About the 900MHz Kenwood pages

This entire website was initially created in 2010 over a period of 3 months and done so in my spare time while at work on the high seas. Since that time it has been added to as my spare time allows. It is put together with my notes from tinkering, experimenting, repeater building, and repairing the Kenwood mobile and portable line over the years. Having bought my first Kenwood Amateur Radio in the very early 90's I was sold on Kenwood ever since. When in early 2005 I decided to give the 900MHz band a try; it seemed only natural to keep the tradition going. I looked for a Kenwood 900MHz radio; the TK-931HD fit the bill nicely. The TK-931HD was so easy to program, I liked its simplicity, 30 Watt output, remote face capability; so it soon found a home in the center console of my truck. I later upgraded my mobile install in 2010 to a remote head TK-981HH with 50 Watts output- after having worked together on the design of the 30W and 45W TK-981H/HH with Gene, W7UVH (SK). The TK-981HH has worked without one flaw or problem since installing it in 2010 (it's now 2016!)- this attests to the high quality of Kenwood products and the brilliant design of the TK-981!

Since 2005 I have owned, operated, and modified all of the Kenwood mobile and portable 900MHz line such as the NX-901, NX-411, TK-981, TK-941, TK-931, TK-481, and TK-431. In addition to Kenwood I have also owned, operated, and modified the:

Alinco DJ-G29T
EF Johnson 8655- (Remote head & front mount, RX filter re-tuned, w/memory back-up cap added; C50- 5.5V 0.10F)
EF Johnson 8640- (RX filter re-tuned)
EF Johnson Ascend 5100- (FPP added and all options enabled)
GE/M/A-COM/Harris Orion- (Both 30W & 12W- T/A added Option 2, Remote & Front mount, RX Filters changed)
GE/M/A-COM/Harris MDX- (25W unit, w/added KD8B PLL Board, RX Filters changed)
GE/M/A-COM/Harris EDACS 500M- (25W unit)
GE/M/A-COM/Harris LPE-200
Motorola GTX- (Both 30W & 12W, Manual Power out control added, and modified RSS from 10 to 16 channels)
Motorola Maxtrac- (Both 30W & 12W, Remote & Front mount, Manual Power out control Mod, Full Band Coverage Mod [902-928MHz TX and RX]- changeout of Varactor Diodes and manual deviation control mod and separated TX and RX VCO's, 16 CH firmware)
Motorola Spectra- (Both 30W & 12W, Remote & Front mount, Hex edited 10 mode/channel Spectra's to 128 modes/channels)
Motorola Spectra E- (i.e. the "Spectra II", 30W Model, Remote & Front mount)
Motorola MCS2000- Model 1 (Both 30W & 12W, Remote & Front mount)
Motorola MCS2000- Model 2 (Both 30W & 12W, Remote & Front mount)
Motorola MCS2000- Model 3 (Both 30W & 12W, Remote & Front mount, S-Rec modified for 250 modes/channels)

In the summer of 2011 I was able to spend some time in Singapore for a business trip. During that time I happened upon the Kenwood plant which manufactures a lot of the Kenwood commercial radios we see today. Although I did not get a tour of the place, it was neat to walk past the outside of it, hiding in every nook and cranny of shade to keep from melting in the intense sunshine- it's very hot in Singapore!


You will find that there is no "how-to" infomation on this website concerning the TK-930, TK-940, or TK-980 which are all 800MHz radios. The reason they will not be found here is that while these radios do make nice link radios for linking two or more repeaters together, they have NO business being used as a repeater receiver at 902MHz. 800MHz radios, which are wideband (5KHz deviation, with 25KHz channel spacing), should never be used as a repeater receiver on narrowband 900MHz (2.5KHz deviation, with 12.5KHz channel spacing). With all the cheap 900MHz radios out there on the used market today the time to use wideband 800MHz radios as a repeater receiver has come and gone.

If you would like to contribute to the site, have ideas for what you would like to see added to the website, or just want to praise/gripe about one thing or another drop me an email, I would be happy to hear from you.

Thanks for visiting, and most of all, have fun on 900MHz!

Alex