It recently became my job to pick up a pair of these little 65 watt 2 
meter rigs for my radio club.

This radio, which is available right now for an average of $145, does 
not have any provision for the Kenwood voice guidance. However, it 
does give feedback through beeps in much the same way as the THF6.

Naturally, I wanted to play with one of them for a bit just to see how 
well I could find my way through the menus, or how lost I could become 
while trying to make it do what I wanted.

In order to begin this "Can I Work this thing" experiment, I converted 
the PDF manual into a word document, and copied the list of menus into 
a separate file for easier access.

Then, after Kathleen told me what the buttons were on the front of the 
radio, I dove in, even setting up the menu that allows for frequency 
entry via the keypad while she was in the other end of the house.

I will probably end up asking Kathleen to find the spot for 
programming the call channel, which is somewhere near the end of the 
200 memory list on the display, but I have otherwise set it up, and 
programmed all of our local frequencies into it un-assisted without 
using a computer.

While I certainly don't want to give up my TMV71A, this 2 meter only 
box really isn't too bad, especially if you are already use to the 
high and low beeps found in the THF6A.

My take thus far is that if you only want 2 meters, or cannot afford 
the TMV71, the TM281A isn't as difficult as one might believe. Of 
course, you must be willing to exercise some patience, get frustrated 
now and then, and acknowledge that you will never keep up with 200 
radio memory channels in your human memory without either a physical 
list or voice feedback, unless you are a certified mad scientist.

Has anyone else on this list, especially any of the totals among us, 
used this radio?

If so, what do you think of it?



Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs