Kenwood TH-D75A Tri-Band Handheld Transceiver with D-STAR and APRS

[WRTT642]

Heard about the new Kenwood TH-D75A and saw it posted on gigaparts. Was curious about your guy's thoughts on it. I am seriously considering getting it as I always wanted the D74, but was unwilling to pay the inflated prices for a used HT. What say you all?

[SteveShannon]

I would be interested in one but I don’t know what it does better than my Yaesu FT-5DR which I got for $360. 

[WRTT642]

4 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

I would be interested in one but I don’t know what it does better than my Yaesu FT-5DR which I got for $360. 

It is my understanding it is a tri-band HT. Not sure if the FT5dr is, and also does Dstar, but again that depends if you like Dstar over YSF, which personally I do yet that's a subjective issue and with the hotspots out today you can basically do most digital anyway for the most part. I think it looks great and am very interested to learn more about its capabilities. Hopefully, they will showcase at hamvention so we can learn some more about it.

[SteveShannon]

You’re right; the Yaesu doesn’t transmit on 220. Maybe it does if I do the MARS/CAP mod, but there’s nobody around here to talk to on 220 anyway. 
Neither are there any D*Star repeaters around here. 
I agree that it looks great and I sure wouldn’t turn one down. 

[SteveShannon]

Gigaparts has the FT5DR for $330 right now. 

[wayoverthere]

1 hour ago, WRTT642 said:

Heard about the new Kenwood TH-D75A and saw it posted on gigaparts. Was curious about your guy's thoughts on it. I am seriously considering getting it as I always wanted the D74, but was unwilling to pay the inflated prices for a used HT. What say you all?

 

Count me in the same boat....so much cool stuff that was discontinued by the time I got my ticket, so my interest is piqued. I'm always tempted to try something new, and the icom id52 had me curious, but this has some positives over the icom, even if it rings in at around the same price. Wanting actual APRS was pushing me to yaesu, though interface wise I prefer my icom, and have still been tempted to jump to the id5100. (Sorry, rambling)

[WRTT642]

2 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

Count me in the same boat....so much cool stuff that was discontinued by the time I got my ticket, so my interest is piqued. I'm always tempted to try something new, and the icom id52 had me curious, but this has some positives over the icom, even if it rings in at around the same price. Wanting actual APRS was pushing me to yaesu, though interface wise I prefer my icom, and have still been tempted to jump to the id5100. (Sorry, rambling)

Yeah, I have the Icom ID-52a and I absolutely love it. I also quite enjoy D-Star and run it with a hotspot and it works great. This new Kenwood has some features that the Icom doesn't which has me so interested in it. As much as I love my ID52 I would very much be happy with going over to the D75a if it really does have all these features, the only thing that would hold me back is if they are asking some outrageous price. I won't pay more than want I did for my icom and that thing was as high as I would go for a HT. 

[WRTT642]

2 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Gigaparts has the FT5DR for $330 right now. 

Yeah, I saw that. They have a really good price for it right now, just never really been a fan of Yaseu, don't ask me why lol. But a great price nonetheless for a good HT. Maybe Yaseu will have some new goodies to announce at ham.

[axorlov]

I owned TH-D72 some time ago. It had atrocious battery life with APRS on, like 3 hours or even less, while my FT-1XD happily runs all day (~10 hours) with APRS. I sold D72, and I often regret selling it. I also often do not regret selling it, especially after riding MTB in the hills all day and camping, while using FT-1XD. What I truly miss is an AX25 modem in D72, fully accessible from PC. If D75 has a modem accessible from PC, I would seriously consider it. Yaesu radios do not allow modem to be used by external devices.

[tweiss3]

Wait till the official announcement and details this week (could be today when the Hamvention opens) as Kenwood has shown up to Dayton this year. 

The keypad looks more robust than the D74 (I lost a key on mine). I also hope the battery life is better than the D74. Honestly, I probably won't see any need to get it though. I'm more interested to see if they have a mobile counterpart announced as well.

[tweiss3]

6 hours ago, axorlov said:

I owned TH-D72 some time ago. It had atrocious battery life with APRS on, like 3 hours or even less, while my FT-1XD happily runs all day (~10 hours) with APRS. I sold D72, and I often regret selling it. I also often do not regret selling it, especially after riding MTB in the hills all day and camping, while using FT-1XD. What I truly miss is an AX25 modem in D72, fully accessible from PC. If D75 has a modem accessible from PC, I would seriously consider it. Yaesu radios do not allow modem to be used by external devices.

The D74 does have access to the TNC through both bluetooth and usb, I would expect that to carry into the D75

[KAF6045]

5 hours ago, WRXE944 said:

How much new? Estimates?

I see a used 74 for $900+

Expect to see those used prices drop drastically once the 75 reaches market...

