HOPE: Global Digital Repeater Round Up 2022

 

Life has been busy for Steve K2GOG and that is reflected in the lack of recent blog entries on HVDN Notebook.  This post "should" have happened in late May or early June, but that was not possible due to 1,000 other distractions such as our Hudson River Radio Relay on June 11th, ARRL Field Day on June 25/26, a new job, countless family adventures and other stuff..

However, lets get things back on track here since it has now been five years since HVDN began and this is an appropriate way to re-energize with HVDN readers via our twice a year global digital repeater roundup series. Look for more stuff coming soon plus BIG news regarding HVDN if you live in the Hudson Valley of New York.

First off, let me apologize for having to use July 10th 2022 data to provide the 1H22 reporting data.

This extra month plus a few extra days should not really throw anything too far off, since its still clear that the total global digital repeater mode leader in volume is DMR. However, P25 is the true leader if we look at overall CAGR.

As noted in the table above, data is shown from May of 2018 and through July of 2022.  Measurements are taken every end of May and end of October.  Raw data per mode is shown for each period and CAGR was calculated for the May and October periods independently. An average of both periods can be found at the far right of the table.

The below table shows the included 2016 data if you were wondering how long we have been tracking things if you are a new reader and missed the past nine other articles. 

Report:  What has happened in digital voice since October 2021?

Well this is rather interesting to say the least. In our October 2021 edition, I predicted some growth projections as found in "SPECIAL EDITION: 10,000+ Digital Repeaters - October 2021 Global Digital Repeater Roundup" and I was not "too" wrong.  

Estimates I predicted last October for May of 2022 included:

• Yaesu Fusion Global Repeaters = 3135 forecast (Actual 3218)

• Icom D-Star Global Repeaters = 2429 forecast (Actual 2471)

• DMR Global Repeaters = 4009 forecast (Actual 2003)

• P25 Global Repeaters = 569 forecast (Actual 630)

• NXDN Global Repeaters = 160 forecast (Actual 167)

Lets first talk about Yaesu Fusion's latest developments.  My guess is that the latest crop of radios which have come to market over the last 8-9 months may have pushed some clubs or repeater trustees to put up some additional repeaters to support the people who paid money for digital technology. 

A few radios like the mobile FTM-300DR and FTM-200DR plus FT-5DR handheld added to an existing pool of equipment available with C4FM capability.  The strategy of "Make more Fusion radios" is probably working well for Yaesu as a single vendor ecosystem.  Go Yaesu! You blew past my forecast!

Yaesu FTM-200DR pictured which retails for around $380 USD
and is competitive against other digital mode offerings for competition modes

Oh, sad sad Icom.  Will you figure things out when it comes to D-Star? To your credit, I was surprised just a little as I had expected that you would lose repeaters according to repeaterbook.com but you did actually gain a few. 

Now I am not sure if all 2471 around the world are actually active and if repeaterbook.com removes incorrect data as frequently as they should.  I do know that when traveling not every D-Star repeater is on the air though....so your secret is safe with me for now.

Maybe people who now have the super fun Icom IC-705 and IC-9700 have put pressure on magical repeater gnomes to conjure up a few more repeaters to use those expensive radios on or the new handheld ID-52 which finally is shipping. Maybe this is true, but CAGR still does not lie.  

Hovering around 1% CAGR is not fun to see, but perhaps if some cost effective equipment that supports D-Star ever comes to market, that should change things like we see with Fusion and DMR.

Be honest, did you buy a $1700+ Icom IC-9700 radio to talk on your local repeater?
If yes, I would love to hear about that

Ok, now for the record, I currently own more D-Star capable radios than I do for DMR. However, DMR is the mode I use the most still when I have time to play radio.  

The Alinco DJ-MD5XTG continues to be my favorite "ham" grade DMR radio and I sort of wish something more expensive and with features like the D-Star Kenwood TH-D74 or Yaesu FT-5DR would come to market. The RFinder B1 is a really cool radio which supports DMR but I am not interested in a smartphone based device for $1000 USD.  

With continued impressive repeater growth numbers for DMR, most people probably are using Anytone or Alinco equipment plus who ever is still supporting TYT and Radioddity based equipment.  The key thing here is that lower cost gear gave DMR a boost and repeater ninjas knew what to invest in.

