The Radio Information Board

I'm looking to get a field programmable mobile. Would like to get a VHF and UHF to use in my rig at work. Brand is unimportant to me, but I currently run Motorolas.

Also if anyone has suggestions on a dual-band VHF/UHF commerical/business radio handheld, that would be great too.

If by "field programmable" you mean with a laptop, as opposed to via the radio's own front panel controls, I would suggest the Kenwood TK-x30 series. They are no longer manufactured or supported by Kenwood, but are readily available on E-Bay and through commercial radio vendors.

I maintain a fleet of these radios in line trucks, and have found them to be very reliable, robust, and dependable. The programming software is straight-forward and intuitive. Parts are still easily found either through dealers or from distributors. We plan on continuing to support our TK-630s (the low band variants) for the foreseeable future.

While many of my units have been in service for half a dozen years or more, I have yet to see one of these radios fail without some inducement on the part of the user (like a thermos of coffee to the control head, or a SawzAll through the interconnect cable). We also have some of the newer x90 version radios in our fleet, but I like the x30s better. They're easier to work with and easier to (re)tune.

The x30s come in low band VHF (the TK-630, 29.7-50 MHz), high band VHF (the TK-730 136-174 MHz), and UHF (the TK-830 403-512 MHz). Power on VHF is up to 110 watts, 75 on UHF. I've easily tuned 630s and 730s into the amateur radio bands, it only requires a re-program and tuning, no parts changing (assuming your radio is in the right split to begin with).

My two cents worth...

Paul

a Kenwood TK-7160 can be front pannel programmed, you just need to find a dealer willing to sell you the radio with the option enabled.

as for older radios, a kenwood tk-760 can also be set up for this.

As far as dual-band commercial portable transceiver, look here:

viewtopic.php?t=1209

Pretty much the the Vertex 2070 was it, although they can configure a portable with receive only on the second band. Maybe that means that Vertex is close to re-introducing a dual-band portable.

Bendix King EMH series with smart mic

That would give you 148-174

114 channels

alpha text

50 watts

commercial grade sensitivity

programming from the microphone keypad