When I owned a TH-D7A I never ran all that stuff, I guess. But it seems that you can run it on an external power source. That might be clumbersome if out "waving" an Arrow but when used with a mobile or home antenna system: "where's the problem?"
I think the attributes and mutliple uses for the little Kenwood overshaddows any shortcomings. I would have kept mine but the ham I bought it from (at an excellent price) needed it back to donate to a special program.
Some day I may get another. I have use of a Motorola HT-1250 (from work) for general FM use, and I normally use the FT-847 in the shack for satellites, so no immediate need. I have thought that a D700 would be nice for mobile. I still have my FT-817 for multi-modes going mobile or portable. With experience one can work the Leo's without full duplex, though it is much more satisfying to run full duplex for any satellite.
73 Ed - KL7UW
At 03:16 PM 4/4/2008, Robert Bruninga wrote:
A lot of folks seem to like the Kenwood TH-D7A, but the price tag is quite high for a radio that is "very delicate," "extremely difficult to program," and "poor battery life".
I donno. I've drop kicked mine a number of times. It is trivial to program either with the TEXT menus, and full 4-way joy stick, or the PC program. Poor battery life only if you have evrything running to the max:
- Both internal radios on
- Internal TNC on
- Battery saver off
- Transmitting APRS beacons evey minute at high power
But then that's why most people bought the radio to do all those things..
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