For DMR, there is even a rather good  Under $30 basic radio called the COTRE CO01D which only can program 16 channels, but otherwise is great to use with a hotspot on limited talk groups. It is doubtful we will ever see a competing D-Star option at this price since the JARL license for D-Star is 2-3x the cost of just one of these radios. 

Alinco offers the MD520 which offers dual band 2m/70cm plus 220 MHz and VHF air receive. Anytone has a comparable D578UVIII for sale at around the same price. Both compete with the Fusion radios for close to the same price.

I was really close to my P25 prediction and was only off by 1. That is actually pretty nice.. Growth of P25 is fueled by surplus commercial equipment. NXDN is pretty much the same story and actual versus predicted growth from October 2021 to today  Not much really to talk about for equipment since options for new gear are from commercial companies only and surplus options are too varied to discuss.

The growth of P25 is interesting to continue to see though. As more municipalities change radio systems around, it should be interesting to see how P25 and NXDN evolve within amateur radio.

M17:  Will it happen ever?

Being nice here, but I own 3 total M17 T-shirts, a bunch of stickers and a semi-functional TYT MD-380 converted to be used via hotspot for this open source FDMA based mode.   I have yet to find people local to me to try simplex M17 to M17 but have done that at a hamfest.  

Every day that goes by  possibly gets us closer to off the shelf turn key equipment for M17 and I am hopeful that this mode explodes once it has some reliable equipment to support it. The back end infrastructure to connect repeaters to is already in place and a few "test" repeaters are sort of available to a few people. 

To help keep M17 top of mind,  presentations can be found all over the place and the upcoming HOPE conference will feature at least two of them talking about this open source mode. 

Feel free to check out open source RF experimentation at 10:00 AM Saturday July 23rd co-presented by Steve K2GOG and Joe NE2Z plus a much more legit one about M17 scheduled along with so many great ones found at https://scheduler.hope.net/new-hope/schedule/# 

HOPE 2022 is going to be epic and hope you can make it in person or virtually

Great, another DMR radio? But, with real 220 MHz?

Alinco was the first main stream amateur radio vendor to offer a DMR radio way back in 2016 with its  DJ-MD40 UHF only radio.  Less than two years later, they came to market with the dual band DJ-MD5TGP which included a GPS and was roughly based on the same reference design as the popular Anytone D878UV. Main stream being defined as Alinco often being included alongside Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu.

With many other radios such as the TYT MD-UV380, Radioddity GD-77, Baofeng DM-1801 and Ailunce HD1 offering dual band spectrum coverage at various price and feature differences, it looks like Alinco is about to offer its second generation version of its 2018 released "MD5" radio for short and it will offer a few things not found elsewhere, including a third band for some markets! 

This now further cements that Alinco is only going to focus on DMR for the amateur market, Kenwood and Icom on D-Star and Yaesu on Fusion for the time being until hopefully the HVDN backed M17 project and its TR-9 open source radio finds a manufacturing partner in China or maybe with one of the main stream vendors to stop fragmentation with so many competing digital modes.

How many MD5 are there?

There has always been some confusion while looking at discussion boards on Facebook as to how many different MD5 radios are there and the answer has always been two.

The DJ-MD5TGP has been the more expensive version and included a GPS.  The slightly lower cost DJ-MD5T is identical, but does not have the GPS and typically sells for $20 less.  Both versions are covered under the FCC ID of PH3DJ-MD5. The earlier DJ-MD40 can be found under FCC ID PH3DJ-MD5. 

The new, but not yet FCC certified Alinco DJ-MD5XT is going to likely require its own FCC ID as early documentation shows that this will be the first true tri-band DMR radio which will cover the 2m, 70cm and 1.25m amateur radio bands, plus extended receive above and below the VHF and UHF bands as usual. 

Looking in the just released computer programming software available on the Remtronix website, it clearly shows an option under MHF for 220 to 225 MHz.

Hackers are already salivating....

When it was discovered that certain band combinations would allow reception and transmission above 480 MHz just like in the Anytone D878UV and BTECH 6X2, Alinco was quick to issue new firmware to prevent this, but was easily bypassed with a 3rd party software tool to enable 480 to 520 MHz coverage. 

