TK-8180 mobile or TK-3180 portable?

Lord Windeschmere · Post by **Lord Windeschmere** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:23 pm

Anyone have a TK-8180 mobile or TK-3180 portable? Looking for opinions, complaints, etc. on either radio. They appear to have a lotta nice features, including 450-520MHz spread for UHF, and a wide spread for VHF too. I think they came out last September. Thanks.

Wes · Post by **Wes** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 10:13 pm

I have a TK-2180 VHF portable and it is awesome, they took all the features from every model they make and rolled them all into one. I love mine!!! Now I have full intentions on purchasing a TK-7180 mobile version, I will actually probably get 2 of them.

They also greatly improved the poor rx audio output of the 80 series portable.

Wes

Lord Windeschmere · Post by **Lord Windeschmere** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 12:34 am

Well, I finally found a shop with a TK-3180 in stock. Beautiful radio! Nice features. I bought the programming s/w too and I'm also impressed with the interface. They must have hired real s/w programmers lately! icon_wink.gif I like that the same software will also do the TK-8180. That'll be my next purchase.

There's ONLY two things, so far, on the 3180 I don't like. First, they don't give you a damn antenna with the radio.

You have to remember to buy that! I found out after I got home and opened up the box. Second thing I don't like, I might be doing something wrong though, is when you have the scan type set to "Single" or "List", changing zones while scanning the list doesn't change to match the zone. You have to stop scan, change the zone, then hit scan again to scan the correct list for that zone. Otherwise, I like it. Rx seems good (tried with another antenna I had laying around that fit) though I haven't tried Tx yet but I assume it'll be good too. I highly, highly recommend this radio. I'll post another short review after I get more time on this puppy.

rangerfourever · Post by **rangerfourever** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:45 am

Look out big M............

Lord Windeschmere · Post by **Lord Windeschmere** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:37 pm

M who?

After playing around with the TK-3180 more I've found it's pretty configurable. I got the correct Kenwood antenna for it and it transmits solidly and receives beautifully. I must also correct my previous post about the zone/scan thing. I changed the Scan type to "Single" and it does scan each zone's own channels set to be scanned. Sweet! I love this radio. Screw Motorola and their overpriced everything.

Holeinone · Post by **Holeinone** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:16 pm

What is the price for these radios???

Lord Windeschmere · Post by **Lord Windeschmere** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 10:21 am

The asking price was $700, but since I also bought a few other items I got a nice discount.