For some reason, not all the key assignment options are in the manual and after a bit of searching, I found no complete list. Hopefully this below helps you in selecting your Key Assignments on the main unit P1-P6 keys, as well as on the microphone PA-PD keys. I have listed them in alphabetical order however under it I have how I have my radio set up.
Selection
Description
A/B
Switch Main Display from A or B
BND
Bandwidth (adjust for low signals)
CAL
Calibration (non-functional)
CDT
CTCSS / DCS options
DIR
Direction of display
MON
Disables squelch
NULL
Will make button do nothing.
POW
Power Level, Low Med Hi
RDW
Dual Watch
REV
Reverse transmit offset and frequency
SCN
Scan, channels or frequencies
SFT
Frequency Offset
SQL
Squelch
TALK
Turns TX off for any particular channel
TRF
Busy channel lockout
VOL
Volume Level, press to change volume instead of channel
VOX
Vox toggle on or off
V/M
Switch from VFO to Memory Channel
Please let me know if I got any wrong or have missed one.
This is how I have set mine up, but as I use the radio, I will change this to suit my needs:
P1
A/B
P2
V/M
P3
MON
P4
SCN
P5
SQL
P6
VOL
P1 mode 2
DIR
P2 mode 2
SFT
P3 mode 2
RDW
P4 mode 2
POW
P5 mode 2
CDT
P6 mode 2
BND
PA
SCN
PB
VOL
PC
POW
PD
RDW
So what are your thoughts on this? How do you setup your radio? Please let me know via the comments below.
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Everyone that has been into radio for a while will know the brand Kenwood. And most know Kenwood isn’t only into Amateur radio, they are bigger than that, and have been also. But are you sure it started in Japan? What else do they make? How big are they today? And what does the name Kenwood stand for?
Kenwood is a Japanese brand of consumer electronics.
In December 1946, Kenwood was established as the Kasuga Radio Co. Ltd. in Komagane, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
In 1958 the company put its first amateur radio on sale.
In 1960, the company was renamed Trio Corporation.
In 1962 they launched the industry’s first transistor amplifier
In 1963, the company established its first overseas office in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It began to sell overseas.
During the 1960s, Trio’s products were rebranded and sold by the Lafayette Radio Company, which focused on citizens band (CB) radio.
The name Kenwood was invented by Kasuga as a combination of
“Ken” which is a name common to Japan and North America and was considered acceptable to American consumers, and
“Wood” which was referring to the material wood, as well as suggesting a relation to Hollywood, California.
In 1966 they introduced the fully transistorised audio products for the first time in the industry.
In 1969 the TR-7100 2m amateur radio for the car goes on sale.
In 1979 the company established the first production overseas in Singapore.
In 1986, Trio acquired Kenwood and subsequently rebranded itself as Kenwood Corporation. This was because Kenwood was more widely recognised than Trio.
In 1991 Kenwood signs an official supply contract with McLearen to provide wireless radio equipment for the F1 Championship
In 1992 they produced their first car navigation system
In 1995, the Mir Space Station carries Kenwood’s amateur wireless equipment.
In 1996 the company was renamed from Tri-Kenwood to Kenwood which coincided with the company’s 50th anniversary.
In 1997 Kenwood made Japan’s first car mounted DAB receivers.
In 2001, Kenwood releases its first digital transceiver operating on P25.
In 2002 they withdrew from the test and measuring equipment business
In 2005, Kenwood joins up with Icom to jointly research the standardisation of technical specifications for digital wireless radio equipment (NXDN).
Since October 2008, Kenwood has been owned by JVC-Kenwood because of a merger between Kenwood Corporation and JVC.
Kenwood has manufactured electronic equipment such as
AM/FM stereo receivers,
cassette tape decks/recorders,
amateur radio (ham radio) equipment,
radios,
televisions,
mobile phones,
speakers, and
other consumer electronics.
Radio
Kenwood has produced two-way radios for a variety of communications standards, including:
wireless DECT intercom systems,
the radio frequency PMR446 and its digital counterpart DPMR446,
DPMR, the Project 25 standards suite,
DMR and
NXDN
Kenwood Today
The Kenwood radio catalogue of today shows what radios they are selling now.