These extra frequencies are sought after in countries like Australia where there are UHF CB channels and in the United States where first responders such as New York City Police and Fire user channels above 480 MHz. 

Without spending time attempting to get an Alinco MD-5TGP with or without the patched 1.13c or 1.10 firmware to work with the CPS 1.09a meant for the new Alinco DJ-MD5XT, it would likely appear that the new Alinco DJ-MDXT due to having a band option meant for 1.25m should suggest there is different hardware inside that will offer safe operation of the 220 MHz band.

While many radios mentioned in this article can be "hacked" to give the impression they will work on the 1.25 band, it is not suggested to transmit as it will ruin the RF power amplifier and filtering in the radio since it is not designed for that spectrum.  Hopefully the Alinco DJ-MD5XT will support this great and underutilized band available only in the United States and few other countries globally. 

Related Reading

• FLASH NEWS!: Alinco MD-5 Series Cleared by FCC (Published Sept 20th 2018)

• The Official "NOT" Review of the Alinco MD-5 Series (Published Oct 4th 2018)

• Review: Alinco DJ-MD5T Series DMR Radio (Published Nov 7th 2018)

• Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review (Published Nov 18th 2018)

• Frequency Expansion: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP (Published March 7th 2019)

May 2019 Global Digital Repeater Round Up

It is that time of year again, where Hudson Valley Digital Network analyzes the growth of digital voice amateur radio repeaters and provides some additional commentary behind what is helping to push towards the future of mode modulation.

Why May and October?

The month of May in most parts of the world means nicer weather and the start of the hamfest season in many countries. In the United States, many vendors typically announce new products just before, during or after the three day long Hamvention formerly of Dayton Ohio but now held nearby in much more "modern" facilities in nearby Xenia.

This event often impacts purchasing decisions of both end user devices (hand held radios, mobiles, hotspots) and wide area infrastructure such as repeaters or so called "mega-spots".  Taking a measurement just before this event helps not only provide normalized results, but give readers an opportunity to see a big spike in growth just after should they wish to look into this themselves!

The Anytone D878UV is a very popular DMR radio
due to its feature set, price, durability and accessories.

October is the next update before the onset of winter and holiday shopping season when vendors sometimes run promotional sales. Measurement at the start of the fourth fiscal quarter helps provide more normalized measurements to track how things are looking for the future of digital voice mode growth.

May 2019 Digital Repeater Growth

Basing HVDN's measurements on public repeaterbook.com data has multiple benefits.  This website is widely used by the amateur radio community and captures almost all repeaters globally. Most all heavily used repeaters will be listed here and the operators of these resources usually like to let others know they exist to highlight the technical expertise it takes to run a good repeater. These are the two major benefits and why we chose to base our analysis only on this websites data.

The data above tells a great story. DMR continues its upward trajectory mainly fueled by inexpensive hand held radios and hot spot devices which create the need for wide area repeaters.

Growth of DMR repeaters over the last 12 months was 18.6% which equals 34.4% of all total digital voice repeaters for the top 5 digital voice modes.

The single vendor supported FDMA based Yaesu Fusion mode grew a respectable 12.6% from May of 2018 to present.  With lowered cost hand held and mobile radios along with a few promotions that resulted in sold out or back ordered equipment early in 2019.

Some other reasons the mode also known as YSF or C4FM has been widely popular are its fuller range audio and easy programming requirements compared to most all other digital voice modes.

Icom's D-Star continues to struggle thanks to its limited and higher cost equipment. There was not a single new D-Star capable radio offered for sale in the last year that fit into the hand held of mobile category.

Aside from the Kenwood TH-D74 which is the only non-Icom radio to support D-Star the only new radio capable of D-Star is the $2,099 USD Icom IC-9700.

This high end base radio will appeal more towards those interested in satellite or weak signal communications in the 2m, 70, and 23cm bands. While the radio is capable of D-Star operation, this radio will likely not cause any uptick in repeater growth.  Of the three major digital voice modes, the 15 year old GFSK based D-Star only saw 2.9% growth.

Commercial To Amateur Impact

DMR started life as TDMA based MotoTRBO offered to commercial customers by Motorola before it was made an open ETSI standard. P25 and NXDN are two other commercial voice modes that have started to see adoption by the amateur radio community as commercial users generate surplus equipment as they adopt newer equipment.

While the numbers of deployed P25 and NXDN repeaters combined equals a microscopic 6% of digital voice repeaters globally, both modes showed promising repeater growth.  P25 repeaters increased 19.1% and NXDN grew 13.3% in the last year.

While these two modes still only account for 525 of 8305 repeaters globally, this is interesting because only commercial new or surplus equipment is available. An HVDN prediction is that these two modes will continue to erode potential D-Star growth as most amateurs seek to experiment with easily obtainable and low cost equipment that has a professional or multi use appeal.

The Kenwood NX-5300 is a analog FM, DMR, P25 and NXDN radio
 made for the commercial market but is starting to show up on E-Bay.

Further 2019 digital voice expectations

While this update focuses on repeater growth, it is getting harder to avoid talking about hotspot devices.   The cost of single or semi-duplex devices thanks to open hardware and software initiatives has continued to trend between $30 to $70 USD which offers an opportunity to those looking to experiment with digital voice while mobile or at home when a repeater is not reachable or even available.

Duplex hotspots are like miniature repeaters as Joe N1JTA referred to them as in his presentation given at the Trenton Computer Festival earlier this year.  Much more about learning how to run a wide area digital repeater can be learned from these devices, especially as it relates to DMR and its unique "two discussions, at the same time, on the same frequency" capability.

Costs for duplex hotspots have remained in the $60 to $150 USD range and will likely hold steady for the foreseeable future.

While the original OpenSpot device continues to be a favorite of digital mode enthusiasts, the next generation OpenSpot 2 fell way short of expectations based on its cost, poor Wi-Fi performance and lack of portable power option.

A well known Chinese ham known as Winters CN, BI7JTA has been an active contributor to the advancement of open hardware for a while now.  He has recently introduced a new product that is very exciting in that it solves all negative aspects of the OpenSpot 2 and at a lower cost.

As a finished product, its likely going to be popular as more people learn of it. Since it also is based around common footprint boards, it can be further enhanced by replacing its MMDVM boards with those of even higher quality by engineers like N5BOC and his popular products.

With Alinco and Anytone becoming two of the more popular vendors compared to TYT and Ailunce of last year, probably the most anticipated new digital voice equipment soon to enter the market is the Anytone D578 mobile.

This radio has many common features as the Alinco, Anytone and BTECH hand held radios but introduces something that will be a first for the amateur radio community.

A full control bluetooth remote microphone with display will help set this radio apart for those looking for "remote head" capable radios but with an easier to install approach.

Digital Voice:  Looking Forward

DMR looks well positioned to continue to dominate digital voice interests in amateur radio, but may be challenged by P25 or NXDN if vendors like Icom or Yaesu decide to leverage expertise in the commercial business lines and introduce them to the amateur radio community. Alinco who is the only large amateur radio vendor to offer DMR product to amateurs, but also has a range of commercial products that supports NXDN also.

Features such as location sharing, text messaging and infrastructure enabled intelligence continue to be explored

SDRangel & Decoding Digital Voice (DMR, D-Star, Fusion, etc)

What would you say about being able to listen to DMR, D-Star, Fusion for under $20?

If you have a 64 bit based computer and a 64 bit based operating system, this tutorial about the SDRangel software will be of interest. This article will help on how to set it up under Windows and to decode digital voice modes with an inexpensive SDR dongle.

Should your computer be a 32 bit based (x86) machine running a 32 bit OS, like WinXP. THIS WILL NOT BE OF USE TO YOU.

What you need:

• 64-bit based Windows 7 or more recent
• 64-bit based computer
• Any RTL based SDR (Suggestions at bottom of article)
• SDRangel software
• 7zip software to decompress the SDRangel software

All you will need to do is download the 7zip software, install that and decompress the SDRangel package into your "Program Files" directory in Windows.

If you have not already spent time with SDR# software and Zadig USB driver, you will need to install the later first in order for your SDR dongle to work with either SDR# or SDRangel.

Here is a video tutorial for more information

RTL SDR suggestions

Pretty much any SDR will work with SDRangel. Here are some ones I recommend.