I don't need another radio (I have both a D74 and ID-52 -- along with half a dozen other dual-band [or even 3.5 bands for the VX-8DR -- flea power 222MHz doesn't deserve a full band if Kenwood can manage full power in the D74]). However, it is nice to see that Kenwood is still in the arena -- the most recent HRO catalog showed NO Kenwood HTs, not even their old 2m-only standby.

[wayoverthere]

40 minutes ago, KAF6045 said:

Expect to see those used prices drop drastically once the 75 reaches market...

I was thinking along the same lines. Even at or just a ove the same price point of the id52, a new d75 would almost be a no brainer vs a used d74

[WRTT642]

3 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

I was thinking along the same lines. Even at or just a ove the same price point of the id52, a new d75 would almost be a no brainer vs a used d74

I am personally willing to pay ID52 prices for the new D75, but anything over that will be a no-go for me, yet I find it hard to believe that they will sell this unit for my then 5-600 dollars. With everything coming out on this I am very excited to see more about it. Looks to be a very big contender in the HT market and hopefully will cause the other companies to up their game.

[WRUI365]

I'm planning on getting the D75A. Does do DSTAR  on both vfos simultaneously, and the only one that can do it 220. 

[Lscott]

Live from Hamvention.

 

[Lscott]

Sample on display.

[Lscott]

You just don’t know what you’ll see here.

 

[WRTT642]

HAHAHAHHAAHHAHHAHAAA. Love it!

[Lscott]

On 5/19/2023 at 10:54 AM, WRXE944 said:

How much new? Estimates?

I see a used 74 for $900+

I’ve seen them for $1000 plus on ebay. Stupid when I only paid $650 for mine new from HRO.

[Lscott]

When I spoke to the Kenwood rep I told him they should have made it DMR. If they did I bet they couldn’t make them fast enough to keep on the shelf. The guy just shrugged and said they told Japan the same thing but nobody there would listen.

[Lscott]

I showed the rep their NX-1300DUK5 I was using to talk to my buddy, had his D878, using DMR. The rep said they were using the NX-5000’s themselves there.

[WRTT642]

16 hours ago, Lscott said:

When I spoke to the Kenwood rep I told him they should have made it DMR. If they did I bet they couldn’t make them fast enough to keep on the shelf. The guy just shrugged and said they told Japan the same thing but nobody there would listen.

Just curious. Since they already make the NX series that do DMR, P25, NXDN, FM, then why not make one that does DSTAR as well? I mean wouldn't that just make Kenwood a go-to company for your digital needs regardless of which mode you use? I personally use Dstar a lot and love it, others don't and that is perfectly fine. But at least Kenwood would have whatever you want and offer it all. Not sure if Icom has multi-protocol radios.

[tweiss3]

4 hours ago, WRTT642 said:

Just curious. Since they already make the NX series that do DMR, P25, NXDN, FM, then why not make one that does DSTAR as well? I mean wouldn't that just make Kenwood a go-to company for your digital needs regardless of which mode you use? I personally use Dstar a lot and love it, others don't and that is perfectly fine. But at least Kenwood would have whatever you want and offer it all. Not sure if Icom has multi-protocol radios.

I see this comment/suggestion a ton, or similar. Its a lot more complicated than that. 

DMR, P25 & NXDN are permitted on amateur radio, however, D-star is not a permitted mode on business/public safety radio. It would honestly be a firmware nightmare. The reason people use commercial digital radios in amateur radio is to get secondary (or primary) use outside of amateur radio. To build a radio that can also do all commercial digital radio, yet acknowledge the amateur bands and permit dstar only in the amateur range will be a pain.

 

You have to realize that besides the few (myself being one of them) nobody is going to pay what they would be forced to ask. Right now, for the NX5000, conventional P25 entitlement is listed at $600 per radio, and DMR is around $100. That would mean, if the D74/D75 hardware is up to the task, the $600 hardware + $600 + $100 + NXDN costs = $ 1300+ radio to be locked down to amateur band. Would you pay that? I wouldn't, and I'm looking at more expensive items as well. Why not make them include YSF as well (this is open source). 

It should also be noted that the brand new VP8000 is the first radio I'm aware of that actually recognizes GMRS & Amateur radio as wideband out the gate in the firmware/software without additional purchases. That radio is going to cost an individual about $4000, well into IC7610 territory for a handheld.

Looking more at this D75, I probably won't get one since I have the D74, unless new features are announced at the Tokyo hamfest end of the year. I'm more excited to see the D710 "replacement" announced at Tokyo than this HT.

[Lscott]

1 hour ago, tweiss3 said:

Looking more at this D75, I probably won't get one since I have the D74, unless new features are announced at the Tokyo hamfest end of the year. I'm more excited to see the D710 "replacement" announced at Tokyo than this HT.

It looks like just an incremental upgrade over the D74. If it did DMR that would get my attention or a multi mode digital. But it’s not.