These include
hand held radios that are single, dual and tri band radios
Mobile dual band radios some complete with remote heads. Again single and dual band radios.
All band HF radios some small, some are large and covered in buttons and options
And all band HF, VHF and UHF radios
Today their website shows they are into
Car electronics including digital technology and enhanced in-car comfort and navigation. They have some very cool photos of their motorsports equipment on their website. https://www.kenwood.com/e/motorsports/
Communications using digital technology handheld and base stations, from Professional through to CB radios
Audio and digital communications
Kenwood Logo
So, what do you know about the Kenwood logo?
If you go to their smart website, you can see the red triangle in the logo isn’t there to just look pretty.
The red triangle is the core part of their logo and represents the three values of the Kenwood brand.
Advanced
High Quality
Sharpness
But it doesn’t stop there, the four corners of the W stands for
Precision
Innovation
Emotion
Communication
Your thoughts
So, what do you think, does Kenwood measure up to your expectations? Tell me in the comments below.
What Kenwood radios did, or do you have? What did you think of it? I’d love to know.
For me, I have had a few but still use occasionally the Kenwood TS-120V. It was one of my first HF radio’s and I bought it before the internet was available. I though it was the 100W version, but quickly found out it is not. That said, I enjoy using it every now and then.
So, what did what you learn? I know I learnt a bit. I’m keen to hear what you learnt today.
How many of the Kenwood Radios do you know that I have shown in this video?
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I’ve been using the Parks and Peaks app on iphone and ipad for a little while now and quite enjoyed it. There don’t seem to be many iphone apps compared to android, so when there is one, I usually have a look. This one caught my eye as it was not only free, but useful.
After using it for a while, I contacted the author of the app, Sue Southcott, VK5AYL where she was thrilled that I would do a review on this free app, and provided me with a bit more information about her and the app.
The current version is for iphone only at this stage, but I think there are plans to expand this. It allows users to Spot, Alert and export in ADIF and or spreadsheet format.
The app also allows users to search for sites including parks, peaks and silos by site ID. Or you can search by partial site name or by using the inbuilt map.
Setting up the map and connecting site data by longitude/latitude co-ordinates has been Sue’s favourite part. Sue said “I already had the experience of connecting data to mapping systems during my career.
The following awards are handled – WWFF, SOTA, HEMA, IOTA, KRMNPA, SANPCPA, SIOTA, SHIRES, ZLOTA & POTA.
Parks & Peaks is an Australian website that collects data from Amateur Radio operators who get out of their shacks and operate their radios portable in parks or on peaks. It also collects data from those who Spot them.
AU/NZ sites can be downloaded to the device for use when there is no network available.
It will also produce multiple logs for one activation, so if you are on a Summit in a WWFF Park with a Pota reference, you will get 3 logs, one for SOTA, one for WWFF and one for POTA.
There is also a quick way to log activators as I show in the video below.
About Sue VK5AYL….
Sue has had her Advanced Amateur licence for a very long time and it led to her decision to study IT back in the 80s.
For over 30 years, she had a successful career as an IT Manager, Analyst/Programmer, TAFE Lecturer and even my own software business, contracting to many organisations.
Most of her work involved working on client/server applications for large businesses.
In 2014, Sue decided to learn how to write an iOS app and along came Parks & Peaks, which gave me something to work on. After purchasing a Mac Pro Sue had to learn how to use it very quickly, along with the new Apple language.
In 2015, Sue presented version 1 to the WIA AGM in SA. Since then, Sue has released versions 2 and 3 and compared to version 1, they had many more features. Sue told me she loved every minute of developing the app as it has been a massive challenge and allowed her to continue with my love of programming.
Why not have a look at my video on this app where you can see it in full operation:
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HamClock has always fascinated me, as it seems such an amazing program specifically set up for Amateur Radio. I have seen countless videos on it but the draw back was always needing to have a Raspberry Pi. While I am not afraid to get one, and learn how to use it, I just didn’t feel like taking the plunge into that world just yet. Though I think that world is about to come, and I will end up regretting not doing it sooner!
So, what is HamClock?
