What a Pleasant Surprise!

[n4gix]

A few days after I returned from my annual visit to the "Holy Shrine of Hamdom" (Dayton Hamvention) I received a mysterious email notifying that a package was being sent from Ohio via FedEx. I was a bit suspicious since I knew I hadn't ordered anything. Then I thought maybe DARA (Dayton Amateur Radio Club) was sending me a polo or tee-shirt as a thank you for my weekend of volunteer work as a shuttle driver.

 

But then, I noticed that the package weighed 2.5 pounds, and a signature was required, so just what was it?

 

When it was delivered a few days later, I briefly noticed that the edge of the box had "JCVKenwood" printed. Now my curiosity was truly aroused!

 

It turns out that unbeknownst to me, I had won one of the major show prizes in the hourly ticket drawing! It was a brand new, shiny Kenwood TH-D74 Tri-Band HT!  Shoot, the thing will also receive AM, FM, SSB and CW. Every thing pretty much from DC to Daylight no less. MSRP for this HT is $585 USD, and the currently lowest price is $506 at Amazon.com

 

While it was indeed a very pleasant surprise, having played with it a bit, read the manual, and watched quite a few YouHooTube videos, I'm come to the conclusion that it has several drawbacks, at least from my point of view.

1. It's way too complicated with nearly 1,000 menu options. Its programming software is more complex than any DMR radio I've ever seen, and that includes Motorola.
2. It's digital mode is D-Star, not DMR. As there are only two D-Stars in Chicago, they are way out of range of an HT in Northwest Indiana.
3. It is completely useless for GMRS since it will only Rx on those frequencies, Tx is inhibit and cannot be modified, except for the traditional MARS/CAP expansion!

I first thought I'd sell it, but by the time PayPal and eBay extorted their share of the proceeds, I would probably only net around $400 or so...

 

For these reasons I've decided to donate this to my local ham radio club to be used as a Grand Prize in a future raffle. At least this way the club will benefit, and we can use the proceeds for our STEM projects to encourage youth in their education, and perhaps gain a few new youngsters into becoming amateur operators.

 

 

 

[PastorGary]

Very nice decision and I'm sure that it will be greatly appreciated... (until the new owner tries to program it...LOL...   )