Kenwood G707 Mobile

[kd7set]

Is this a good radio for a relitive beginner? Are they built well? Let me know what you think please.


thanks.. Mark M.

Mark,

This is an excellent radio for beginners as well as 'seasoned' operators.

I have owned mine for a year and a half. I have the remote faceplate kit so the display can be mounted at a better location in my truck.

I have not had any problems (knock on wood) http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif .

If you have not purchased yet, I would HIGHLY recommend an external speaker. You can use the radio with the built-in speaker, but it has poor sound through it. MFJ, Radio Shack, and others manufacture good quality external speakers, just make sure that the plug is correct for the radio (3.5mm/male/monaural/tip-ring audio plug).

I would also recommend using a good, dual-band (VHF-UHF) capable SWR meter during the installation. If you belong to a local HAM club, I'm sure someone could let you borrow one. You don't want to burn-up your the final transistors just after you get a radio.

73's
Dave KG4MCC

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (kd7set @ Aug. 25 2002,23:18)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Is this a good radio for a relitive beginner? #Are they built well? #Let me know what you think please. #


#thanks.. #Mark M.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
HI MARK, PAT EI-2-HX HERE.I HAVE HAD MY G707 FOR OVER 2 YEARS NOW.I ONLY USE IT IN MY CAR .I USE IT WITH A REMOTE KIT AND HANDS FREE MIC. THE BIG READOUT IS A BIG PLUS. I WAS NOT PUT OFF WITH THE MONO DISPLAY.GOOD LUCK WITH WHAT EVER YOU DO . 73&quot;S PAT

[KC9AXZ]

This radio is a definate winner for all hams. It is a great economic dual bander. I bought this radio and showed it to a few friends. They are also now happy owners of the same. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Regards, Jon KC9AXZ

[n0xas]

I've had mine since March. It's in the trunk of my Mustang, with the remote kit to put the mic &amp; controls up front. I didn't install a remote speaker, but the rig's speaker is on top instead of on the bottom, which means it works perfectly where I have it mounted. I love it, the only thing I found that I don't like is that I can't set up a cross-band memory location. This makes it a little more involved to set up for satellites, but not too bad. Intermod? What intermod? Overall I'm very happy with mine and glad I bought it. I just wish the darn remote kit wasn't so horribly expensive.

[trooper]

Mine has been in the shack as a 'base' with a D-50 antenna and LMR-400 feed. It's a great, simple radio. My wife, who isn't a ham, figured out how to change bands and freq's to follow me from the Red Cross 2-Meter freq to a secondary 70cm Freq when the QSY was stated over the air.

I may move this radio into my vehicle with the remote-head unit and use it for APRS. I understand the system plays well with packet, and will fit the bill nicely with both bands available.

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

[w5zzq]

Really good dualband radio. If you don't want or need dual receive or crossband - this is the radio for you. Works great and the receive is better than most any radio. I love the rig.... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[KF9K]

I've had my G707 for about 2 years and I have a few, what I think are legitimate, gripes about it. In fairness, I have to say that I haven't had any serious problems with it, but read on...

1) The power levels are set at 5/10/50 for VHF and 5/10/35 for UHF. Can anybody tell me why the engineers at Kenwood decided on a low power of 5 watts for both bands? I think it should be more like 1 watt for both bands. I found a method somewhere else on the Internet to be able to set all the power levels to whatever I want them to be, so I did exactly that for the low power settings for both bands. Now, I TRULY have a low power mode. Be a little careful when you're using this method though or you may end up messing up your squelch settings and/or s-meter settings. I couldn't find any information on how to reset the S-meter levels, but I managed to figure it out on my own.

2) If you use the touchtone pad on the back of the mic to set the volume of the speaker, you may be suprized to learn that it will go back to the original volume level as soon as you unkey after your next transmission. I have no idea why Kenwood considers this a 'feature'. I spoke with a Kenwood guy at a local ham radio trade show in my area, and he didn't know why either. He promised to pass my comments up the line (yeah, right).

3) The SO-239 connector on the back of the radio is recessed into an area surrounded by the heat sink. That makes it difficult to unscrew the coax when I want to remove the antenna during lightning storms. My fingers have a hard time getting a decent grip on the PL-259 connector. Once again, I wonder what the Kenwood engineers were thinking? But then again, maybe Japanese people usually have smaller fingers than us fat-fingered Americans. Is that a racist stereotype or just a factual observation? It's intended as an observation, so I hope non of the politically correct crowd on this message board expect me to aplogize for that observation.

4) It would be nice if the AIP (intermod rejection) option was turned on as a default, but that's only a minor gripe. This radio is much more sensitive towards intermod than my previous 2m rig.

5) In order to plug a data cable into the radio for Packet use, I had to remove the shroud from the Radio Shack DIN plug and wrap electrical tape around it to keep it together as I plugged it in the radio. If Kenwood had increased the diameter of the jack by maybe another 1/8&quot;, then I could use the standard DIN plug with the shroud just as it's intended to be used.

6) This radio uses a menu scheme to allow many functions to be selected without having a ton of controls on the front of the radio. It would have been nice if ONE of those menu functions would have been to be able to select the TTL level of the output jack when the radio sees a signal. I connected this pin to the input of my TNC and realized that the TNC was always thinking that the frequency was silent when in fact the squelch had opened up due to an incoming signal. To fix this, I had to cut a circuit board trace on my TNC and insert an inverter in line. Now, it works as Kenwood probably thought it should.

The fan on the back of the radio is really quiet, though.

Those are my gripes. I think that you'll agree that most of them could have been easily solved at the design stage, but they weren't. OK, I'm off my soapbox now.

-Jim KF9K

[W0LPQ]

Liked mine so much, I bought a second. Mobile operation is nice. I listen to airports as I travel, and have found that the sensitivity is better (by a bunch) than the old Kenwood TM-241A. Audio quality (with an external speaker) is great. Intermod is almost non existant (except in a couple spots in downtown Indy) and much better than the 241A. All in all, it is a good radio for even the new operator as well as the more experienced one.

I do have to agree with Jim, KF9K about the AIP. If you use it, then intermod almost goes away completely.


Fan....what fan.....never heard it...oh yet, it does run, but as Jim says, it is quiet.

73

Bill, WØLPQ

[W4DBI]

Mark,
# # # # #I have been the proud owner of a TM-G707A for one year and am thoroughly satisfied. #I would highly recommend the rig to anyone, whether just beginning or a seasoned veteran of the hobby. #The alpha-numeric tagging and large, seven character display makes this unit ideal for mobile use. #Ease of operation without distracting the driver from the road is paramount in any mobile operation. #This radio meets those needs.
# # # # # I first used this radio as a fixed station until moving it to my truck. #My wife has agreed to study for her license exam, and if I can persuade her, I will purchase another &quot;707&quot; to be installed in her car. #
# # # # # #I give it two thumbs up!

73,

Charles #W4DBI