Glad you asked. According to their website (https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/) HamClock is a kiosk-style application that provides real time space weather, radio propagation models, operating events and other information particularly useful to the radio amateur.
It is designed to provide ham radio enthusiasts with real-time information about the sun’s position, ionospheric conditions, and DX cluster spots. HamClock is an open source application which is a tool for the shack providing live up to date information all on one screen. It was originally written by Elwood Downey WB0OEW.
HamClock displays a map showing the sun’s position, illumination (daylight/darkness), and the “grey line” (the transition between day and night). This information is crucial for understanding propagation conditions, as the grey line is often a prime time for DX (long-distance) communication.
Usually it needs to be installed on Quadra or lynix, but I have recently found out you can install it on Windows.
Installing HamClock on Windows
Guess what, this is possible, and may feel overwhelming at first, but after following the video below, I was able to do it in real time along with this video. I was shocked how easy it was and super surprised I had not done this earlier.
Before doing the video, I suggest you read all the points below it as there were a couple of things I changed.
The video starts with music, but just do what it says. Then the author will talk you through the steps after the initial install.
The bit I got stuck on was setting up Cluster in HamClock. This is about 12:50 into the video, perhaps it was because I had an updated version of HamClock since the above video was done. So, instead, I put in the following settings:
Setting Up HamClock
There are countless ways to set up HamClock. As a starting point, I stuck with the video above as he shows you how to from 13:30. Below is a link to that point in the above video.
This video below is from a friend who also shows you in great detail how to set up your HamClock to get the most of it. Some things are slightly different, but after seeing this, you can have an informed choice.
I found this video below very good also, as it goes into detail regarding the map in HamClock. As you will see it is done by the same person. He talks about the maps and how to customise it easily.
After a Windows Reboot
When you next do a windows reboot, you will need to restart HamClock. To do this, open a CMD window by typing CMD in the windows search menu.
Then type in :
wsl sudo hamclock &
and put in your password you made for lynx and you should be able to open it again. Make sure you do n ot close the comand screen until you are finished.
Summary
Below is what my HamClock looks like. I like the background “terrain” map as well as the night and day showing on the map. I would value your thoughts though, as I know I am about the last one to finally get onto HamClock.
With all of these tools, we should remember propagation shown is using data, but the rest of it is predictions based on knowledge.
If these propagation tools show there isn’t anything happening, always give it a try anyway. You never know without trying. You may be higher than other stations, or put out more power. You might just get an opening before other stations.
All the propagation websites are a summary of conditions recorded and sent in. HamClock is a good tool, it looks good, and gives you a lot of information on the one screen. You can adjust it easily also.
Please tell me your thoughts, and what you think. Do you use it? Perhaps you use it differently and have some advice for me and other readers. Hope you enjoyed the read.
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Have you heard of a flowerpot antenna? I hadn’t until recently, and I enjoy gardening also. But this antenna has nothing to do with gardening apart from why it was named flowerpot and it will probably end up either on your roof or garden.
A good friend of mine put me onto it as I was having trouble on 6m. A small group of us think 6m is under-utilised so we all get on their and chat for a while either on AM or SSB.
My antenna worked reasonably well, but they suggested I build my own using the flowerpot method. Given I’m always up for learning something new, I couldn’t resist.
The best but about the antenna is it is extremely cheap to make, easy to put together and the antenna works really well.
You can make a flowerpot antenna for either 6m, 2m or 70cm. You can hang it in a tree if you wish, in a pvc pipe like I did, or using a pole or something else.
There were only two parts I needed, everything else I already had. But if I had bought everything, it would have cost me I total about $15. Not bad for a great antenna and one you can say you built yourself.
All I needed to buy was the pvc pole, which is optional and a slightly wider pipe to make the coil on I already had the RG58 coax, and it even had a pl259 plug on it!
My flowerpot antenna
Items I purchased included: PVC Pipe. Make sure you give it a shake in the store before buying. If it is too flexible then it may bend and snap in the wind. But you don’t want it to heavy either.
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This video is about the Yaesu FT-225R 2m all band radio. While the radio is huge, it is a beautiful radio any collector would love to have.
If you want to look at the manual, you can look at it here. I love these old manuals, where they state every component in them as well as circuit diagrams.
