Hi Jeff!
Seems the TH-D72A is pretty much a replica of the TH-D7(A) with some minor modifications.
I'm sure that's what Kenwood was looking for, to keep R&D costs for a new ham HT down, but I think you are getting more than just a minor upgrade to the TH-D7 with the TH-D72. Not much change for FM satellite work, but improvements on the packet side and especially for APRS.
One word of caution on spliting the audio at the HT. DON'T DO IT.
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What you could possibly do is find and solder a 1/10, 2.5mm, plug to a wire then run a couple feet to the splitter so there will be little or no weight on the recepticle at the HT.
Figured I'd save others from a headache.
A good suggestion. This problem may or may not present itself, depending on how much stress is put on that speaker jack. I will probably rig up a short cable like Jeff describes in the near future, possibly by cannibalizing an old speaker/mic so I can have the two-plug connector going into the radio, to reduce the stress on the speaker jack.
Nigel's suggestion of a speaker/mic is one I have thought of, and I will try it the next time I'm out with the radio. I have an old Kenwood SMC-34 speaker/mic, which has a speaker jack on the bottom of the mic, along with 3 remote-control buttons that can be defined in the radio and even a volume knob on the face of the mic. I could put the radio on my belt, and use the 3 buttons to switch between VFOs (define one button as A/B) and do my tuning adjustments during a pass (the other two buttons would be the up and down tuning buttons), all without having to look at the radio. This may be a bit easier than working the buttons on the face of the radio during a pass. My splitter would go into the jack on the speaker/mic, and from there audio would go to my earpiece and my recorder.
I'm still poking around with it, including working an SO-50 pass last night. So far, so good. I've put a one-piece Diamond SMA/BNC adapter on the antenna connector, and have been using only antennas and coax with BNC connectors. This adapter almost makes the radio look like it came with a BNC connector, and now I don't have to fiddle with the SMA connector. I did the same thing with my other HTs with SMA connectors (VX-8GR, TH-F6A), so I would not have to stress the SMA connector every time I want to change the antenna or coax going to it.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/