Chinese radios or a Kenwood TH-D75?

Kenwood TH-D75

The Kenwood TH-D75, a revamped version of the TH-D74, is now available with an eye-watering price tag of $750. No, that’s not a typo, Kenwood are really expecting you to fork out SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY dollars (or Pounds or Euros) for a handheld radio. Lets take a look at what you could get from China for that kind of money.

Fill up the shack

Let’s go crazy and use our $750 budget to buy all sorts of useful stuff for the shack.

So with all but $4 of the budget blown, we have a PSU, some coax, a portable HF antenna, an HF rig, a mobile rig, and an APRS handheld. Not bad at all, but consider that one item is consuming almost half our budget, so we could do even better.

Just Radios

OK, perhaps you already have most of the shack essentials like a power supply. Let’s be a little more restrictive and only buy radios.

  • Lanch NLH HG-UV98 – $126 – Dual band (VHF/UHF) handheld with APRS.
  • Abbree AR-2520 – $65 – Dual band (VHF/UHF) mobile radio with Airband/NOAA weather RX.
  • AnyTone D878UVII Plus – $228 – DMR and analogue dual band (VHF/UHF) handheld with Bluetooth.
  • LILYGO T-TWR Plus – $66 – Awesome hackable radio module that can be configured to be an APRS tracker.
  • 2 x Quansheng UV-K5 – $31 – Another very hackable radio. Let’s buy 2 in case we break one.
  • 2 x Baofeng UV-17 Pro – $45 – Tri-band (2m/1.25m/70cm) handheld with USB-C charging, programming cable, and upgraded 771 antennas (2 of these sets).
  • AnyTone AT-5555N II – $192 – 60w 10m mobile rig.

Looking at what we get: An APRS handheld, a dual band mobile rig, digital mode coverage with a DMR handheld, an APRS tracker, 2 x hackable handhelds, 2 x everyday “throw-around” handhelds, and a rig for 10m too. The AT-5555 actually tips us $3 over budget, but that’s close enough. Again, a third of the budget is taken up by one item, so we could do better.

Just Handhelds

OK, I hear you folks saying “You’re not comparing apples to apples!”, let’s stick to handheld radios.

  • Lanch NLH HG-UV98 – $126 – Dual band (VHF/UHF) handheld with APRS.
  • LILYGO T-TWR Plus – $66 – Awesome hackable radio module that can be configured to be an APRS tracker.
  • 2 x Quansheng UV-K5 – $31 – Another very hackable radio. Let’s buy 2 in case we break one.
  • 2 x Baofeng UV-17 Pro – $45 – Tri-band (2m/1.25m/70cm) handheld with USB-C charging, programming cable, and upgraded 771 antennas (2 of these sets).
  • 2 x Baofeng BF-1701 – $132 – DMR handheld that is capable of running OpenGD77 – better buy 2 in case our buddy doesn’t have DMR!
  • SOCOTRAN DP8800 – $92 – Dual band DMR handheld with some kind of GPS/APRS functionality.
  • 2 x TIDRADIO TD-H3 – $70 – Dual band analogue handheld with USB-C charging, airband RX, and programming via your phone.
  • LEIXEN VV-898SP – $150 – Not strictly a handheld, but it does include a battery and antenna.
  • HONGFENG HF-1A – $32 – A tiny UHF only radio that is the size of a cigarette lighter.

Adding up the list we get a grand total of 13 radios, including 3 that do APRS in one form or another, a man-pack type radio, and something silly to round out the bunch. We don’t have exactly the same features as the Kenwood TH-D75, but we do have APRS, a digital mode (DMR), and wideband RX.

Conclusion

Now, the decision about which is a better buy is left up to you, dear reader, but it’s hard to argue that the Kenwood TH-D75 is good value after seeing what you could have for the same money. As I mentioned above, this is just a quick selection I plucked out, you could get things that suit you better if you take your time, look around Ham Imports and pick things that you personally like or need.

What would you choose? Let us know via Twitter. If you chose the Chinese radios, you may also enjoy: Ham Radio Lifestyles of the Poor and Shameless.