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Hey all, new to the forum & GMRS. I am looking to pickup a radio from ebay soon, and am considering one of the Kenwood TK-8360H units. I understand they are rugged, and a quality build. UHF (GMRS) 45w and relatively new. Anyone out here have any experience using them? I have read and heard of many people using older Kenwood TK-XXX units. Curious to hear if there is any reason not to go with a newer hardware unit. Thanks for any advice. -Mark WREQ867 Sylva, North Carolina

I'm looking for some help with my newly acquired Kenwood TK-890H. I am using the full-function remote head and external speaker. I have been able to program it with all my wanted frequencies and I'm able to transmit, but I can't get it to receive. The seller claims it was fully tested and in working condition and I have no reason to doubt him. symptoms: 1-no receive, 2-busy light (green light) is always on, 3- no sound out of the speaker. I have enabled the SP function for the speaker, but still nothing. I suspect that there is something in the software that needs to be configured differently. I was/am very excited to use this radio as a base station at my home, but I might be in over my head. I have a couple TK-880's and a NX-800 that I was able to program and I am using them without issue. This one is more of a challenge. I do have a copy of the instruction and service manuals. Any help is appreciated.

Hi all, I'm looking for suggestions for what you all consider the best commercial UHF mobile and handheld radios that can be used for GMRS, also the easiest to acquire CPS software for programing, Thanks

I had been looking at various Kenwood TK-880s and also a TK-863G, when the Motorola M1225s popped up for a good deal and I bought one of those. Then 2-3 days later one of the TK-880s (this one a high power version) had its price reduced and I jumped on it. It arrived today. The M1225 still hasn't arrived, but hopefully it will be here tomorrow. The TK-880H powers up, shows Version 1.50 and then "unprogram." I was hoping it would still have some frequencies in it so I could test it into a dummy load. I was also hoping (but not expecting) that it would have FPP enabled. No dice in either case. Oh well. So I ordered a usb programming cable from Bluemax49ers. When it gets here I'll see about programming it, and also enable it for FPP. Although with 62,500 possible channels (250 banks of 250 channels) it's doubtful I will need FPP very much.

Hey everyone, So, I recently picked up a Kenwood TK880. I've heard quite a few good things about these radios, however when I powered it up for the first time, it displayed Ver: 1.5209, beeped, then showed yyyyyyy From research, I learned this is likely a firmware issue in that it should be Ver2.xxxx as per the sticker, but was flashed to Ver 1.5xxx for passport use. Does anyone know how to obtain the FPro software and Ver2 firmware?

Does anyone know of a quality manufacturer for a Bluetooth Microphone compatible for a Kenwood TK8180, TK8360, etc I have a link for one from AMAZN. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087Q47CF4/?coliid=IC33CXILKQKTR&colid=ZYT9YCVVJFME&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it Would really like to find a quality made microphone though. Admin, let me know if I need to remove the link. 73's WRHV671

Greetings all, Well, I knew I would need help again at some point but, didn’t expect it to be so soon. I purchased a copy of the Kenwood CPS KPG-76D from a communications business selling on eBay and purchased my USB based KPG-4 programming cable from none other than “bluemax49ers” also on eBay. For starters, this isn’t my first cable purchase from bluemax49ers (won’t be my last either) and have always had 100% success using his cables. As extra proof this cable works, I used it to program a TK-760HG1 radio with no issues. Here’s the issue. After installing the KPG-76D software on my Windows 10 pc and connecting my KPG-4 cable to my pc and radio, I opened the software and attempted to set the comm port. However, the window that popped up only shows ports 1-4 and all of them are greyed out, not allowing me to actually select a port to use. I thought it might be a software issue or maybe I missed something during the installation process but no matter what I do (including uninstalling & re-installing the CPS), I have been unsuccessful and continue to get the same results. The seller of the software insists there’s an issue with my pc and they would need to have my pc to confirm and correct the issue. Now, I currently have four other versions of Kenwood CPS on this same pc along with several for Motorola, Hytera, Retevis, Baofeng, Ritron and a few more and have never encountered this issue. Obviously if the CPS isn’t recognizing a valid comm port and or not offering an option to select, I’m not able to program any radios with it and it basically does me no good. The seller of the software has offered a full refund but immediately gave up on any other options of trying to correct the issue. I don’t want the seller to lose money but I also don’t want or need any CPS that doesn’t work so, I am once again turning to the fine members of this site for assistance. I have attempted to upload a pic of my screen shot showing the comm port widow that pops up but no matter what I do to reduce the size of the file, I get an error message and the process fails. I look forward to your responses with high hopes of a solution. Best regards, John WRDM373

Hi all, So I've got my base station all setup (Kenwood 8360HK), the software is very intuitive and I'm doing a good amount of listening and making changes to how I have the radio configured. What I'm curious about is how you're all using the configurable zones in your radios? I've got zone 1 setup with all the basic GMRS channels, no tones configured. The second zone I've got setup for use with the Midland handhelds and the 15 watt mobile for direct communications with my family and have a channel with the travel tone configuration. The third I've setup solely for repeaters, but of course I don't have access to or use any repeaters yet, but there are a couple locally here so I do hear some conversations. So what's your general approach to programming your radios?

