Friday, April 27, 2012

Kenwood V71A

I put a new 2m/440 rig in the shack, the Kenwood TM-V71A.  It does cross band or one way repeat and has capability for voice and morse ID when in repeater mode.  This helps keep me legal, but it TX's every 10 minutes even when the link is not in use.  I really like the way the memories are organized and the ability to link banks and scan banks or groups of banks on one side and a different group on the other.

A good rig.

Jan. 2017 Update

I did have to send it in for repairs.  It seems Kenwood has a known issue of electro migration in the filter caps that causes the radio to slowly go deaf.  This is due to a manufacturing process that causes the water and organic flux to create an electrolyte that causes the silver to form microscopic filaments that shorts them.  I contacted them and they took care of it without cost.  That was impressive as it was not under warranty.

After running this rig for some time, I still love it.  I now have it in the mobile and would love to get another for the shack.  That may happen at Winterfest!

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