• RTL-SDR based devices such as the ones sold by NooElec or RTL-SDR
• SDRplay RSP1 (Unsure about the new RSP2, but should work)
• FunCube

NOTE: I would like to try the Outernet Dreamcatcher one day soon for use with SDRangel.

Also, SDRangel works as a transceiver, so if you have any of the following devices, SDRangel could function as a full fledged radio to work HF, VHF, etc and pretty much any mode you want. I have been recently using my LimeSDR to monitor and communicate via the FO-29 satellite for example with an outboard amplifier for the uplink signal.

• BladeRF
• HackRF
• LimeSDR
• PlutoSDR

Any questions, if you are on DMR, give a look for me on TG 31368 which is the Mid Hudson Valley Talk Group.

Thanks

Steve K2GOG

First Impressions: Kenwood TH-D74

Sure, I could have posted a review on E-Ham, but rather do that here because I can include pictures and videos.

I have been looking for a new radio to use for satellite, portable and entertainment while enjoying time after a settling in to a camp site.

(The father of APRS, Bob WB4APR enroute somewhere during Thanksgiving)

For my reasons, the Kenwood TH-D74 fit those needs because, as a "current on the market" hand held radio it:

• Provides up to 5W output on 144, 220 and 440 amateur bands in FM and N-FM.
• Has 1,000 memory channels (Like the Yaesu FT-60r does)
• Has built in APRS capability (Like my older Kenwood TH-D7A(g) and a few other radios)
• Has a built in GPS (Only the Icom ID-51, Kenwood TH-D72, Yaesu FT-2DR have this currently)
• Has audio recording capability (saves to an micro SD card)
• Has all mode (SSB, CW, AM, FM) receiver from 100KHz to 500 MHz ( Only the Kenwood F6a has this)
• Has FM broadcast band for music
• Has bluetooth to avoid needing any sort of data cables getting in the way
• Runs on a Lithium battery pack
• Can receive two frequencies at the same time

This radio also is the only other non Icom radio that supports D-Star for digital voice, but at the $589 price tag this radio may push the limits for a ham grade HT and creates a high barrier to entry to new users wanting to try D-STAR.

Its the combination of everything this radio does is what makes it unique and justifies the price to me. Still, I do not know why Icom still treats D-Star as an accessory feature. They must not really believe in it.  Kenwood really needed to jam a lot of stuff into this radio to sell a few at this price point.

If I wanted to carry multiple radios, I would have needed to purchase a combination of radios and other equipment to get the same functionality. Some of those to consider were the:

• Kenwood TH-F6a at $289 because it has 144, 220 and 440 plus an all mode HF receiver
• Kenwood TH-D72 at $350 because it is the best performing APRS function radio available
• Yaesu FT-2DR not sure why, but I like it as a 144/400 and Fusion radio with APRS, but no all mode RX.
• Icom ID 51 at $400 because it is 144/440 with D-Star and basic APRS functions and nice form factor.
• Any DMR capable radio because I like DMR because there are many more repeaters where I intend to be in the US, Canada or elsewhere.

Add in digital recorder plus data and audio cables, software, its gets a little complicated (and more expensive), so does this purchase make sense now? We shall see.

(Programming radio over blue tooth. No wires) 

Satellite Operation

This is actually a short coming of this radio because it is not full duplex, meaning if I am talking on 144 MHz I can not listen to 440 MHz at the same time. The other receiver mutes when transmitting on the other. Operating full duplex via satellite is considered "polite" because you can monitor yourself on the down-link to ensure you are not "doubling" with another userm which often happens on repeaters if your not playing nice.

This is not to be confused with being able to listen to two different frequencies at the same time, even in the same band. The only current production radio that is true full duplex is the Kenwood TH-D72.

Some older popular radios that meet this full duplex criteria are the Yaesu FT-530 and Icom IC-W32 but I already have owned them and I wanted something new. There is the Wouxon UV9D that claims to have full duplex capability but the receiver is desensitized enough to make it borderline usable for satellite use.

As an experienced satellite operator, i can still operate satellite by being "predictive" during a satellite pass to be a good neighbor though. It is easy to program the TH-D74 into split mode so when I transmit on uplink, it will go back to the downlink when I unkey the PTT. I can also put the downlink on one VFO and the uplink on the other VFO.

