Armada rocks!!!! I was a Moto guy for a long time until the big "M" cancelled our MR account (along with several other shops), and I went right to Kenwood, and when I discovered Armada...I was hooked! I just got my VP8000, plus one for a customer and I need to set aside days to play. Great video, thanks!
I just deployed hundreds of the VP8000 units. Super happy with them. As for the WiFi programming, that is a licsensed feature, not a standard option. I learned that the hard way.
Just getting into p25. We just put a new p25 repeater downtown Raleigh NC. On top of a 431’ building. Man down this stuff work great. Running the XTS5000 and what a pain to program until you really figure it out. That kenwood looks great. Thanks for the great video.
You'd mentioned bluetooth programming at the very end - can you actually program the VP over bluetooth? My dealer is telling me know, I'd love to know as I've got one on order. EDIT: The marketing material sure says so... I guess I'll have to figure it out.
A little tidbit with the noise cancellation, single microphone on the radio but EF Johnson uses what they call TrueVoice which uses a combination of soft band pass filters and some smart applications of DSP to optimize the human voice. This was introduced with the first gen Viking lineup (VP8000 is third gen) and Kenwood eventually ported it over to the NX firmware. There is a good noise cancellation video that EFJ made about 9 years that highlights some of the differences in various environments.
2015, Matt Baker and Great Lakes had the Cleveland Demo of the NX5000. You couldn't hear yourself speaking, but it pulled you out of that incredible noise, and they could hear us on the inside ! I was blown away! I sure wish they would improve KPG-D1NK cps. The NX series has many free options that VP needs feature licenses for: really disappointing in that respect. But Armada is a great leap over D1NK and APX.
Could you help me with a problem I'm having with this radio? I cannot get my Bluetooth earbuds to connect via Bluetooth option. Do you think there is a certain Bluetooth requirement to accomplish this?
Nice contrast and compare. I’m looking to make the jump to an all band and the timing of your review is perfect. Comments about non-affiliate P25 systems would be appreciated. Thanks for the work you’ve put into this. Looking forward your next videos.
enjoyed the video. I'm looking at the Harris xl200 as a regular civllian am I able to purchase the radio and scan any frequency? also were would I buy Harris radio?
I was really getting excited about the kenwood NX radios and got the I think NX5300 handheld with P25 and DMR. It was an early radio, I thought the radio itself was an awesome idea but the customer support is very dealer heavy. So as they were fixing bugs in their system I couldn’t get the latest and greatest firmware nor the latest of the programming software without snuggling up to my dealer. The early NX5000 series were riddled with bugs. So I went back to my APX7000XE, it’s not perfect BUT what I like is if I need firmware or software, its available. I also had problems with the kenwood repeaters locking up. My dealer swapped out the repeater multiple times and still no luck, we ditched kenwood altogether. I’d be willing to try kenwood again if they got it all sorted. Which leads me to my question, how has this radio been for you so far? Also something about the durability on the NX5300, one of the units I had, a user of it had the speaker mic and instead of the mic latching onto the metal chassis of the guts, it latches onto the plastic housing and you know how people sit with radios and speaker mics, it eventually cracked the housing and I had to order a new housing for the radio.
This COULD be a great radio if it also would do NXDN--there are not any multi-band portables out there that will decode/encode NXDN digital. Kenwood is the co-developer of NXDN with Icom, so they should be able to offer NXDN in this radio. That radio would be the ultimate--with analog, P25, DMR, and NXDN.
Hey it may be worth mentioning for holsters to look into getting a radio strap, I know sometimes the radios can fit into it without removing your belt clip
For those wondering NO you cannot use the vp8000 or any vp for passive monitoring a trunk system. A key is required and it will affiliate and is not designed for the NAS method. End of story.
I would love to have that VP. I have had an APX7000 for about 7 years and I bought it used at a pretty penny and took me forever to save up for. I think my first radio ever was a Saber and then had HT750, 1550, XTS5000, XTL5000, EFJ5100 (never quite worked right, think it needs to be tuned) and then bought my APX7000. Still have all of them I think except for the Saber. Stopped using the APX7000 for work since they went to NXDN digital. That battery release is very common on the newer Kenwood stuff we had, NX-5300 have the same battery release. I have been messing around with radio programming since about 2002 with the DOS days of programming. One day I hope I can afford the VP. I love the fact it’s larger than the APX8000, and looks like it has more of a sturdy feel, where you know it’s in your hand and not afraid that squeezing it too hard will break something. You lucked out getting that for the price you did. That thing has tons of features that the APX can only dream of. I love the brightness adjust. The NX-5300 has it, and it has auto, but I like the manual ability to it.
Order an Armada subscription from your local dealer. You will get 5 years of Armada along with firmware upgrades for your radios as well. Viking Tech support has a list of dealers in each state if you are unsure of who to contact.