According to all reports, I sounded excellent on receive and I loved the sound from it on revive at my end also. You can plug in an external speaker, but I was happy with what it had.
Special thanks to Michael VK3CMC who let me use the radio so I could access the 2m SSB net.
The FT-225R
The two metre band probably should be used more than it is, but it is a good fun band.
Hopefully we can make contact with each other on that band one day!
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I’ve always wanted to take the radio with me while on holidays and I always do. However I’ve always been limited to 2m and 70cm including local repeaters and digital work.
Our family enjoy holidays all over Australia into some of the most remote places without water, power or any mobile signal. Sometimes this can last week’s at a time.
If your keen to learn more about our travels around Australia and learn more, please let me know.
Most of these remote locations means limited activity on 2m or 70cm as there are no repeaters for days!
Because of this remoteness, there are several outback radio networks we can join or listen to. They make quite interesting listening.
However, when on holidays, we amateurs don’t want to just listen, we want to be part of the action! And HF is the next best thing.
I’m currently on holiday in the Victorian high country, also known as “The Man from Snowy River” country. It is rugged, beautiful and high. So up here I can actually can receive several 2m and 70cm repeaters, but this is a good test for HF work.
High up on Mount Buffalo
With me, I brought a battery pack, that has a 12 volt lithium battery which we run our camping fridge off. I now run my HF gear off it!
I also brought my new QT-80 radio, which is small in size yet puts out 80 watts. I have placed a video below on this radio if you are not familiar with it.
I used a magnet mount antenna base as the car I was using is not mine. This mount sticks to the car like glue, but also comes off on demand so you can adjust the antenna as required.
I brought two antennas to test. The first one was the HF-008 antenna that covers more bands than the QT80. I have a video on both these below for you if you are not familiar with it.
I also brought the new CBL-561 HF antenna so I could compare the two antennas. This antenna can be used while mobile unlike the HF-008 antenna. I have another video for you to show you that antenna below:
Before leaving home, I went to the hardware store and bought two lengths of pipe with caps that could safely store each antenna. I could then almost throw them in the boot of the car and not be worried about them being damaged or caught on something as I pulled them out of the boot.
Hot Tip
The funny thing was, while on holidays, I forgot to bring a measuring tape to adjust the antenna. Fortunately one of my children had a ruler with them so I was able to mark measurements down the side of the tube with a sharpie.
I also wrote down next to the measurements the lengths Radioddity recommended and then as I tuned in the antenna myself with the lowest SWR, I marked the pipe to my best measurements which were very close to the same as Radioddity.
This Tip I am sure will be very useful going forward when I’m out in the Australian outback or somewhere that I have no ruler!
Results
Both antennas fitted the same magnetic base which made this setup work well.
On testing both antennas using the same frequency to the same long distance contact, I and they couldn’t tell the difference between us. I found both antennas easy to tune in and get the SWA right down before making any contacts.
I then tried again from the top of Mount Buffalo, one of our highest mountains and got the same results where both myself and the contacts I spoke to didn’t know I had even changed the antenna.
There are differences between the antennas though which may help you decide which antenna is right for you.
Compare Antennas
HF-008
This antenna covers a lot of HF bands, as covered in the video above. However it cannot be used while mobile, mainly due to the jumper cable. It is a great antenna and can be used with a radio that puts out a lot more watts than the small QT-80 radio I used.
CBL-561
The CBL-561R antenna does not cover as many HF bands as the HF-008 does, but if you are using the bands it does cover, then this antenna might be good for you. One big advantage to this antenna is that it can be used while mobile, not just stationary.
Both antennas will need adjusting if you switch bands or switch from one end of the band to another. So setting the antenna to a permanent mount on the car on the top of the roof where it ends up out of reach, then you may want to rethink this. I found the magnet mount ideal, as you can still have it on the highest point of the car and access it easily.
Another option I also use is a bull bar mount that I use on my 4×4.
I’d encourage you to watch my video below as it explains what I discovered.
Remember the old saying Hight is Might and going portable gives you an opportunity to test this theory.
Hope you enjoyed this read. Below are some other interesting articles I have also written that you may enjoy.
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