This is not the same as "full duplex but is close and 100% if I use a second radio to access the FM only repeaters. One nice thing also is that when the TH-D74 is used as an all mode receiver, its perfect as a down-link receiver on the SSB transponder satellites. For up-link, the Yaesu FT_817 works perfect and I have one of those, so now I can work those satellites while portable too!

IMPORTANT: One quick note, I found a "birdie" on 435.160MHz, but its weak. This is where the AO-85 satellite can be found. The IF beat feature is not enough to knock it all the way out.

Clipped to a backpack or belt. NO WAY! 

While I do want to have just "one radio" while doing the aforementioned activities, this is an expensive radio and I want to treat it as such, so will store it in my pack when not in use on the trail, or to just beacon out via APRS where I do not need to press any buttons. A backup radio and for use when I want to operate full duplex on satellite comes in the form of either my Yaesu FT_60 (144/440) or the Radioddity GD-77, which is also a DMR radio. This is what will get clipped to a pack strap.

So, that's whats related to satellite operation. The TH-D74 does have built in audio recording capability so I set this to record on the down link and it logs my QSOs (Contacts) for easy playback or sharing later. This is a really good feature to have for those that do not think I made contact of "oops, I left my recorder at home" or, DAMN! the cable fell out and all I got was a buzz sound" sort of moments. If you are a true satellite operator, you know what I mean!

A word about the recorder feature

You can configure the recorder to automatically record anything on either A or B side of the radio. Not both. I leave this set to B which is the side that allows the all mode receiver to work on. A side only works for the ham bands only.

Perhaps if I hear an interesting HF or SW station, I can record that as well as 144, 220 or 440 activity in the ham bands as well as anything not in the ham bands such as aircraft communications. All recordings are time stamped. There are features to start recording upon voice (VOX) or carrier, which is nice too depending how the squelch is set or tone system in use.

This was another reason I purchased this instead of the TH-D72. Figure the built in recorder is like any of the premium digital pocket recorders on the market, but just for recording radio audio. I guess if I needed to record a note for myself, I could always transmit on a different radio into this one. Ok, maybe....

Recordings get logged to a micro SD card and you can play them back on the radio, or read them on a computer via USB cord or by taking the SD card out of the radio and plugging it into your mobile phone.

(FM scan mode. Can automatically mute when another transmission is heard on 2m or 70cm)

Equalizer & Volume Lock

I have not seen any other review talk about this feature, so I want to say "THIS IS AWESOME"! This is like one of those weird creature comfort settings a 1980's Cadillac would have that you would not need, but was nice to have.

The way this works by going to Menu 963 is where you set the volume (analog knob) to a listening level you like and then you activate this volume lock function. Regardless if you try to increase or decrease the volume, the radio will stay at the level you set until you deactivate the volume lock.

There is also a 6-band RX audio equalizer, a SSB high cut filter, CW filter and 4 band TX audio filter plus 3 stage mic gain. Yes, this is in a handheld radio! Cadillac features indeed! You can toggle the RX or TX EQ on or off, or both and each has its own settings. This makes a big difference when listening on AM or FM broadcast, 2m FM, SWL HF SSB, etc.

These are nice for a few reasons, but will let you discover why this could be helpful at times.

Menu System

Did you see that last section? Menu 963? What! Its well organized. Menu 1-9 are icons, Then you have a list of setting under each of the 9. Then you have sub menus. Its really easy to find stuff to fiddle with and tell someone else how to get there. No more twirling the knob (sorry, that sounded bad) and going past where you need and have to go back the other way. I am not going to look for the politically correct description to go back and edit the preceding sentence.

APRS Related Stuff

The instruction manual will share more about the basic details on certain features, as well as other reviews found all over, even on YouTube. I am going to focus on using the built in bluetooth feature allows you to pair the radio to a computer or smart phone and make use of the TNC as a KISS TNC.

This is nice so that you do not need any sort of data cable to get the APRS data to your computing device running software like UI-View, APRSISCE or others. Also, using this radio with WinLink is possible which could be of interest to EMCOMM/ARES/RACES people. Again, NO DATA CABLE NEEDED!.

