[Kenwood] European regulations create setback for Kenwood

[Jim Moen]

There's nothing so persistent in ham radio over the decades as rumors of 
Kenwood's demise.  Each time they proved to be untrue.

For the last couple of years, at Pacificon and Dayton, I've spoken twice a 
year to Kenwood's manager of the amateur radio business in north america. 
Clearly Kenwood Japan expects each line of business to be profitable, and 
Kenwood's Ham Radio business in this part of the world has been profitable. 
Part of that is due to sales to emergency centers (often using homeland 
security to help fund the purchases), but I get the impression sales to 
everyday Hams have done well also.

As far as the "low profile" lately -- Kenwood admits they blew it in not 
having new products designed and in production when the new European 
regulations about toxic materials in electronics went into effect.

The regulations are called Reduction of Hazardous Substances, or RoHS.

In Kenwood's original plan, they would have released a new high-end HF radio 
this year, but instead they've been focusing on reworking their existing 
line to comply with the European rules. An example is the D710, which is 
really a rework of the D700 but made with parts that allow it to be sold in 
Europe.

By the way, when the planned new Kenwood "high end" HF radio does come out, 
they are hoping the price point will be far below that of the IC-7800.  I 
got the impression they were shooting for a list price around $4,000 -- but 
to have features that will turn heads.  We'll have to see about that.

In Dayton this year, while it was disappointing Kenwood did not have the HF 
announcement, I found the Kenwood people had great attitudes, were proud of 
their current product line and were open and honest about their plans.  It's 
true the booth did not have the excitement it would have had if there had 
been a major new announcement, but I thought they again put on a good show.

So Kenwood does make mistakes, and I think the RoHS fiasco will hurt Kenwood 
a little in the sales numbers. But their Ham Radio business, at least in 
North America, continues to be profitable. To me, that means they will be 
around for at least one or two more product cycles (5 to 10 years), and 
given how they've performed in the past, they will probably be around at 
least as long as ICOM and the other competitors.

    Jim - K6XZ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gregg" <W5IDX at sbcglobal.net>
To: <W5IDX at sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 4:09 PM
Subject: [Kenwood] Kenwood - Death of a Radio Company


Fyi...   "W5IDX"

Subject: Death of a Radio Company

>From the ARRL's site...

http://www.arrl.org/?artid=7540

   Kenwood to merge with JVC next year (Jun 25, 2007) -- This Week in
Consumer Electronics (TWICE) reports that Kenwood has agreed to merge in
2008 with Victor Company of Japan (JVC) under a holding company. JVC is
owned by Matsushita   Electric Industrial Company. Japan's Nikkei business
newspaper reports that the   final details should be worked out by the end
of the month, and that under   the plan, Kenwood will buy 20 billion yen
($161,469,466) in JVC shares as early    as this summer, raising its stake
to 13 percent. Matsushita will also sell   part of its 52.7 percent of JVC
to Kenwood's top shareholder, the Sparx Group.   When JVC and Kenwood
integrate operations under the holding company in 2008,   Matsushita will
sell the rest of its JVC shares to the holding company to   complete the
transaction. The holding company's stock will be listed instead of   Kenwood
and JVC, according to Nikkei. Combined, Kenwood's and JVC's sales are $7.3
billion dollars annually for their fiscal year that ended March 31.

   k1zxx wrote:

   Many years ago we watched with some ambivalence the slow
 decline of the Drake Company from the amateur ranks. Mr. W.R.
 Drake had died and his non ham son was at the helm wanting to
 take the company in a different direction. At the time the
 excitement was high with new radios coming out from Kenwood,
 Yaesu and ICOM. We are at a similar fork in the road with
 Kenwood. Looking at the excitement almost every manufacture
 experienced at Dayton, Kenwood was one of the loan
 exceptions.  I talked with their North American sales
 Manager, Phil and he said they have no high performance HF
 radio in the pipeline. The sales crew looked haggard and
 tired and when I
 visited their booth on Friday and Saturday at Dayton, no   one was
 smiling. No give aways, no fluf and the booth was looking
 old. The booth was for the most part vacant and best served
 as a short cut to the MFJ booths further into the arena. They
 had an empty Plexiglas covered box on Thursday during set up
 and many hoped a new high HF radio was to appear on Friday.
 Come Friday morning...just a VHF mobile. At the Visalia DX
 Convention a month earlier, the Kenwood Factory
 representative left on Saturday at noon while the convention
 show lasted for 5 more hours. Just some brochures were left
 on the table. They had a TS-2000 but no one stopped to talk.
 I would have to say the morale at Kenwood must be very low.
 Their two-way radio division is doing very well but not
 having a licensed ham at the helm of the amateur radio
 division is taking its toll.
 I feel Kenwood has suffered greatly in the HF community since
 the TS-870 was pulled from production with out a replacement.
 The last so called high performance design was the TS-2000
 which started designed in late 1999.The technology is over 7
 years old and getting long in the tooth. I have been a
 Kenwood man for 35 years. My first Kenwood radios were the
 599 twins. I own a TS-2000 as a backup radio and it is a very
 fine $1500 radio but it is not a cutting edge performer. I
 finally went to an IC-756 Pro III when I upgraded my HF radio
 and as a result also bought several ICOM VHF radios. The lack
 of a flagship radio does transcend your buying decision for
 other radio purchases. I saw this downward spiral of esteem
 with the Drake line after the old man died and his non ham
 son took over. The rest was history. I hope Kenwood is not on
 the same path. If 3 guys at Elecraft can bring out a high
 perform HF transceiver, the K3 in a year's time, it makes you
 think there is no one left in engineering at Kenwood other
 than the two way radio division. The crowd at Elecraft booth
 were two or three deep for much of the show and with every
 new buyer of a K3 sprouting a proud K3 button his shirt. By
 the end of the show they must have taken hundreds of orders
 for I saw K3 buttons every time I looked at the crowd.
 I hope this is not the beginning of the end for Kenwood but
 as a wise man once said, watch what a person does, not what
 they say. Kenwood's actions
 are speaking   very loud. Their last truly full featured high
 performance
 HF transceiver with real simultaneous dual HF receive
 capability was the TS-950SDX, which was discontinued over a
 decade ago! Go figure!.
   -----------------

   Kenwood has been conspicuously lacking participation in the
 "high end" HF products such as the IC-7800 and FT-9000 products.
 Looks like now that may never come for Kenwood.

   Norm W4QN