god forbid if we say anything negative about kenwood and their lack of new radio either on the horizon or today...the fact that they released a very bland ht at a high price point, only signals the fact that kenwood seems to have run its course. they can not keep up with YAESU or ICOM But there is diehard kenwood fans that will get their panties in a bunch if you say anything negative about the brand......of course this is all imho
I think it's pretty clear JVC Kenwood is more interested in selling P25/DMR/NXDN radios to folks with money. A VP8000 is a $4400 radio not including accessories and add-ons. An agency near me ordered 800 of them. You do the math what the company is going to invest in. The typical ham who whines about paying more than $50 for a Bowelturd hardly ponies up for quality radios- the D74 and it's proposed replacement don't appeal to the lowest common denominator. Not to mention, supporting a few thousand of these radios with warranty support and more crying by hams isn't much of a money maker. 30 years ago it was a much different landscape for Trio Kenwood before being acquired by JVC, they had a huge catalog of amateur gear. Most of the VHF/UHF stuff were "one off's" of LMR radios, such as the TH-26/46 were kissing cousins of the TK-240/340 commercial HTs. The TM-241/441 had much in common with their TK-705/805 commercial brethren. Kenwood could play loss leader with the development of LMR stuff by letting us hams "tear them up" first. Today, their LMR business and products is about as remote to amateur gear as car stereos. Development is clearly by completely different R&D groups and manufacturing is as well. Hard to justify them investing tons of money into what is a niche market now saturated with feces pieces from China that cheap hams flock to like roaches do with stray M&Ms. I am glad Icom and Yaesu Musen still invest heavily in new innovations for our hobby, though I have to wonder how much gas is left in the tank for them. Both of these companies rely on Japanese engineering and labor, which is a premium today, It shows they are truly committed to the art of ham radio. These two are much smaller companies than a huge conglomerate like JVC Kenwood and thus, their core business is more ham centric. Yaesu Musen has nothing to do with LMR since Motorola Solutions bought and gutted Vertex Standard (nothing like buying your competition and flushing it down the toilet!). Icom LMR is nowhere near as vast as JVC Kenwood, especially int he P25 world. Icom has a few subscriber radios, but offers no infrastructure for P25, especially in the trunking arena. JVC Kenwood, OTOH, acquired EF Johnson Technologies and this shows they are serious. Again, $5,000 cop radios and mutii-million dollar trunking systems or trying to peddle a few radios to tightwad hams..
Agree 100%. Kenwood has bigger fish to fry in the public safety sector. They have no time or interest in keeping a few hams happy with a what amounts to Kenwood, “a drop in the bucket money wise” HT, when they can sell hundreds or more $4K HTs to police and fire departments.
Well then, in your humble opinion, what makes you think that Kenwood gives a whit about "keeping up" with anyone. Maybe they just are content to offer a few solid products, and leave it at that. Why does this always become a fanboy pi**ing contest. Get over yourselves. Please.
Don't understand the point you're trying to make. Moto, Icom, Yaesu and many, many, many other companies that aren't even associated with amateur radio, are all - constantly - constantly -bidding on public sector contracts. Kenwood HTs are known for their incredible audio quality. Plus they work incredibly well. I thought the D74 was better than the ID52 on DSTAR audio. So, what are you implying/saying? That Kenwood has lost its interest in amateur radio? I don't see evidence of that. What I like about Kenwood is that Kenwood is not in a "rat race" to the bottom and that Kenwood HTs are APRS capable. Kenwood audio is natively excellent. Not only that, you can tailor your audio, input/output with a Kenwood onboard equalizer.
No one is peeing anywhere. JVC Kenwood goes where profit is. The fact that they are building a D75 indicates they at least feel some will pay for quality, others who are content with muddy, muffled audio will flock to the sub $50 turd radios with poor performance, but they have that all important flashlight and CB radio siren so that's what sells! Maybe if sales of used D74s have selling for more than new have shown that there is enough demand to capture that high end market. Hopefully a V71A replacement might be in the pipeline. If not, plenty of used Kenwood amateur gear in the hands of many. I have a TM-731A from 1990, never serviced, still performs better than spec, and sounds like QUALITY on the air and cost me what 3 Bowelturds sell for right here on the Zed.
No. All of those codecs can be implemented in software. There is no technical reason not to implement all the digital protocols in one device. But the major brands don't do it because it is a way of vendor lock-in. Althoug this can back-fire on a vendor too.
That is certainly a factor for Icom (DSTAR) and Yaesu (Fusion). But, a company like Kenwood, who doesn't own any of the three digital modes, could do at least two. They already have an agreement for DSTAR and DMR is essentially "free" at this point. Doing Fusion might be a bit tricky with it owned by a competitor to them and their current digital partner. Chris
You are again misinformed. Kenwood and JVC did a merger because Matsushita, the former owner of JVC wanted to get rid of the company because it had made too much loss. 73, Peter - HB9PJT Source: https://www.channelpartner.de/a/matsushita-will-jvc-an-kenwood-verkaufen,242765 (Google translate this for you)
D-Star is not owned by Icom. D-Star was created under the initiative of the Japan Amateur Radio League. 73, Peter - HB9PJT
It certainly isn't for the low rent crowd that expects steak and ale for the price of cheap pizza and beer.
Again misinformed because of what, stop being a prick and start adding something of value. JVC Kenwood merged, what part did I get misinformed about? Who cares why. Bottom line is it isn't pertinent.