My Kenwood radios will talk and make contacts, but everyone says my mic gain is real low. is there a way to adjust microphone gain in the programming software. i have both the KPG-89D and the KPG-135 for my 8180H and 8360 Huk respectively. Second question is what do you set the narrow / wide column for GMRS?

Hello all, (I posted this to Radio Reference too, today. I'll also cross-post the solution for folks.) This has to be a common problem, as all four of my 840s exhibit this issue. I have a set of frequencies ("groups) set up in KPG-25D in two "systems". Software is working great in DosBox. (Need to donate to those guys!) See the attachments. Problem comes in after I push this config to the radios. The issue isn't in the KPG-25D software, that I can tell, since the config is fine, and it writes to the radios without any issues. The problem shows up when I'm flipping through the "groups" in the TK-840 itself. Once I get up to #12, the TA icon shows up. Everything above entry 11 turns into "Talk about" and doesn't keep the QT/DQT settings. System 2 groups (aka, the second set of frequencies programmed into the interface) don't have any QT/DQT config in the radio...they're all TA. I looked in all the options and nothing seems obvious, like a "ignore QT/DQT decode and encode after entry 11", but maybe there's something else that is a little less obvious? I've also tried reducing the number of entries and changing the radio model to Sp, just to see. No differences in the radio behavior. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Chris

I bought one of the cheap ($15-20) DTMF mics for my Kenwood TK-880. I had programmed my radio for user PL selection, which allows you to change the PL tones from the DTMF pad. It was a waste of money, because it doesn't work. It seems to work as a microphone, but it doesn't ground the on-hook line through the mic button. That means the scan function is disabled. Not only that, but while the PL select looks like it's working, what it actually does is turn off receive PL globally. I had to remove power from the radio for a moment to get the PL decode to return. The seller advertised it as suitable for Kenwood commercial radios, including (specifically) the TK-880. Maybe it can be rewired to work; who knows. And maybe it works perfectly on a Kenwood amateur transceiver. I don't have a TM series radio, so I can't test that. But it certainly doesn't work as delivered on my Kenwood commercial rigs.

I just got two of these Kenwood commercial mobiles, from two separate sellers on fleabay. I had made an offer on one, bought another via "buy it now," and then my offer on the first one was accepted. Both showed up today. What attracted me to the 805s is that they are front-panel field programmable; no software required (although they can be programmed that way as well). Both of these rigs came with a mount bracket, mic and mic hanger. The one I made an offer on did not have GMRS channels programmed in; it had two 461 MHz frequencies. It's a little beat up but not bad, and I think the mic is a new replacement. I had to remove the top panel and move the jumper to enable front panel programming. Once I did that, programming it was a snap. I put the 8 repeater pairs in it and set up the aux button to enable "talk around" (simplex). I also put one ham radio repeater pair in it; a nearby repeater that a member here owns. The other one looks like brand new. I paid a little more for it, but still got it for well under $100 including shipping. It came from an actual radio store, and they offered free programming. I took them up on it. These are 16 channel radios. The seller emailed a Word form for channel information and I had them program the 8 repeater pairs, Talk Around for simplex, and the 9 interstitial channels for a total of 15. These are billed as 25 watt radios, but according to my cheap VHF/UHF meter, both are putting out right around 40 watts. I'll probably turn them down to 20-25 watts to conserve the finals. I've seen a couple of comments online to the effect that after programming, you have to return the jumper to the "user" pins before they will receive and transmit. Not true. The only reason for that jumper is to prevent the appliance operator from inadvertently (or otherwise) messing with the programming. It works just fine with the jumper in the programming position, and the great thing is that you can pull over and modify a channel in just a minute or two. Bottom line: I like these radios!

I am looking to put a couple TK-8180's together to make a repeater as I got them cheap. Does anyone have any info on how to make this happen? These have the DB-25 connector in the rear so either the DB-25 or the mic jack I would guess there is a way to make this happen?? I have considered getting a Id-o-matic IV also so there is an id. Anyone know of the easiest way to make this all happen?