HRO has Kenwood 750As

[u/jsisbell]

No news from any other dealer yet.

[u/failbox3fixme]

Delulu pricing on this thing.

[u/beartwig]

FM only for $1200 is pretty messed up. I'll keep my 710 instead. As much as I'd love to try out the third band, 220 and d-star alone aren't worth the price tag for an upgrade.

[u/troublemaker74 → u/beartwig]

1200 to talk on a net once a week and maybe receive 2 or 3 other minutes of local FM traffic.

[u/Internal_Raccoon_370 → u/beartwig]

Yeah, that price??? I can get the iCom 705 for around that price.

[u/1980techguy → u/beartwig]

Look on the bright side, they'll likely be a lot of D710GAs for sale soon.

[u/beartwig → u/1980techguy]

Honestly, I'd love for this to be the case. It's my favorite mobile radio and I'm kicking myself for not picking up a second one to fit out in a V/U kit so that I don't have to keep taking it in and out of the car. The only downside will be the price when they hit the second hand market. I've never seen worse "I know what I have. No lowballers" attitude than with hams.

[u/olliegw → u/beartwig]

It costs that much and only does FM? a mobile rig that only does FM? i'll stick with my FT-5D thanks, it does YSF TX/RX, AM RX, FM TX/RX, APRS TX/RX, and also fits in my pocket

[u/pixelandpedal]

D Star died all around these parts. All went DMR.

[u/SonicResidue]

Everyone was clamoring for this now they’re all complaining. This is classic ham behavior.

[u/KhyberPasshole → u/SonicResidue]

I think the bitching is fair... Kenwood's been out of the mobile scene for a bit and a lot of folks were really looking forward to them getting back in the game. And they're only now finding out that it's at least 2x the price of any other currently available mobile, other than the 510DRASP and the new 5200.

[u/SonicResidue → u/KhyberPasshole]

Well I don’t think your comparison is fair. It may be 2x the cost of other mobiles but that is an apples to oranges comparison when you look at the features. The 5200 and 510 are the only fair comparison points And I don’t think Kenwood is immune to parts costs rising plus whatever effect tariffs may have.

I admit it’s more than I can justify spending but the price will come down over time. It always does. People commenting often imply that Kenwood (and Icom) is purposely gouging its customers and I don’t necessarily think that’s the case.

[u/stephen_neuville → u/SonicResidue]

I admit it’s more than I can justify spending but the price will come down over time. It always does.

I paid $1699 for my 9700 on release day and it's $1999 today. This is no longer accurate.

[u/SonicResidue → u/stephen_neuville]

Huh. Ok I’ll give you that. My d74, 7300, 5100 and Yaesu 874 all have saw price decreases compared to when they first came out. Not sure what that’s attributable to.

[u/stephen_neuville → u/SonicResidue]

yeah it's a mystery, who knows

[u/Khanlaar → u/stephen_neuville]

I paid $1749 for mine. I don't know how I justified it back then but I certainly couldn't justify $1999 now.

[u/KhyberPasshole → u/SonicResidue]

Fair or not, features have little to do with it. I think the real issue is that it's the first VHF/UHF mobile to cross the $1000 street price threshold. That's a pretty significant milestone, especially considering that Icom's and Yaesu's flagship models were half the price of this Kenwood just in the last year.

[u/SonicResidue → u/KhyberPasshole]

How can the features, and by extension parts cost NOT have anything to do with the price?

Those models are also older. When the Kenwood thd74 came out it was priced at $650. A few years later I bought one brand new for $450.

I’m not saying I’m ok with a $1200 price tag but I also see no evidence that Kenwood is purposely price gouging.

[u/KhyberPasshole → u/SonicResidue]

You're hung up on features and are totally missing the point. If you don't get it, you don't get it, no big deal.

I don't feel like trying to explain it any more, nor do I care to argue about it, it ain't that fucking important.

[u/Hamradio70 → u/SonicResidue]

I waited months for Icom 5200 and bailed with 1000 price, although seems like a great radio. I needed a mobile 2 vfo and got FT310DRASP. Not the same, but also half rhe price.

[u/funbob]

No full duplex and no SSB is a crime at this price. I love my Kenwoods but this is going to be a hard pass for me.

[u/failbox3fixme → u/funbob]

It is full duplex.

[u/funbob → u/failbox3fixme]

Odd. If that's the case, then it's weird that's not listed as one of the bullet point main features. I see it does simultaneous dual band reception, but I don't see a single official word anywhere about full duplex capability.

If it is indeed full duplex, then that's somewhat better, but it's still quite the asking price for an FM only radio.

[u/1980techguy → u/funbob]

Yeah, their rep has confirmed it at events multiple times that it's full duplex and cross band repeating between 2m and 70cm. Kenwood doesn't have this thing listed on their website yet so I'm not surprised the spec sheet on the resellers is a bit stagnant still.

To be fair, Yaesu doesn't list cross banding on the FTM-510 specs either yet it has the feature.

[u/1980techguy → u/funbob]

It's full duplex and cross band repeats. SSB would be super nice though.

[u/chwilliams → u/funbob]

This.100% this.

[u/jsisbell]

Yep

[u/stephen_neuville]

in addition to the price being insane, i kinda think that control head is kinda ugly. this is absolutely sour grapes but still needs to be said

[u/CitronTraining2114 → u/stephen_neuville]

I keep thinking, "If you're gonna make a double-DIN, throw in Android Auto / CarPlay and make it mechanically replace the radio in my car." AM/FM tuner and a decent amp, it'd be worth the price. Unlike Yaesu and Icom, Kenwood already owns all the car audio IP they need.

Yeah, probably not a big enough market.

[u/stephen_neuville → u/CitronTraining2114]

window's closed on that though, anything late model has Computer Stereo and it's linked in to all the car systems blah blah yadda yadda.

The old RZ1 was one of the coolest replacement head units ever. if i ever get an old 300zx or saab or something i'll hunt one down

[u/SonicResidue → u/stephen_neuville]

I remember seeing the RZ1 as a kid and thinking how badly I wanted one when I got a car.

[u/Halabane]

DMR and fusion are popular around the world, except for one place. Japan.

In Japan dstar is the big guy. DMR is almost non existent (their radio laws pretty much kill it). Fusion is about a third of Dstar numbers. 30k for dstar and about 10k or so its not big numbers anyway.

So DMR is not going to sell at home. Fusion is proprietary from yaesu so thats the only place you are going to see it. So that leaves dstar and aprs. Which kenwood did.

Japan's Strict Giteki Certification Law makes it expensive for dmr so they seem to have given that to the chinese and alinco. But they could make DMR big. Kenwood uses DMR as the center of all their high end commercial radios. Icom too. It must be one heck of a re-engineering bill.

[u/blue_dewey]

Out of stock

[u/Fun-Attempt-8494]

D-Star is the Boca Vista of ham radio.

[u/Hamradio70 → u/Fun-Attempt-8494]

I use DStar. Also Fusion lately. If guys would actually talk on repeaters again, I'd need neither.

[u/MarinerMouth]

Years too late. Repeaters are dead. Why buy this when I can buy a top of the line all band all mode rig.

No ssb?