Kenwood TH-D7A Firmware Update 1.05

We recently wrote a short review on Kenwood’s newest handheld amateur radio (here). This modern and powerful radio is packed with features many of us have been seeking for years. It is an impressive piece of hardware.

However, in use, we discovered a couple of issues with the early versions of the handheld. In particular, with firmware versions prior to version 1.05.

Namely,

  1. The device “randomly” performs a warm reset when radio is in dual-band mode and APRS (band-B) initiates a TX beacon. There was a similar issue reported when using D-Star. This particular issue does not appear to be resolved with the 1.04E firmware update on my unit.
  2. TX on band-A while band-B in APRS high or medium power mode causes the display to blank. Possible power-draw issue?

Thankfully, Kenwood’s recent firmware update (1.05) appears to address these issues. With the most recent update (available from Kenwood), we haven’t noticed the handheld initiating random resets when the APRS beacons are enabled on band B. Also, the display blanking issue on transmit also appears to have been resolved.

Both of those issues were frustrating and the fact that they have been addressed with a firmware update is great news.

The newest update also addresses the following (from Kenwood):

  1. When displaying details of the APRS station’s data (Page1/4~Page4/4), the D-STAR station’s callsign under reception appears in the one line display area as well as the APRS station’s callsign.
  2. When Menu No.612 (Direct Reply) is set to “On” (default), D-STAR stations’ callsigns appear preferentially than APRS stations’ callsigns. And when the Direct Reply operation is available, “*” appears at the right side of the D-STAR station’s callsign.
  3. QSO history on the same date is stored in the same QSO Log file created by each date.
  4. Improves Squelch characteristics in a high-noise environment.

You can read the original review and description of the problems, here.

Here is a presentation slide-deck from a recent Billerica Amateur Radio Society (BARS) meeting: Kenwood_TH_D74A_Presentation_Slidedeck

 

Author: Jay Vicory

Jay Vicory (AI1EE) is an electrical engineer and computer scientist that has been designing and building embedded systems over the past twenty years. He is an active technology enthusiast and resides near Boston with his loving wife Nina.