Wonderful initial review! My agency opted for the APX line sadly and still waiting for them. Have the NX5700/5800 myself and the RSS is less then stellar to the point I can’t stand it. May have to look at upgrading in the near future to the EFJ. Looking forward to more feedback.
I only use Motorola gear for 2 meters/440. They're spectrallly pure, sensitive, have great audio, and if necessary, you can use it to literally beat an attacker to death.
Reach out to a dealer in your area (Viking tech support can get you a list if you don't know who that would be), they should be able to get you current pricing depending on what features you are wanting. That all plays a factor into the end price for each radio!
I wish we went with these since they are suppose to support nxdn soon. We have a county that touches my district that is on nxdn. Unfortunately we are going with Motorola. Great review!! Keep it up!
I knew about DMR. I also heard about their being a software upgrade for the 8000s to support NXDN. Odd that a Kenwood radio will not support nxdn. Lmao.
5:39 That is not the antenna, it is half of the antenna. The other "half" is the radio chassis and some capacitive coupling to your hand. As a result, the antenna is a specific length to marry up with the size of the chassis and the expected capacitive coupling effect. A wet piece of string will pick up RF, so not such a big deal, but I wouldn't expect a random stubby from another radio to work well on something with a totally different sized chassis. On the Moto DMR gear, you can drop into a service menu to see the RSSI displayed in dBm (not sure about the Kenwoods). Press the left navigation key 3 times, followed by the right navigation key 3 times. Try it - then swap antennas around whilst recieving a repeater (fixed signal). You'll see the RSSI change by a couple of dB with the "wrong" antenna.
Public safety radio rule of thumb: the list price is the model number, so this is about $8000, with typical options, a battery and a charger. If you're an agency with a contract, you get around 25%-33% off list. If you're a ham and buying 1, you're paying about list, but you forgo options like encryption and TDMA trunking, so it's in the same ballpark.
WHEN KENWOOD PRODUCES DMR.. I’m buying it. I have missed Kenwood !!! Come back Kenwood to amateur radio HF/VHF. I want an all mode Kenwood Radio. VHF/UHF/HF.
You're thinking of toy radios. Kenwood radios already do DMR; the NX/VP line is the first and currently only radios that do multi-digital mode: P25, DMR and NXDN.
Let's get something straight, You are not now and never were a Motorola fan boy. A true Motorola fan boy would never stop carrying a Motorola radio and start carrying a Kenwood just because it does everything, A true Motorola fan boy would carry multiple radios before they would start carrying a Kenwood period. So sorry but you Sir were never a Motorola fan boy!!!
Lmao I have an ailunce, a XPR7550, XTS5000s, an APX8000, and have played with the VP series. The ailunce won’t do P25, encryption, or 800. But for $200 not a bad radio to play with.
Since Motorola has been widely used by law enforcement and many agencies over several decades as well as being well made, it may not seem like much of a concern to many but, for whatever it's worth, it is a Chinese company.
Quit jostling, moving, wiggling, wogglin the radio around in the intro! Lemme have a look at it. Quit watching, thumbed down. This all too common utuber tenancy is right behind the use of goofy faces on the click bait title slide. If your content is good, please let us get to it without making us resort to trying to freeze frame to see the product.
DMR is a specific system type. The VP8000 is capable of doing conventional analog and digital, P25 trunking (FDMA/TDMA), Smartnet/Smartzone (V16) with DMR tier 2 and 3 in the pipeline currently. This radio is also tri-band capable meaning it can utilize VHF, 7/800 and UHF frequency bands.
@John Reno most of the public safety communication use P 25 not DMR. DMR is mostly a HAM communication. It sucks for me because I have to buy two radios. If That kenwood in this video can TX and RX on VHF/UHF/800mhz and do DMR I would only have to buy and carry one radio.
Kenwood has quality issues. I work in a Kenwood shop, and have been fully let down on their quality. Most issues are the cheap volume controls, and the tiny flex connections used all through their models. The NX-820 series are a pain with their assembly, being slapped together by automation. The B+lead and ground connection is really in need of an upgrade for their cheap power cords. The overall quality stinks. KPG-3DN is a software platform designed by idiots, and you can only use it on one computer, and it's cost is NOT for the small shops. I do not like the build quality of the 3000 series portables, like the 3220 Etc.. I will never be a fan of NEXEDGE. P-25 is the digital system of choice, it's codec has the best recovered audio and it sounds fantastic, even the older XTS/ASTRO SABER are still going strong. I have an old XPR6550, and sadly, pretty bare bones, but still does DMR. I think Kenwood still does a better job in assembly/quality with ham gear than their commercial lineup. The older analog portables, such as the 2140, 3140, 2170, 3170 have garbage volume controls, and the biggest issue, is the 2140, 3140 series comes from their internal 'audio' card, which often flops around, flexing the socket pins, causing TX Audi to become nasty, and worse. A horrible design to shrink physical size. I would be far more interested with an EF Johnson label on the radio. To each, their own.
