I just purchased a Kenwood D710A. This rig
is the ultimate rig for mobile APRS. The Kenwood D700 is the
successor to this new state of the art rig. There are a few
differences between the D700 and D710. The D710 has more menu
choices and better APRS packet handling options. The D710 is
able to upgrade the firmware for both the main unit and the
head unit. The D710 has a 8 pin mini din to DB9 connector for
programming use. The D700 in my opinion the D700 had a better
interface cable, both ends had a DB9 connector. This made it
easier to find a premade cable out of your junk box. With the
D710 you need to either buy a cable or roll your own from your
junk box. I opted to borrow a cable from another local ham to
do my programming. The D710 also has a data jack on the back
of the head unit. This option is very nice if you remote mount
your rig. I wish that Kenwood would finally provide a
microphone jack on the control unit. You can overcome that
short fall with a standard non cross over LAN cable. I bought
a double female adaptor for the LAN cable and super glued the
adaptor under the dash of the van on my remote mount, this
allows me to extend the microphone cable the 6 feet I needed
to without stretching the microphone cable. The final nice
option is that the GPS plug connects directly to the control
head. Oh did I mention the display can be changed between two
colors in the menu? That's right you get a choice of amber or
green.
If you will be traveling in to to Wisconsin with your D710
or V71, you can download my MCP-2A file here. The file
contains all the coordinated repeaters in the state of
Wisconsin. This list includes only 2 Meter, 1.25 Meter and 70
centimeters. I included the 1.25 Meter (220 Band) programming
since it's always interesting to see if and how much action is
on the band. The list is divided by region and city. You
probably will not want to do a full load of this file. The
file is setup only for repeater programming. It does not
contain any other rig setup information. The best way to set
this up is to first read your rig. The open a second MCP-2A
program and do copy and paste between the two open programs. I
sent this file to a few local Kenwood users, using both the
V71 and D710A and neither had a problem with the load. The
programming was setup for a D710 in mind , but I was told it
loaded perfectly and in less than 2 minutes into a V71.
Imagine that, I must have been at Hamvention this year. I was
parked at the mall a few miles away. The APRS demo found me in the
video. No the video isn't mine but I did make an appearance in it.
W6GPS Video
This is video of W6GPS setting up a Peet Brothers
weather station using the D710A
