[Kenwood] Kenwood Status

[k3ac at aol.com]

Dave - JVC/Kenwood USA Communications division is HQ in Irving, TX. Their Amateur Radio group is still based in Long Beach, CA, where it has been for many years (amateur radio service is contracted out to a independent contract in the Syracuse, NY area now. Both former East and West coast, company owned,  amateur service centers have been closed):
    
   - JVCKENWOOD USA Corporation
   - Communications Sector
   - 1440 Corporate Drive
   - Irving, TX 75038
 73,Bob K3AC
In a message dated 3/17/2022 11:07:46 AM Eastern Standard Time, thompson at mindspring.com writes: Kenwood had their US Amateur Radio HQ in Georgia North Of Atlanta with a Former HRO Exec as VP.  The phone number has been disconnected.  Is this office sill open? As to older gear...usually a manufacturer only supports the gear for 5 years after its discontinued.  I have a TS-590SG and I finally got the menus set so it would drive an amp.   First rig I ever had that you had to use the menu to open up the cable to the amp to drive the amp. 73 Dave K4JRB ----tOriginal Message-----From: Clif Holland Sent: Mar 16, 2022 9:17 PMTo: Subject: Re: [Kenwood] Kenwood Status Sure is a lot of old boatanchors still in use daily. -- Clif Holland -- On 3/16/2022 8:11 PM, David Fine wrote:> What will kill Kenwood and/or any other of the ham radio manufacturers is the lack of customers.  Too many old geezers that can afford to buy expensive radios are dying off faster than the hobby can attract younger ones to replace them.  That and the fact that new technology is becoming stagnate and if improved performance is what people actually buy new radios for, we have reached a point where there is not much improvement to be made.  You might buy a new radio for a new feature, but most of that is now done in software and can be programmed into radios to update them on the fly.  Last point, I hope the electronic parts shortages are short lived and we get back to normal delivery times or their may be some manufacturer and/or dealer fatalities.  But I am not writing an obituary for any of the major manufacturers just yet.  Dave, W0DF>> On Wednesday, March 16, 2022, 03:12:25 PM CDT, Richard Knoppow wrote:> >     It may be that they (JVC) is too big. What you say about> making something for a limited market is true, assuming the> market is for low to moderately priced items. Of course, General> Electric builds giant engines for ships and probably does not> build them in great numbers, but they are extremely expensive so> they make money on them.  When I worked for Hewlett-Packard back> in the last century (and it seems to be a century ago) they came> out with a little solid state volt-ohm meter, the Model 427-A. I> have one still. We had some discussion of its price and the> problem of making relatively low cost instruments. I found out> that the cost of the 427-A was not much more than the cost of> doing business, that is the cost of the paper work, for anything.> -hp- simply could not make a complete instrument (as> distinguished from parts) for much less than the 427-A cost> without loosing money. So, they just didn't build them. Mind you,> this was not the cost of manufacture, saleries of workers, etc,> it was the cost of doing anything in a large organization. It may> be that Kenwood has become too large to build the kind of things> it does aimed at a relatively small market. Also, its possible,> as others have pointed out that ham radio products are the sort> of thing that when someone buys one it takes them out of the> market. For instance, buying a house generally takes someone out> of the market for years. The nature of ham radio is that one can> practice it satisfactorily with very old equipment and even home> made equipment (believe it or not). Its possible there is a size> limit: when a business gets too large is sort of collapses on> itself.>> On 3/16/2022 12:33 PM, K6JM via Kenwood wrote:>> Others have done a good job of reminding us all that these Kenwood rumors come>> up every few years.  At the same time, since so far we lack further facts, we>> are all free to speculate.>>>> On one of these rumor cycles about a decade ago, I found an article about how>> the Kenwood amateur radio division designs new amateur radio products.  While>> competitors like ICOM and Yaesu have engineers dedicated to amateur radio,>> Kenwood does not.  The process instead is to have the amateur radio group>> develop the requirements for a new radio, then when the project is given the>> green light, they borrow designers from the commercial land/mobile group to>> design the amateur radio product.  So they get high-end engineers to do the>> work, but those people are not dedicated to amateur radio.>>>> And as we have all seen, they attempt to design a new radio that leads the pack>> in features, with hopes the product will be viable for many more years than is>> typical in the amateur radio segment.  An example is the TS-2000 -- it was>> first shipped in 2001 and production was finally shut down in 2018.>>>> It is also true that the profit center for the radio side of JVCKenwood is the>> commercial land/mobile part of the business.  This is a big deal, and it is>> very, very unlikely JVCKenwood will exit that business.  And given how they>> keep their amateur radio group's costs down but maintain high quality, it is>> unlikely they will exit the amateur radio business either.>>>> But, as has been posted, we have no facts here and of course they could decide>> to change course at any time.  I personally think that unlikely, but (as they>> teach first-year journalism students to never write):  time will tell.>>>>       Jim - K6JM>>>> -----Original Message----->> From: kenwood-bounces at mailman.qth.net On>> Behalf Of Gary H. Harmon, Jr.>> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2022 5:07 PM>> To: kenwood at mailman.qth.net>> Subject: [Kenwood] Kenwood Status>> Importance: High>>>> One of my local buds called to see if I heard any rumors about Kenwood going>> out of business.>>>> Any facts or just rumors??>>>> Best 73,>>>> Gary H. Harmon, Jr. - K5JWK>> GROUP MODERATOR / LIST ADMINISTRATOR>> HAM Radio, HEATHKIT, and ATARI Archaeologist>>>> ______________________________________________________________Kenwood mailing listHome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/kenwoodHelp: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htmPost: mailto:Kenwood at mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.netPlease help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html  ______________________________________________________________Kenwood mailing listHome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/kenwoodHelp: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htmPost: mailto:Kenwood at mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.netPlease help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html