New base station with Kenwood TK-880-1 radio

[WRTT440]

Hello All. I finally put together a base station for the house. I'm using a Kenwood TK-880-1 purchased from ebay, a 30 amp power supply from ebay, about 30 feet of LMR-400 type cable and a Tram 1486 antenna tuned for the GMRS band.

The power supply is a bit overkill as the max needed would be 8 amps for this radio. But I didn't want to have to replace it if I later upgrade to a higher power GMRS radio.

Today I was able to make my first "radio test" to a repeater (WRPD520) about 21.5 miles away using the TK-880 on high power, about 19.5 watts, with 1.25 SWR. 

[labreja]

That's really great!

My wife and I use the Kenwood TK-880s for our base and both our vehicles.  I find them reasonably priced, easy to program, and overall, just a great radio.  Good luck with it and have fun!

[axorlov]

Congrats! TK-880 is a robust chunk of a radio. 250 programmable channels, zones, operator-selected tone, reasonably fast scan, you name it.

[ULTRA2]

What's the difference between the TK880 and the TK8160? I have the 8160 as a base, and I'm happy with it.

[axorlov]

1 hour ago, ULTRA2 said:

What's the difference between the TK880 and the TK8160? I have the 8160 as a base, and I'm happy with it.

Hardware is different. These are different radios. And that does not preclude you from being happy with 8160!

[wrfc]

I have 4 TK  880-1 RADIOS . They are great radios for GMRS 

[nokones]

I just acquired a refurbished TK880K a couple months ago in a Club raffle.  At first, I thought that I would give it away to a Club newbie in need of a mobile radio since I already have several non-CCR mobile radios, except for one unfortunately, that I shouldn't have bought in the first place. I never been a Kenwood fan or had a use for one but, I quickly grown to like the radio once I got into the programming of the radio and learned its radio capabilities, and fit the radio into my radio use choices and inventory/cache.

They do make great GMRS radios and the radio features include zone programming, talkaround, a true monitor/PL Defeat that just doesn't blow squelch like a CCR, Home channel, and soft key programming. I like the size of the radio and it allows me to temporarily use the radio in one of my cars that really can't accommodate a permanent mobile radio installation.

The radio is really not too shabby. For a quality and inexpensive radio for a person that doesn't have very much disposable income and want to play with radios, and learn how to program their own radio(s), this radio is for you.

[Lscott]

25 minutes ago, nokones said:

I never been a Kenwood fan or had a use for one but, I quickly grown to like the radio once I got into the programming of the radio and learned its radio capabilities, and fit the radio into my radio use choices and inventory/cache.

Looks like I see another up and coming Kenwood fan like me.

TK-780(H)_880(H).pdf