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

[KAF6045]

DMR/P25/NXDN (as I recall) all use the /same/ AMBE CODEC; they just wrap the encoded audio in a different set of headers.

D-STAR uses a different, incompatible, AMBE CODEC. Fitting both CODECs into one radio means paying the license fee for both.

D-STAR uses actual call-signs for routing and identification -- which wouldn't be of use in the commercial realm where a system (and all associated radios) operates under a single call-sign (hence the 7-digit IDs used internal to DMR for radio identification).

[Lscott]

I understand the CODEC differences. 
 

To make the radio a bit more “universal” Kenwood could have included dPMR which is used in the EU for both their license free and commercial services. It’s a close relative to NXDN. It’s not used in North America in a significant way currently. That could change.

There is the option to use several different CODECS which is encoded in the OTA protocol. That would have allowed the use of the existing one for D-Star.

Certified-Interoperability-Guidance-Paper-2019.pdf

[WRTT642]

7 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

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.

Oh, ok, I understand, yeah that makes sense. Yet, for individuals like myself, which are probably many, why would I need a commercial radio for if I am only using radio for personal and educational use? I looked into P25/NXDN and to be honest, it's just too much for me personally and seems pretty restrictive. I could just be totally misunderstanding its purpose and use, but for the general market DStar, YSF, and even DMR are more viable options for the average user with my much better pricing and accessibility. So, I definitely get your point and you explained it very clearly for a slow person like myself, but I still don't see the practical use for the average consumer to get into the commercial side of radio and maybe that is why Kenwood stuck with DStar.  

[YAN1963]

I have the D74 and love it. I may wait a bit to get the D75 just to make sure they have worked all the bugs and gremlins out of the firmware. From what i am reading, this will be a very good radio to have.

[Lscott]

35 minutes ago, YAN1963 said:

I have the D74 and love it. I may wait a bit to get the D75 just to make sure they have worked all the bugs and gremlins out of the firmware. From what i am reading, this will be a very good radio to have.

So far there are only two radios I’m aware of that can operate digital voice on the Ham 1.25m band, the Kenwood TH-D74 currently and the Anytone D578 mobile. 
 

The TH-D74A only does D-Star while the D578 does DMR. I wished Kenwood would have given the option to do DMR with the TH-75A. They likely couldn’t keep them in stock even at a $700 more or less price point. I get the feeling that DMR is slowing replacing D-Star.

I talked to the Kenwood rep at the Hamvention last May asking why no DMR. He told me the offices here have been telling Kenwood Japan the same thing for a while, but nobody wanted to hear it in Japan. People that want DMR in a Kenwood radio have been buying their commercial radios. That’s why I own several. I’m surprised they haven’t figured this out yet.
 

Wait and see Icom do it, maybe even offer both, then see how the sales do on the TH-D75. Kenwood isn’t stupid. They know how to do multi protocol radios. They do it now in their commercial lines.

[WRVF971]

On 9/8/2023 at 9:00 AM, Lscott said:

I talked to the Kenwood rep at the Hamvention last May asking why no DMR. He told me the offices here have been telling Kenwood Japan the same thing for a while, but nobody wanted to hear it in Japan. People that want DMR in a Kenwood radio have been buying their commercial radios. That’s why I own several. I’m surprised they haven’t figured this out yet.

I dunno if they don't want to hear it (Kenwood Japan) or if the think they can keep getting folks to buy both the amateur radios AND the commercial ones to keep making more $$$.

That said, I'm looking forward to the new tri-band + d-star HT. As I suspect it's going to be much more $$$ than the Icom IC-T70A I currently use, I told my wife and kids to split the cost as a Christmas gift to me. 

[Lscott]

3 hours ago, WRVF971 said:

I dunno if they don't want to hear it (Kenwood Japan

I purchased one of these simply because Kenwood doesn’t have one and looks like they have no interest in doing it either. I wanted a DMR radio.

https://www.bridgecomsystems.com/products/anytone-at-d578uviii-plus-tri-band-amateur-dmr-mobile-radio

[AdmiralCochrane]

I am reasonably happy with my 578

[TwistedSquirrell88]

Current pricing is 749.99

I have the thd72 and the thd74.  I use a smiley triband antenna on them. I am waiting until I see what discounts are offered. Also I may wait until I see a video of the radio in operation. I have the ic705 radio also. 
Not in a hurry to get it. But I am curious about it indeed.

KO4ESA/WRJR757 

[SteveShannon]

My next DMR radio will be one of the radios that the Blind Hams version of Open GD-77 targets. A blind/deaf ham friend of mine is interested in the Tytera MD-UV380.  He uses implants to hear his radio, so audio hints help him be independent, but on his way to independence maybe I can help by learning the software. 

[Lscott]

It would be a very good idea to wait a few months on buying a TH-D75A. Let everyone else do the beta testing. By then Kenwood should have a good idea where all the remaining software and hardware bugs are and have a fix for them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the radio go through several hardware revisions before getting to a stable design.

[DominoDog]

I would love to have one, but jumping from a $50 Tidradio H8 to $750 Kenwood D75 doesn't seem wise just yet.

Maybe I'll find a bucket of hundred dollar bills, though.

[Lscott]

I'm not shelling out the price I see being quoted of $750 to $770 each. The D75A is a nice radio but it doesn't seem to offer enough in major functionality to justify spending the money. If nothing else I wanted to see AT LEAST split band programming. Also a DMR version would have been the deal maker. At best it's just a slight update/refresh of the D74A. Oh, the battery life on the D74 sucks.

[tweiss3]

Just now, Lscott said:

I'm not shelling out the price I see being quoted of $750 to $770 each. The D75A is a nice radio but it doesn't seem to offer enough in major functionality to justify spending the money. If nothing else I wanted to see AT LEAST split band programming. Also a DMR version would have been the deal maker. At best it's just a slight update/refresh of the D74A. Oh, the battery life on the D74 sucks.

