Ever watch the sales and get to the point where you can predict when something is going to be discontinued. I hate to say it, but I have that feeling in the case of the Kenwood TH-F6A, which has been a faithful radio buddy of mine for the past several years.
I was looking for something to replace an aging Icom hand-held and do a little exploration of the 220 MHz band. So I found the TH-F6A tri-band handheld. (Back then, tri-band meant 2-m/1.25-m/70-cm. These days the 220 band is all but a memory, and tri-band probably means 6-m/2-m/70-cm.) Not only is the radio tiny but still usable (it will fit in your shirt pocket, yet aging eyes can still read the screen), but with 5 watts out on all three bands, it is no slouch. And to top that off, it has a general coverage receiver built-in with CW/SSB/AM/WFM reception to boot. I use that little hand-held all the time to check my HF signal for distortion.
My only gripe was the linear power supply wall-wart used to charge it was HUGE — strange for something that put out 13 Volts at 0.5 Amps these days.
- Kenwood TH-F6A
