Gmane groups: th-f6a, th-f7e. "A" band expansion or ask the store.
I in 2004/6 at Sunham for NT$11200 bought a Kenwood TH-F7E transceiver.
WFM: It seems receiving UHF TV "isn't one of the main design goals of the TH-F7E " unfortunately. I cannot hear them with WFM mode.
Aviation bands too come in poorer than the Icom IC-R2.
Cannot scan downwards as easy as upwards. Must turn knob and can't avoid scanning a little upwards.
No shortcut to switching modes. E.g., at 100 MHz, going from WFM to FM needs ten button presses: 5*(F+BAND)=10.
Couldn't access the "additional characters" for memory names.
No simple way to transfer a VFO frequency between A and B bands.
Cannot use the MHz button without first leaving FINE mode, for no good reason.
2005/2: To avoid shortening the life of the battery as often mentioned on the discussion group, I now remove the battery when using external power, and only connect the battery for pure charging with no listening. Charging while listening makes the battery hot: bad.
2007/2: If the radio does not turn on, charging it for a few seconds first might help. But if the charge lights don't come on either, one discovers that both problems can be resolved by removing the battery for a second or two and then snapping it back into place, which of course isn't much fun if one has the belt clip attached.
2007/11: My friend who fixes radios says he gets tons of F7E's etc. to repair, and one should prepare for the funeral of one's F7E. The first sign of disease is difficulty turning the radio on, he says. "Icom never made such a crappy radio as this Kenwood."
Next time better to buy a pure receiver, as that would be more sensitive, and for transmitting just use a ordinary cheap transceiver.
Computer interface.
My TH-F7E's serial number is 51000193.
Dan JacobsonLast modified: 2007-11-07 03:25:41 +0800