THis was on the tmv-71a list I'm on.  This rumor has been around for the 
last couple years.  Hope this isn't too long.  Kenwood's response.
I-07-01AR June 21, 2007
Recent Post on a Ham Radio Related Web Page
Dear Fellow Hams,
I would like to take a moment of your time with this open letter and help 
dispel rumors, and falsehoods that have been stated
as fact.
I have been assured from Top Management in Japan and the U.S. and I can 
assure you that the Kenwood Communications
Sector has no intention of exiting the Amateur Radio Marketplace. It is a 
viable market. The Amateur Division has been
running in the black since our restructuring several years ago. In fact, 
even with the loss of models over the last four years
the Amateur Division has grown in Market, speaking highly of Kenwood 
quality and the loyalty of our customers.
At Dayton this year we introduced the new TM-V71A many were sold at the 
show. The preproduction prototype of the Dual
Band TM-D710A was under Plexiglas, it too was received very well by the 
crowd; it will serve as the TM-D700A replacement
in late August. We also gave away many thousands of Kenwood Branded items, 
such as brochure bags, hat pins and
laminated prefix maps.
It is true the core business of Kenwood Communications is Land Mobile. The 
Land Mobile Radio Division is the second
largest communications company in the world based on sales, second only to 
Motorola. It takes a full year for Amateur sales
to equal Land Mobile sales of just one month. What we are doing is just 
good business sense with the product line and will
keep us in the Amateur Market for many years to come.
As a fellow Ham, I want new radios as much as you. The business model of 
Kenwood is one platform for all markets with the
only difference being firmware. It's exceedingly expensive to retool the 
factory for each market.
In addition, Europe and to be followed by the rest of the world has deemed 
that products be RoHS compliant. The Restriction
of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) is the reason we are introducing 
new products to replace current popular models
that are noncompliant. These new models include TM-V71A, TM-D710A and 
others after the D710 reaches market.
Unfortunately, this must be accomplished before we start work on any new 
HF radios.
Most people believe that this is just a lead-free mandate, but it also 
includes the use six substances: Mercury, Cadmium,
Hexavalent Chromium, Polybrominated biphenyls and Polybrominated biphenyl 
ether. The maximum concentrations are
1000ppm. For cadmium the limit is 100 ppm by weight of homogeneous 
material. The limits do not apply to the weight of the
finished product, or even to a component, but to any single part that 
could be separated mechanically. (From Wikipedia)
Everything that can be identified as a homogeneous material must meet the 
limit. So if it turns out that the case was made of
plastic with 2,300 ppm PBB used as a flame retardant, then the entire 
radio would fail the requirements of the directive.
Please standby for more quality Kenwood products, they will come!
73, from the Helm!
Phil Parton  N4DRO
National Sales Manager  Amateur Products
Kenwood USA Corporation
Communications Sector
[log in to unmask]