[aprssig] Re: Radio Recommendation

[William McKeehan]

Several people have given me great information about getting my first Radio.

>From what I have learned, the Kenwood D7 will be my first radio.

At a cost of around $350, the Kenwood offers the two hardware components in
one integrated package; transceiver and TNC. It also has the functionality of
the HamHUD. Being integrated has some good points and and some bad points. The
good points are that it works with a minimal amount of extra cables (external
power and GPS cable would be necessary). The bad points are that you can not
upgrade individual components without upgrading the entire unit.

In the future, I can see myself having another setup with a separate radio,
TNC, computer, etc. But even at that point in time, the Kenwood will not be
unusable - it may not be useable for me for APRS (if APRS evolves), but it
will still be a solid 2m/70cm radio.

The amount of functionality that you get for the cost of the Kenwood makes it
appealing to me.

If I had other radios/TNC's laying around (like most HAMs), then I'm not so
sure I would jump on the Kenwood.

Thanks for all of the helpful information.

--
William McKeehan
Internet: mckeehan at mckeehan.homeip.net
http://mckeehan.homeip.net