TM-D710A

[W5LZ]

Well, couldn't stand it anymore. Been reading about them, been wishing I'd gotten one for some time. So I did. These things are nice!
Okay, what's so nice about them? It has a remote control head. Several other radios do to, so what? It's large, as in easy to see. The buttons and knobs aren't too small either. The mic doesn't connect to the head si the head can be put almost anywhere (behind the sun visor).
The thing has a TNC built into it, that's handy, don't need another radio to use with a laptop and TNC to display data. Not a biggy, just very handy. I've been using the sound card for a TNC and this frees that up for other use.
What else? I don't know yet, haven't had it long enough. All the 'new' hasn't worn off of it yet.
Swap the '710's head with a 71A'a head and you got two 710's, that's neat too! Don't have to change radios between house and car now.
- 'Doc

 

[KE5MC]

TIP-

On the A and B squelch and volume knob there is a small rectangle in the plastic. It is a visual indicator for knob position, but Kenwood failed to color the indicator. I used white nail polish and a toothpick to fill it in. Easy to see at a quick glance what position they are turned to.

Mike, KE5MC

 

[Moleculo]

Did you get the 3rd party GPS for it? Can you set it up to digipeat and tell us how that goes?

 

[W5LZ]

GPS and digipeating.

No, I didn't get the GPS for the '710. The 'candy store' didn't have one in stock and I didn't need it for APRS anyway. I don't plan to use it for position reporting when mobile, and for fixed use you just program in the 'fixed' coordinates. (I have a Byionics APRS transmitter for the car anyway.) If I really wanted to, the Byonics GPS receiver can be plugged into the '710 for use. (It's a little bit of a wiring nightmare (not really), several cables used for the connecting and supplying power to the GPS receiver.) At home, I just plugged in the appropriate coordinates and it's working here.
For digipeating it's fairly simple, just put the call sign (or 'alias') in the proper spot, set how you want the thing to do it (wide1, or wide2-1), then turn on the 'digipeating' function in the menu. It's very much the same way it's done with the TM-D700. I haven't tried it yet, but I have no doubt that it'll work just fine. There's a separate connection to only the TNC on the control head, BTW. Figure it's just another way to do the other 'digital' modes through the TNC.
[I used a TM-D700 here at home for a couple of years. I decided to use it as a digipeater at a repeater site, and that's why I got the '710 to replace it. (Another good excuse for a new radio, huh?)]
There are lots of features I haven't tried yet (or know about), but there's still too much 'new' on this radio. I'll eventually get around to trying most of them sooner or later. I'm still 'happy' with it. I'm looking for a few 'feet' to get it up off of it's vents while sitting on the desk. So far, that's the only 'fault' I've found with it. Also tried printing the operator's manual which is supplied on a CD. Quit before I ran completely out of paper. Oh well...
- 'Doc

(Just for grins. That '700 being used as a digipeater is on the second highest hill in Oklahoma. It likes about 100 - 150 feet to be classified as a mountain (no mountains in Oklahoma). The antenna is maybe 15 feet AGL and the site is about 1900 feet ASL. Running at 10 watts through a Ringo-Ranger and the thing really does have some range to it. The site is a real PITA to get to! If you want to get to it faster than about 20 mph max, you'd better drive a tank.)

 

[KE5MC]

Got the Green Light Labs - GPS710. Works well, transparent installation to normal operation. What you don't see in the description is there is a data out jack for the recovered APRS data packets (waypoints). You can send this to a laptop or GPS with display. I tried it with my Garmin GPSmap60C. It worked, but the usefulness was limited. Waypoints were not linked if coming from the same moving location. After about 5 minutes the screen was cluttered with over a 100 waypoints. Problem could have been with the limited processing in the Garmin. I was not expecting to see an AVMAP type of response, but something better than I got. Never tried it on a laptop.

This summer with the high temperatures in TX it may have stressed the GPS710. When hot it fails to lock. Once it cools down it is OK. Again I am not sure that blaming the device is realistic.

I took a minute to review the manual for digipeat operations. Not something I have tried or needed as this part of TX is digipeater rich. I might give it a try later this week. If I do I will report the findings.

Mike

Did you get the 3rd party GPS for it? Can you set it up to digipeat and tell us how that goes?