran out . He then stated as a matter of factly I'd just need to buy a new one. I thought since it had just ran out they might still do something. He said they'd work on it for $75.00 an hour plus shipping. So, needless to say this will probably be my first and only Kenwood.
K6NXI Rating: 2017-05-17
Easy to use. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Easy to use and has good audio. Entering menu is a little confusing. Rugged.
N6QN Rating: 2016-06-28
Works but short-lived Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is--was--my third Kenwood 2-meter mobile. It lasted just over a year. I had two TM-261's before then: both died just over warranty. When it worked, the 281 did an adequate job: nothing special. I have programming software, which made it a whole lot easier to set up. My replacement will be of another manufacturer.
NW0LF Rating: 2016-04-23
Excellent Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had the radio now for almost 2 years as a base station. I have had to add a fan to mine because the radio will run hot under extended transmission. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another or recommend the purchase. I like that it is simple to program unlike my Baofeng-well the Baofeng is with Chirp. I have had as base stations an Icom IC-2100 and 207H. Good radios but I got the Kenwood for a good price and don't regret a thing.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by NW0LF on 2013-09-12

I purchased one to use in the house so I could put my remoted ICOM 207H back in my car. The mic has a much heftier feel than the ICOM and the PTT button took some getting used to. The front firing speaker is nice but I have it paired with a SP-430 speaker because I like the sound of it. The menu driven squelch was a bit weird at first but I found the point I needed it easily. It was also different going from 5 power levels to 2 which leads to my 1 nit. I would prefer to be able to adjust power from 1 button instead of going into the menu settings but it is definitely not a deal breaker. I did discover that rag chewing at full power will heat the case up enough to keep coffee hot. However, the 25 watts on low power is more than enough for the local repeaters. It is definitely a keeper.

Wolfie, NW0LF
WA0UAY Rating: 2016-04-22
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just installed the 281 in the SUV. This is the third unit I have had and always impressed with the quality and ease of operation. Programming is simple, front mounted speaker is a real plus. Go ahead and get one. There are no issues with this radio. The only thing I would mention is a slight rattle sound of the speaker at higher volumes, but not objectionable at all.
A proven solid transceiver!
W0NR Rating: 2016-02-12
Radio Hits the Mark Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The TM-281 is my first ham rig (although I've been around the hobby and radio equipment for many years). This is a tough little radio -- nothing prissy about it. The front face and display are simple and uncluttered. The display is easy to read in all light conditions. Signal reports have been excellent, and the receiver is sensitive -- even through a quarter wave mounted on the trunk lip. I only have to use the high power occasionally -- and I live in extremely hilly country. Many folks complain that the hi/lo pwr setting is global and not programmable to individual channels, but I find that a plus, because it's easier for me to keep track of whether I'm operating high power or not, and I'm not burning up the radio using 65 watts when I don't need to.

This radio is almost too easy to program. Although Kenwood offers the software for free, since the radio is mounted in the car, I had no way to get my desktop out there to program it. But a quick read through the manual and a couple of moments with the buttons and I programmed everything I need right now with disturbing ease. Since I don't have experience with any other 2 meter radios, I can't make a comparison, but I can say that the radio is not intimidating to field program.

I don't know why everyone gripes about the menu-driven squelch. It's a two-button process, for Pete's sake! And I never need to adjust it. The offsets are automatic unless it's an odd offset, and even then both offset and tone are easily field-programmed. There are 100 channel slots if you use alpha-numeric designations ( also easy to program), 200 if you simply use the frequency designations. The buttons on the face are dual-function. The main function is printed on the button, and the secondary function (accessible by pressing the "function" button) is printed on the face above the button.

The radio is lightweight, small, and fits easily into the under-dash console. The front panel isn't sexy; it looks more like a commercial unit (which I prefer) and utilitarian. The mic is substantial, and the buttons easy to see and use. I programmed one of the four programmable buttons to do direct number input (rather than spinning the tuning dial).

The radio is the right price. I paid $129 for a brand new unit on sale from HRO. I'm thinking of getting a second one to use as a base unit. Always been a fan of Kenwood and this radio does not disappoint. Glad I bought it; would definitely buy it all over again.
KA2AYR Rating: 2016-01-08
Closest to Land Mobile Radio ham VHF transceiver I've seen... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have two of these and I'm buying a third. The user interface on some radios is horrible. Twist this, push that three times, wait for the beep, push another button, just to get to another menu. Other radios only display frequencies rather than mnemonics, or have a cluttered, busy display that would confound people who don't want to diddle with a radio. Not to mention, how do you get back to where you need to be if you push the wrong button or get lost in the menu?

There are times and places for those kinds of radios, but not for my family. They each have valid amateur radio licenses, but are not necessarily into the "ham experience" of dialing in frequencies while driving. I needed a radio with good performance and a simple user interface. Something exactly like a land mobile radio, and that's really what I wanted. Something with just a volume control, an alphanumeric display, and a channel knob. Except those usually have to be modified or cracked in some way to get into the amateur band, and their performance might be degraded. They'd look pretty, and work pretty badly, unless I change chip caps, replace electrolytics, put brass screws in the coils, use a hex editor to get on frequency, dig out one of the old 386 computers in the garage to program it, and completely realign it because the alignment points were all above 150 MHz. Forget that!

That's where this radio comes in. It's inexpensive and it's not complicated. While this radio can be operated from the front panel with key and knob sequences, or mic entry, I can program it with software to make it very simple to use and assign names to channels with nothing else displayed. This way, my wife can meet me on the "SOUTH" repeater, because it's on the display. I can have her switch to direct because I programmed it as a channel and the display says "DIRECT." It also does narrowband FM (RX and TX) and will receive on 7.5 and 12.5 kHz channel centers. The only drawback is that it won't receive aviation. Otherwise, it will receive between 136-174 MHz in carrier, CTCSS, or CDCSS squelch.

It's also pretty small, fits into smaller vehicles without taking up all the space, and has a fairly decent mic - although a full-sized Kenwood KMC-27B microphone will plug directly in and work fine if I want to get rid of the keypad (seditious, I know).

Wish the TM-481A was marketed in the US.
K3TVC Rating: 2016-01-01
One Hot (literally) radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
"Do not transmit with high output power for extended periods; the transceiver may overheat." This warning is listed on page "i" of the operators manual under "Precautions". I find the radio gets extremely hot to touch when rag chewing with 25 watts. I'm disappointed that they promote the radio as a 65 watt radio. I won't use 65 watts unless it is a short QSO. Again, disappointing if on the road and wanting to talk simplex for an extended QSO.
N1OFJ Rating: 2015-12-11
Great radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Easy to use, great audio, commercial grade radio. Glad I purchased this radio. Like the idea of split CTCSS/DPL availability. This radio will not disappoint.
ND4MR Rating: 2015-11-30
Tip Top quality rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use this as my base station radio and it has performed flawlessly for the 2 1/2 years I have had it (bought new). I use it as much as a scanner (to monitor the local Police & Fire channels) as much as I do as a ham transceiver, but even with a high rooftop antenna I have never experienced any intermod from commercial users. My single complaint is the power-set arrangement. Unlike some radios where you can set the power output level as part of the memory channel's info, the High or Low power setting is applied to all channels once set. I operate the radio at the 25 watt level almost all the time, needing to bump it up to 65 watts to hit just one distant repeater.