Lscott

This is a Kenwood TK-2170 VHF radio I disassembled. The popular TK-3170/3173's people use for GMRS look exactly the same inside. My everyday carry GMRS radio is the 3170. http://www.swscomm.com/kenwood/TK-2170_3170.pdf There was a flex cable connecting the channel selector and volume/on-off switches to the main board. The trace for the power connection had cracked so the radio wouldn't power on. This radio was a PIA to take apart. You wouldn't believe the pile of screws this thing used. After looking at it and ordering the parts it was a better use of my time to just buy another used one when I found a good deal. This project is packed away for the moment when I get super bored and motivated enough to try and replace the cable and reassemble the radio. Currently I must have 9 of these so I really don't need to rush this any.

This is a dual band antenna from Comet. Its a ground independent type. That's why I can use the roof rack type mount. It isn't manufacture anymore. That's a shame since it has a very wide band response. I tested it on both the Ham 2M and 70cm bands, good match over the range. The antenna will also work for MURS and GMRS. Update: I sold my Jeep, photo, and replaced it with a 2023 Mazda CX-5 2.5L Turbo Signature model. I had the optional roof rack and rails installed on it. Now I have to mount the antenna system on it at some point and find a good way to route the cable inside. I'll likely buy new rack mount hardware and cable assembly since the old one is weathered fairly well.

With many of the used radios I've purchased they have come with used battery packs, condition listed as unknown and no guarantees about capacity. Normally I don't consider the inclusion of a used battery pack of much value due to this issue. So before doing anything with a used battery pack I test them, then label the pack with the measured capacity. If they test at 80 percent, or better, I consider them "good" for general use. If the included battery pack tests good then I got a slightly better deal that I had originally thought. Typical no name brand battery packs for my radios run around $20 to $30 new depending on capacity. Most of the used battery packs are the newer Lithium Ion type. I did end up with some used Nickle Metal Hydride and Nickle Cadmium packs. The Ni-CAD packs are about worthless. They suffer from memory effects and get buggered up too easy. If a seller includes a used one it adds zero to the value of the deal IMHO.

This is a portable mast system for temporary use. The base is a heavy duty speaker stand I got at a flea market. The mast is from MFJ purchased new. The antenna is a telescoping dual band type that doesn't need a ground plane. With some aluminum tent stakes and small diameter nylon rope I can guy this for use in light to moderate wind conditions. In total the antenna is up about 20 feet. That gives an approximate calculated line of sight distance to the horizon of 6.25 miles. The antenna is an AL-800. There are various sources for this antenna all with the same model number but seems to vary in over all length a bit. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/pry-al-800

Boot up custom screen image for some of my radios that support this feature.

This is a very unusual radio. It appears to be a predecessor to their new NX-5000 series radios. It does FM, wide and narrow band, along with DMR. The radios include Kenwood's basic 15 bit scrambler option for DMR. Higher encryption options don't appear to be available. The radios are sold, or were, in Europe, not in the US. Note these radios do not have an FCC ID. They were never intended to be sold in North America. I was lucky enough to win a few eBay auctions to get them. The radio on the left is the UHF version programed for various services and shown monitoring the local GMRS repeater. The radio on the right is the VHF version also programmed for various services and shown monitoring the local NOAA weather channel. The detail specs are here: https://www.kenwood.eu/files/file/comms/uk/brochures/nx/TK-D200_D300_V4.1.pdf If you ever do get one of these radios you'll need a copy of Kenwood's KPG-166D to program them. I recently found an electronics shop in the Netherlands that had these for sale, new, and best of all they ship to the USA. Most places either shows it as discontinued and or don't ship to the USA. I ordered one radio, core and belt clip only. This gives me a spare UHF model. I just recently purchased a clean, almost new condition VHF version, TK-D200E, from a seller in the US of this radio with display and full keypad on a well known auction site. Now I have at least one of each model type in my collection. A TK-D200GE version appeared for sale, from a seller in the UK, on my favorite auction site. Again the radio was in like new condition. This is the GPS enabled version of the VHF model. I won the auction and got the radio for a good price, cheaper than the first VHF one I got. The model(s) I have only one currently includes the GPS RX in them. You need a special antenna for the radio for the GPS to work. Since people have GPS included with other devices having it in the radio isn't that useful, but sort of cool to have it. The GPS data is not sent like Ham APRS. You need special software on the RX'ing radio to make use of location data sent anyway. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/KAS-20_Specsheet_letter.pdf