Kenwood 261a discontinued

[BlueCoyote]

Went to buy a Kenwood 261a of a chase vehicle - but they are discontinued. Have been unable to find any left in the supply chain at less that $200. There is a replacement -the 271a. Anyone know if the wire mod applies to this model as well?

[jeff]

http://www.aaradio.com/cartfile/ken_pages/tm261.html

http://www.klimaco.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=7&Category_Code =ken+ham+Radio

http://www.lentinicomm.com/shopping/pricelist.asp?prid=1151

And my favorite source of discontinued items...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3076995245&category=40 067

Aloha

[Rprice]

I have heard of modifying the 271. I have a icom v-8000 and it was super easyto modify. I'am not saying its a good thing to do but hey it works and its only temporary untill i get some cash for a roadmaster. PM me for some websites that give you info on modifying them

[TimHayosh]

Here's the mod: http://www.mods.dk/mods.php3?radio=kenwood&model=tm-271&selectid=2894#2894

They say it works fine.

[Rprice]

Ive attached a picture of the mode for the icom v-8000

[Tim]

you might want to check out the Icom 2100h. It rocks, it reads a full 50 watts of power unlike my 261-a that only rated 30 watts on the race channels. AND its even easier to modify than the 261 if thats possible. Tim

[91yotaprerunner]

this may be a stupid question, but why is it neccessary to modify these radios?

[IDRA_CRB]

As delivered from the factory these radios (2 meter) will receive our race frequencies but they will not transmit on them. The modification allows them to transmit as well.


Reese

[shrek]

How can you check what the radio is actually putting out?? Wattage, that is.

I have a Yaseu that is supposed to put out 70 Watts, and that is why I bought it, but it seems to only work a little better than our radios that are 50 Watt rated.............

Scott.......ya out there??

Shrek

[picone]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
you might want to check out the Icom 2100h. It rocks, it reads a full 50 watts of power unlike my 261-a that only rated 30 watts on the race channels. AND its even easier to modify than the 261 if thats possible. Tim

[/ QUOTE ]

There are many radios to choose from but I decided not to buy any more Icom's after they told me directly that they are not interested in promoting their radio's for off-road of any kind. On the other hand, Midland Radio (AKA Topaz or Legacy Radios) makes a really nice radio that we've seen perform very well (even though it only claims 45 watts). You can also buy the software to program your own channels and features yourself. They are really wanting to put their radios in the hands of off-road guys (hint, hint) and I for one think they have a nice product. The latest price i've seen on the this radio is $325.

http://www.topaz3.com/product.asp?StrProd=ML3200

[Tim]

You need to go to a shop that has a swr meter and know what their doing with 2meter radios. Then they can tune the antenna so it doesn't waste as much of the output power.
The Icoms seems to work well out of their normal operating band of 144-148 because the same radios are also made for commercial use, the channels we use for Racing, the Icoms have a wide range that their radios will work well on. I found that the 2100 will be right at 50 watts while my old 261 was at 30 at frequency 152.500. This radio generally goes for $170 or so. At that price I dont care what they promote. Tim

[picone]

10-4 Tim..."Price is KING". The Icoms are pretty good radio's but the one we had took a dump on me at Vegas to Reno somewhere between Nowhere, NV and Nowhere, NV. It went out at the wrong time. As far as that goes, most of the radios we use break, but we really have high hopes for this Midland!

I just bought an antennae from Mike at RacerX and on the package, it tells you where to cut the antennae to tune it to your frequency. I leave my antennae somewhere in the middle of the frequencies so that I can use many channels...BFG........

[Tim]

copy that, these radios that I was talking about are both not made for the abuse of a race car. I've never had problems with either and I think its because they are both hard-mounted and never move. Some freinds of mine that switch them from car to car often have broken all of theirs, they cant handle being thrown around at all.
Tuning the antenna seemed to work great for me. I'd highly suggest it. Antennas that are often used and have a cut chart made up for them make it a whole lot easier to tune. over, out