You knew DMR wasn't going to happen. You know better, if you want DMR, the price point on the NX1200/1300 is better than the D75. Looking at my D74 again, the batteries are 1800mAh at the best, 1100 at the worst, which is insane. I have 3800 and 4200 for all my carry radios, so it's not really a surprise when I think about it that the battery life sucks.

[gortex2]

The issue is the CCR market has kileld the Amatuer Radio market and good gear costs more. Before CCR hit the world many of us paid alot for radios. My first Kenwood APRS mobile and Portable cost more than my truck payment. Now stuff costs even more as folks dont buy it. Hams are now cheap. If they could buy CCR HF rigs they would. 

My last rig was a FTM400XDR that was over $500. Its what I wanted for the application I needed so I grabbed it. Now they are discontinued. Is what it is. 

 

[WRXB215]

6 minutes ago, gortex2 said:

If they could buy CCR HF rigs they would.

Where can I find one? 

[SteveShannon]

19 minutes ago, gortex2 said:

Hams are now cheap. If they could buy CCR HF rigs they would. 

 

There are plenty and some people really like some of them. The Xeigu G90 is very popular with a built in tuner that is very capable. People say they can tune a clothesline. 
But there’s still a lot of really good Japanese made rigs out there and not all hams are cheap. 
And the ftm400 has been eclipsed by both the ftm300 and ftm500. People I know with ftm400s have had some problems that necessitated sending them back a couple times. The FTM300 has a much better reputation. The FTM500 is still earning its rep.

[gortex2]

Yup. Biggest issue with the 300 and 500 is the display. Kinda small for APRS in a vehicle. If you only want a tracker I guess its fine. 

[Lscott]

1 hour ago, tweiss3 said:

if you want DMR, the price point on the NX1200/1300 is better than the D75.

That's why I have three of them, NX-1300DUK5's effectively. Just for completeness I wouldn't mind picking up a NX-1200 for VHF DMR. Although there isn't much VHF DMR activity by me.

I have my eye on an auction for a TK-D200GE radio out of the UK. If the bids don't get to crazy I'll throw in a bid on it. That would give me two, I have one now, to go along with the two UHF model TK-D300E's I have

However the D74A and D75A will do digital on 1.25M. The only other radio I have that will do digital on that band it is the D578. The D578 does DMR at least, not D-Star.

[Lscott]

1 hour ago, Sshannon said:

But there’s still a lot of really good Japanese made rigs out there and not all hams are cheap. 

Somebody is buying those Ham only Icom and Yeasu $10K plus HF rigs just for contesting.

[tweiss3]

1 hour ago, Sshannon said:

But there’s still a lot of really good Japanese made rigs out there and not all hams are cheap. 

What is available is dwindling. TS-890/990 is not available new. IC-7300 is probably the best 100W bang for the buck out there, but the step above (7610) is quite a big step. Yaesu does have a handful of options as well.

6 minutes ago, Lscott said:

That's why I have three of them, NX-1300DUK5's effectively. Just for completeness I wouldn't mind picking up a NX-1200 for VHF DMR. Although there isn't much VHF DMR activity by me.

I have my eye on an auction for a TK-D200GE radio out of the UK. If the bids don't get to crazy I'll throw in a bid on it. That would give me two, I have one now, to go along with the two UHF model TK-D300E's I have

However the D74A and D75A will do digital on 1.25M. The only other radio I have that will do digital on that band it is the D578. The D578 does DMR at least, not D-Star.

Funny, I went skiing Saturday, and the lift operators have brand new NX-1200/1300 radios. I was surprised how small they were.

[Lscott]

1 hour ago, tweiss3 said:

Funny, I went skiing Saturday, and the lift operators have brand new NX-1200/1300 radios. I was surprised how small they were.

Kenwood did a really good job keeping the size down. They aren't that heavy either. The prices are reasonable depending on where you look. Most of the NX1200/1300's are the cheaper non-display type. OK for business use where one tends to stay on one to a few channels. More than that you really need the display versions. Trying to remember a couple of hundred channels is rather tough to do otherwise.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/302-nx-1300duk5-rssi-display/

Apparently they do front panel programming. It has to be the display model with at least the limited keypad. See attached file.

There is no additional entitlement license to get this feature from what I can see in the available options. For Ham use this is a perk.

NX-1200_1300 Front Panel Programming.pdf

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, tweiss3 said:

What is available is dwindling. TS-890/990 is not available new. IC-7300 is probably the best 100W bang for the buck out there, but the step above (7610) is quite a big step. Yaesu does have a handful of options as well.

Funny, I went skiing Saturday, and the lift operators have brand new NX-1200/1300 radios. I was surprised how small they were.

The Yaesu FT-710 Field will run rings around the IC-7300. Better reception and lower price than the 7300, and improved ergonomics over the FT-DX10. 

[wrci350]

1 hour ago, tweiss3 said:

What is available is dwindling. TS-890/990 is not available new.

Are you talking about the Kenwood TS-890 and 990?

HRO and DX Engineer both have the TS-890S in stock, and you can even buy one from HRO through Amazon if you are so inclined.  Oops.  Looks like HRO says "out of stock".  But Amazon says it will be here in a week.

According to HRO, the TS-990S ships from the factory but they will sell you one.  It's even on sale!

Sorry if I misunderstood.

[WRUI365]

Have my D75A in hand and with the Openspot 4 Pro can crossmode into DMR, YSF, NXDN, plus using DSTAR. Only xmode can't do is P25 with it, but then again I actually do have a P25 handheld. USB-C charging at 5 watts. USB and bluetooth programming. And a few other nice things on it. You get what you pay for.