Everything else related to APRS works as expected including the ability to append a QSY frequency (short for "can you change frequency?") on one side of the radio when operating APRS on the other side. This is like having the ability to message somewhere on APRS and the person on other end can click a button on his/her radio and bring them to the frequency (including tone and shift) easily. All done without speaking about it. (I thought you said 146.520, I was on 145.620)

All other APRS features work great. Messaging stations, sending location, viewing bearings, etc all fantastic! You can even view weather telemetry data easily.

(Local digipeater which is part of the Red Cross)

How does it sound?

I have never owned an HT that has a mic transmit equalizer (4 band) or a receive equalizer (6 band) Going back to that "Cadillac" comment, this is super nice to have. On transmit there is also a separate mic gain setting (H/M/L). Of the discussions I have had, all have given me positive reports on audio considering its an HT. Yes, with the built in mic.

All Mode Receiver

On HF, there is an internal ferrite bar antenna for the AM broadcast band and up to 10MHz. It works OK, nothing special, but is nice to have for listening to 1130 KHz Bloomberg for updates on economic reporting without needing a special antenna.

It is possible to bypass this internal antenna and use the SMA antenna port to hook in something more capable, especially for HF. When tuning around on 80M, 40M and the SWL bands, its amazing that this receiver does not get easily overloaded, which the Kenwood TH-F6a did as well as the Alinco DJ-X10, X20 and Yaesu- VR_500 HT receivers I have owned in the past. This wont be your every day HF receiver, but its a solid back up.

There is an attenuator to knock back signals 20 dB less and provisions for VFO tuning, fine tuning in 1Hz (yes!) steps. You can use the channel selector knob on the top of the radio or the up/down arrows for even smoother sounding tuning. (Pause for knob spinning laugh) The HF RX is well implemented on this radio and is a fun accessory to have. Another Cadillac comment? Yep.

Imagine being able to listen to the maritime net on 14.300MHz and talk on local 2m at the same time. Nice!

This is ALOT of radio, in a small package.

I set out thinking I would author a differentiated review and that is what I intend to do. After all, an HT is an HT. How much better could it be. Kenwood has done a great job on this radio and is not a mass market entry level radio, so it has a limited appeal to someone who knows exactly what they want. Specifics:

Bluetooth (Built In) 

I really think the bluetooth works well. I can pair it to the 3 different headsets I have and even my car audio system. You use the built in radio PTT to activate transmit if the headset you have does not support tap to PTT and that is ok. I have not used this on satellite operation yet, but not having a wire connecting a headset is something I am interested in trying.

What I do not like, and maybe I have not figured it out yet is not being able to pair two bluetooth devices at the same time. I was hoping to be able to pair to a headset for listening and my mobile phone for APRS mapping at the same time. No luck so far which is too bad.

Also Bluetooth is mono only (I think) not stereo. but thats ok...

Memory & Control

For almost $600 bucks, Kenwood could have charged for software, like Icom who tries to charge for every (damn) little thing. Even Yaesu at times also! Not with this, the software is free to download. I think Kenwood built this into the price of the radio, but hey, free is free. And its not alphaware stuff. Its really nice.

Sort of gimmicky, but Kenwood also has another free software package that allows full remote control of the radio via bluetooth and reminds me of the Alinco-DJ-X10 that has this also. Bluetooth only allows control, not audio pass through which is too bad, but I think its possible and I just cant get that to work. Otherwise, I need an appropriate cable for that!

Last Comments (D-STAR)

I gave D-Star a shot many years ago. Its age is apparent. It needs a major reboot. The server architecture is not good. GMSK, which is what D-Star is based on is not efficient for spectrum use at 6.25Khz wide, you can not put repeaters too close to each other. A single 12.5KHz DMR repeater can be more efficient sicne it is TDMA based. Anyway, I wish Kenwood rolled this out with DMR or could offer a firmware upgrade. I understand the reasons they did not, because the users of DMR are the actual innovators making what hams really want. I think its just a matter of time before a "Big 4" vendor jumps into DMR with a killer radio. Alinco, nice try, but not. 

For how D-Star is implemented, its actually way easier to use than the Icom radios. Figure THAT ONE out!

Closing

I will post some videos and pictures of the radio in action when I find a real world example to show off this radio under real world conditions, so be sure to follow this review thread as I spend more time with this capable radio.