[aprssig] Kenwood slow maybe... but still makes APRS radios

[Daron J. Wilson]

>At least KENWOOD makes an APRS radio(s)....  and gives you free software to
>load it.
 
Well yes, the beauty of the APRS situation is that ANY radio will work,
Kenwood just stuffed a TNC inside and made the display show you some of the
data.  They were innovators!  They had a few years to observe the market,
make revisions and produce a new rig capable of everything they missed the
first time around...and they missed at least one important innovation,
smartbeaconing.

Remember, they don't have to make a product that works well on the network,
they have to make a product that sells well in the market.  Personally I
would MUCH prefer to have it work well and have to manually load the
frequencies in, than to have them miss important technical aspects but 'give
you free software'.

Also keep in mind that this is a turn key 'appliance', and there is a big
market for folks who want to buy it, program it with their 'puter, and plug
it in.  For many more interested in the construction portion of the hobby,
fortunately there are folks producing kits and add-ons that adapt quickly to
the network and allow us to get what we want...not what the manufacturer
things we should have.

I'm personally quite happy with the Hamhud, a separate radio and TNC.  It
does very well for my application, and I can have my dual band mobile on in
the vehicle talking on VHF without the APRS muting my audio.  I think many
of us have just hoped that Kenwood would get some of the other things that
were missing into this new radio.

73