Hello. There is a new 2m/220/70cm tribander that is now getting released, the Kenwood TM-D750A. Only a few people have their hands on them yet but I have the sense it’s going to be a pretty popular model. It has built-in APRS and KISS TNC, but I still believe that for full VARA-FM users they will still need an external sound card like Digirig. Your thoughts on that would be great. I found the pin schematic on the online manual to see if it aligns with other Kenwoods.
Sorry, that wasn’t helpful because reading the full manual I see it has a data port. Here is the page from the manual for that:
So I take it this is a “Mini DIN 6” connector? It SHOULD be compatible with this cable package, right? The info in the table for both connectors looks nearly identical.
(edit: removed link to cable package that included a din8 cable)
the mini din 6 ‘packet’/‘data’ is a ‘standard’ so there shouldn’t be any problem.
that port is supposed to be pin identical across all makes of ham gear that uses it.
good luck
kb0wlf
Well that’s good. With it sorted that it uses a mini din 6, I was just trying to be sure which cable arrangement was the correct one.
Now that I look again, is this cable all I’d need to connect the radio’s DATA connector to the Digirig’s AUDIO port?
And here is the link to the full TM-D750A/E User Manual.
yes, that is the cable for the widest bandwidth path.
a 1200 cable would also work but due to the emp/de-emp stage, audio bandwidth/shaping is not suitable for higher rates.
(vara fm is still pretty fast in ‘narrow’ mode)
you’ll need to set the radio’s menu item to 9600 in order to set the ‘data in’ pin correctly.
good luck
kb0wlf
Does this use the TTL or RS-232 digirig?
The one I bought said Logic Levels (default).
Also I want to pass on that I’ve used the radio with the Mini-DIN-6 cable for 2 Winlink Wednesday check-ins and everything seems to be fine.