Kenwood TH-F6A

Partially out of VHF/UHF Purgatory

The Kenwood TM-D710A got shipped off to Kenwood today for repair. I’ve been told that turnaround time will probably be at least 3 weeks.

Fortunately, I solved Hendheld-to-antenna problem.  The SMA-to-SO239 adapter I was using appears to be bad.  I bought a different one and it seems to work just fine.  So now I can at least converse with the old gang on The Scottsdale Repeater.

 

VHF/UHF Purgatory

I am in VHF/UHF purgatory at the moment.

My Kenwood TM-D710a seems to have developed a heat-related problem in the power amplifier section.  If I engage in a conversation longer than about 2 minutes the power starts to fall off to the point where I cannot activate the repeater.

The backup is my handheld.  Unfortunately I live in a neighborhood surrounded by 2-story houses, making it tough to hit the repeater.  “Well I’ll just hook u the handheld to my outdoor Diamond X50a dual-band vertical” was my thought.  The handheld uses an SMA connector. I bought an SMA-to-SO239 adapter but I think it’s defective because both transmit and receive are WORSE on the Diamond X50a than the HT’s rubber ducky.

I’ll call Kenwood on Monday and get the process started of sending the 710 in for repair.

HF Antenna for My Kenwood TH-F6A

My Kenwood TH-F6A handheld will receive HF frequencies. The stock antenna does a very poor job at that (I might as well had a dummy load hooked up instead of the antenna).  I was anxious to see if something more closely resembling an normal HF antenna might help.

I ordered an SMA-BNC adapter from Thor Labs. It arrived today.  I used it to connect the DX-EE trap dipole in the attic to the TH-F6A and it worked wonderfully!

For my next QRP outing I’m putting together a portable inverted Vee for 40 meters.  I will bring the TH-F6A along and test it with that antenna as well.

I Bought a Kenwood TH-F6A

Monday was my birthday and so I decided to give myself a birthday present of a new HT. I researched all the high-end HTs and decided on the Kenwood TH-F6A.  My decision-making process was something like this:

  • Because I also have a Kenwood TS-590 and TM-D710, I was inclined toward the Kenwood HTs because of the similarities in user interface.
  • I quickly ruled out the Icom’s because the only extra feature they offer is D-Star and I have little interest (no interest, actually) in D-Star.
  • The Kenwood TH-D72 is pretty much a hand-held version of the TM-D710 that I already have so I would not be gaining any additional functionality/capability.
  • The Kenwood TH-F6A also operated on 220 in addition to 2M and 450. I thought it might be fun to play with that.
  • The Kenwood TH-F6A will receive DC to Daylight (actually 100KHz to 1300MHz). I occasionally need to be able to listen to my TS-590’s transmit signal on another receiver and the TH-F6A would make that pretty convenient.  Being able to use it as a portable SWL receiver (as well as AM and FM broadcast) is also a big plus for me.
  • I dismissed the Yaesu VX-8DR simply because $420 is more than I wanted to spend.
  • The Yaesu VX-7R was interesting for it’s 6M capabilities but other than that it would not do anything for me that the Kenwood TH-F6A would not.

Thoughts Now That I’ve Owned and Operated it a Few Days

First, no regrets.  I still believe I made the correct choice.

Intuitive user interface is important to me.  Maybe it’s because I’m an older guy and grew up in an era when radios had knobs and switches, but I have this rule:

If I’m broken down on the side of the road, can I pull the radio out of the glovebox of my car after not using it for six months and figure out how to operate the major functions (volume, squelch, frequency, offset, tome, memory) without looking at the instruction manual?

So far the Kenwood TH-F6A rates five stars in this regard. I suspect that it’s because I also have the TS-590 and TM-D710 so I am used to the ‘Kenwood way’.

After doing some reading online, I replaced the stock antenna with a Diamond SRH320A for improved performance, both in transmit and receive.

The TH-F6A is able to monitor my TS-590’s transmit signal here in the shack.  Otherwise though the HF sensitivity is pretty poor. I can’t even receive WWV.  The next step is to rig up a long wire antenna for it and see what happens.

I originally thought its small size would be a problem but it actually fits very comfortably in my hand.  Ditto for the buttons. They are spaced far enough apart that I’m able to punch the button I want with no difficulty.

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