Wich 2-way is better

[br1453]

I am upgrading our mobile radios, some say Motorola and some say Kenwood? What do you think

[nmfire]

Well, I'm not quite sure how this applies to off-duty entertainment.

If you are talking analog conventional and don't require anything proprietary to one manufacturer or another, my vote goes to Kenwood. I can take my Kenwood chassis or control head and beat most of the motorola radios to pieces. I highly recommend the TK-x90 series mobiles and portables. They are tough as nails and will take just about anything you can throw at it or spray at it. In addition to getting a high quality radio, it costs significantly less than anything motorola has that is comparable.

TK-190 Portable low band
TK-290 Portable VHF
TK-390 Portable UHF

TK-690 Mobile low band
TK-790 Mobile VHF
TK-890 Mobile UHF

[Res343cue]

I am upgrading our mobile radios, some say Motorola and some say Kenwood? What do you think

If you have the budget, I'd say Motorola. If you need a good radio that's reliable, has the features you'll want / need, and don't want to pay for it with your first and second born children, Kenwood is the way to go.

Hit for hit, Moto and Kenwood stick pretty close together in terms of features and capabilities. The big difference is just the price sticker.

[nozzelvfd]

All I can say is

Motorola

[nmfire]

Just because you 'have the budget' doesn't mean you need to spend every dime of it just because you can. I'll make a buget and come in under it by not wasting it.

[Res343cue]

Just because you 'have the budget' doesn't mean you need to spend every dime of it just because you can. I'll make a buget and come in under it by not wasting it.

Wasn't saying that you have to overspend on the purchases, but moreso that if you have the ability to get a Motorola product, do so. Kenwood will get the job done too, and for alot less.

Just stay away from all the Icom/Yaesu / MaCom crap. Stick to the top two. Moto and Kenwood.

[BFDLT32]

M O T O R O L A nuff said

[fftrainer]

Hey NM... the Kenwood TK-790 advertises itself as dual head/dual band. I understand the dual head portion which is one of the reasons I am looking at it.

What are the limitations on the dual band? Are they just within ranges of say low band or UHF? or can you cross those bands and have low-band and high band in the same unit since it has 2 radio units?

Can you clear that up if possible... I am getting varying stories from some guys in my area and I think it comes down to they are not totally familiar with the unit.

[Res343cue]

Hey NM... the Kenwood TK-790 advertises itself as dual head/dual band. I understand the dual head portion which is one of the reasons I am looking at it.

What are the limitations on the dual band? Are they just within ranges of say low band or UHF? or can you cross those bands and have low-band and high band in the same unit since it has 2 radio units?

Can you clear that up if possible... I am getting varying stories from some guys in my area and I think it comes down to they are not totally familiar with the unit.

You can have a combination of VHF Lo, VHF hi, UHF, whatever band you want, as long as they make a model for it. We've got a TK 790 that is VHF hi, and UHF. No problems with having different bands.

[nmfire]

Hey NM... the Kenwood TK-790 advertises itself as dual head/dual band. I understand the dual head portion which is one of the reasons I am looking at it.

What are the limitations on the dual band? Are they just within ranges of say low band or UHF? or can you cross those bands and have low-band and high band in the same unit since it has 2 radio units?

Can you clear that up if possible... I am getting varying stories from some guys in my area and I think it comes down to they are not totally familiar with the unit.

It becomes not just a TK-790 when you dual band it. The 90 series radios come in two main parts. The control head and the radio chassis. Typically, you have a single radio chassis and a control head. The TK-790 is the VHF Chassis. However, you can also connect two radio chassis to one control head making it dual-band. In the programming, you can then enter the channel numbers using frequencies in either of the two radio bands. Example:

1: 460.125
2: 453.475
3: 155.385
4: 462.7125
5: 161.995

The radio is now a 790/890 Dual Band or 690/790 Dual band and so on.

The dual head option means you can have two control heads in seperate locations. Examples being the cab and a pump panel or bucket.

And I have to disagree on buying motorola just because you can afford it. Unless you need the specific functions of a specific motorola radio, you are wasting your money. If it is analog conventional operation or Analong P25 digital operation, Kenwood is simply a better product and less costly than the Mot-whore-ola comparable products. Your not paying for a name that has become nothing more than an ego trip for the executives.

[MrYuk]

Motorola All The Way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Craig210]

Wasn't saying that you have to overspend on the purchases, but moreso that if you have the ability to get a Motorola product, do so. Kenwood will get the job done too, and for alot less.

Just stay away from all the Icom/Yaesu / MaCom crap. Stick to the top two. Moto and Kenwood.

I assume that you are intimately familiar with the ICOM "crap" that you refer to? Do you know that they just inked a deal with Kenwood for radio development? My department has been using ICOM VHF radios for 3 years now and we have not had any problems with them whatsoever. The only reason that Motorola and Kenwood are the top two is due to the fact that no one wants to shop around. We just upgraded handheld radios to the F70 series which will do everything that an XTS2000 or TK-2180 (P25 compliancy and all) will do for a quarter of the price. You have the ability to buy directly from the manufacturer at a huge savings. The tech support is second to none, you can purchase all the needed programming equipment (windows based) for less than $100.00 so that if you need to change programming you don't have to pay $60-70 each time, try that with Motorola or Kenwood! They come with a two year warranty, what else could you ask for? So if you are all about brand loyalty knock yourself out, but if funding is an issue and you need to put good radios in the hands of your people for safety sake, try an ICOM. My department mutual aids with several departments around us, and while they have issues on incidents with their Motorola's and Kenwood's, my ICOM's reach out and get the job done. If you're buying mobiles try the ICOM ICF-521- its a 256 channel, 50 watt mobile in a very compact chassis (all self contained). You can pick it up for $302.00. I know that there are more powerful radios out there but I have not needed more than that ever. This radio kit is complete with wiring harness, mic, mounting bracket, etc.

[KenNFD1219]

Motorola, you can buy better, but you can't spend more.