GE Orion or Kenwood 630/730 combo?

N2ZPY · Post by **N2ZPY** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 8:40 am

Well After my last post I am now tossing around these combos for my truck. I am interested in the Orions in a VHF lowband/ VHF highband combo or possibly the Kenwood TK-630/730 combo. Looking for some input from you guys in the industry. I have also been looking for some online documentation (.pdf docs) about the kenwood TK-*30 series but have found nothing so far. If anybody knows where they are hiding on the net please post a link. What I am looking for is Alpha num display, remote mount face, and ease of programming as I will be doing this myself. I would like a 690/790 combo but the funding is way short of having a pair of those in the truck!

Thanks again for the help!

Kevin
N2ZPY
BCFD

Post by **firemed9** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 9:14 am

I would go with the Kenwood 630/730 combo. I am a kenwood fan, and have used that setup before. Its nice to be able to run both radios from the control head, and though its an orange display, its still a nice alpha display. If you cant afford the *90 series, the 30 series is the way to go.

STeve

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 9:43 am

N2ZPY wrote:and ease of programming as I will be doing this myself.

Well, I'm not sure about the Kenwood, but the Orions are very easy to program. They are NOT easy to go out of band. The splits on the VHF high band are rediculous. It's either 136-153 or 150-174, so if you wanted to do HAM AND public saftey, you're SOL. The splits on lowband are a lot better, but still do not include HAM. I sold off my lowband Orions due to the OOB issue. As soon as I can get an Astro Spectra, the VHF will go bye-bye as well.

JAYMZ · Post by **JAYMZ** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 10:31 am

I personally have not programmed a Kenwood dual setup but I am familiar with the 30 series and the 90 series. Both are very versatile radio setups with a fair amount of options. The programming looked fairly straight-forward from what I could tell.

Rescue161 is right about the Orions. Great radios... funny splits. The programming on the Orions (in the DOS Conventional Software anyway) can be confusing at times. A lot of "set this up... associate it with that...".

My vote is for the Kenwood. Honestly a direction I hope to go in shortly with the 90 series.

N2ZPY · Post by **N2ZPY** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 4:02 pm

Thanks for the input guys........another quick question on the kenwoods. Is there an alpha and non alpha display on the 630/730 series. Looking on ebay I see 2 different displays for them and was wondering about the differences. What is the difference in these 2 heads for the kenwoods?

If my thinking is correct the first one is not alpha numeric and the second one is alpha and obviously gives you more buttons to play with.

Kevin
N2ZPY

Radio_Cowboy · Post by **Radio_Cowboy** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 9:28 pm

The one on the left is the KCH-3 and is 32 channels...but with a eeprom upgrade can go to 99 channels and 2 didgit alpha tag..(kind of worthless) The control head on the right is the KCH-4 and is also 32 channels basic, but with the eeprom upgrade goes to 160 channels. Both can be remote mounted, and both can be used in a dual radio control fashion.

I got to mess with a 730/830 dualbanded setup, and I was impressed. VERY easy to program up...and you can have VHF/UHF (or lowband) in whatever channel you want...and it will scan them all. You don't need one scan list of VHF and another of UHF.

I would reccomend the kenwood setup, cause I have played with it before.....I have never used the Orion setup.

-RC-

n5tbu · Post by **n5tbu** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 4:13 pm

To start,I am a Kenwood man! But for ease of programming as well as ease of mounting the Kenwood is way ahead.
That Orion has a db25 coming out of the rear at a 90 degree angle,really hard to mount up close to something.
The alpha head for the 30 series has no speaker,you must use an external.
Now the 90 series basic head has alpha a few programmable function buttons (for turning lights and sirens on) and has a speaker.
The best thing about the 90 series is it can be programmed as a cross band repeater(or range extender) for a handheld.
One more thing...the 30 series is no longer supported by kenwood and parts are hard to come by.
Hope this helps.
Mark

jim · Post by **jim** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 6:14 pm

I have the TK730/830 combination in my Grand Cherokee. VERY easy to operate and program. Besides, you can't turn it into a brick if you unplug the read/write cable while programming!

For a few bucks, they'll go 160 channels in any combination.

NodrogCop · Post by **NodrogCop** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:40 pm

What's the general asking price for an 830?

Gordon

dbrock411 · Post by **dbrock411** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 6:06 am

How hard is it to program the TK-830 for out of band operation, i.e. the 440 mhz ham band?

Radio_Cowboy · Post by **Radio_Cowboy** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 11:36 am

dbrock411 wrote:How hard is it to program the TK-830 for out of band operation, i.e. the 440 mhz ham band?

Not hard at all. There's a option in the software that will let you do it no sweat....now if the radio will do it without re-tuneing is another story.

-RC-

dbrock411 · Post by **dbrock411** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 5:08 pm

What do I need to do in the software to program out of band? I've been through all of the options that I see and can't find anything to program out of band.....thanks!

N2ZPY · Post by **N2ZPY** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 5:30 pm

Well it looks like I will probably be going with the kenwood combo. I am still looking for some literature on them though. Looks like they dumped all of the info about the *30 series when the *90 series came out. One question that I have is is the 630 will do a dual tone decode? I am thinking that it should as the 6110 will but without any literature I am not sure. The other question is what is needed to do a dual band with a single head? I may still do seperate heads but I am not sure on this yet. If anybody knows where there is documentation online please point me to it.

Thanks again for all of the help!

Kevin
N2ZPY
BCFD

metro121 · Post by **metro121** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 5:32 am

depending on how many channels you need in each radio, you can go with the dual syntor x 9000 set up.

the orion dual set up is not that hard eithr , it just takes a little more time to program out of band.

the grand daddy of them all is the dual spectra setup. i have this in one of my vehicles in uhf and vhf.

i have recentley completed my latest project which consists of a loband x9000, and 3 spectras, one uhf, one vhf and one 900, all which are operated by on 9000 control head. this is realy nice when you have one of those vehicles that you do not want cluttered up with multiple control heads and mics.

n5tbu · Post by **n5tbu** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:59 am

You need to put the 30 series into "special tune" mode,then align as nessessary,to go out of band.
Mark

GE Orion or Kenwood 630/730 combo?

GE Orion or Kenwood 630/730 combo?

Re: GE Orion or Kenwood 630/730 combo?