Armada rocks!!!! I was a Moto guy for a long time until the big "M" cancelled our MR account (along with several other shops), and I went right to Kenwood, and when I discovered Armada...I was hooked! I just got my VP8000, plus one for a customer and I need to set aside days to play. Great video, thanks!
I just deployed hundreds of the VP8000 units. Super happy with them. As for the WiFi programming, that is a licsensed feature, not a standard option. I learned that the hard way.
You know anything about the EF Johnson 5100es ?
Just getting into p25. We just put a new p25 repeater downtown Raleigh NC. On top of a 431’ building. Man down this stuff work great. Running the XTS5000 and what a pain to program until you really figure it out. That kenwood looks great. Thanks for the great video.
You'd mentioned bluetooth programming at the very end - can you actually program the VP over bluetooth? My dealer is telling me know, I'd love to know as I've got one on order. EDIT: The marketing material sure says so... I guess I'll have to figure it out.
15:38 I am amazed at that ability! That seems awesome!
A little tidbit with the noise cancellation, single microphone on the radio but EF Johnson uses what they call TrueVoice which uses a combination of soft band pass filters and some smart applications of DSP to optimize the human voice. This was introduced with the first gen Viking lineup (VP8000 is third gen) and Kenwood eventually ported it over to the NX firmware. There is a good noise cancellation video that EFJ made about 9 years that highlights some of the differences in various environments.
Fantastic info! I'm relatively new to the EFJ world so thanks for the clarification.
Excellent info.
Thanks!
Did they implement TrueVoice over into the NX-5000 series radios? I've got a couple of them and would love to see them be able to do that.
2015, Matt Baker and Great Lakes had the Cleveland Demo of the NX5000. You couldn't hear yourself speaking, but it pulled you out of that incredible noise, and they could hear us on the inside !
I was blown away!
I sure wish they would improve KPG-D1NK cps.
The NX series has many free options that VP needs feature licenses for: really disappointing in that respect. But Armada is a great leap over D1NK and APX.
Real Question... Will you share that boot image? Its amazing.
Could you help me with a problem I'm having with this radio? I cannot get my Bluetooth earbuds to connect via Bluetooth option. Do you think there is a certain Bluetooth requirement to accomplish this?
Nice contrast and compare. I’m looking to make the jump to an all band and the timing of your review is perfect. Comments about non-affiliate P25 systems would be appreciated. Thanks for the work you’ve put into this. Looking forward your next videos.
Don’t forget Tait and BK as well.
That's what I wanna do with the EF Johnson 5100es is use it as a nas scanner
Looking forward to more videos about this radio.
Just bought a Harris xg-100 and I’m excited to get it in the mail! Although seeing this do DMR, that’s a game changer!
enjoyed the video. I'm looking at the Harris xl200 as a regular civllian am I able to purchase the radio and scan any frequency? also were would I buy Harris radio?
I was really getting excited about the kenwood NX radios and got the I think NX5300 handheld with P25 and DMR. It was an early radio, I thought the radio itself was an awesome idea but the customer support is very dealer heavy. So as they were fixing bugs in their system I couldn’t get the latest and greatest firmware nor the latest of the programming software without snuggling up to my dealer. The early NX5000 series were riddled with bugs. So I went back to my APX7000XE, it’s not perfect BUT what I like is if I need firmware or software, its available. I also had problems with the kenwood repeaters locking up. My dealer swapped out the repeater multiple times and still no luck, we ditched kenwood altogether. I’d be willing to try kenwood again if they got it all sorted. Which leads me to my question, how has this radio been for you so far?
Also something about the durability on the NX5300, one of the units I had, a user of it had the speaker mic and instead of the mic latching onto the metal chassis of the guts, it latches onto the plastic housing and you know how people sit with radios and speaker mics, it eventually cracked the housing and I had to order a new housing for the radio.
Your videos are incredibly good. Thanks for the helpful and entertaining videos :)
Can the
can the VP8000 be set to do Non-Affiliate Scan "NAS" on P25 Trunking similar to Motorola APX8000?
sure can
This COULD be a great radio if it also would do NXDN--there are not any multi-band portables out there that will decode/encode NXDN digital. Kenwood is the co-developer of NXDN with Icom, so they should be able to offer NXDN in this radio. That radio would be the ultimate--with analog, P25, DMR, and NXDN.
Says there is suppose to be a software update for NXDN sometime this year/next year.
@@beckstrom_logan3119 Noted. Thank you.
Can you provide a link to where you got the channel knob that was put on that 8000? I prefer it to the larger knob that I put on mine.
Hi love to your video. Can the radio show RSSI reading? Like the mototurbo series.
Hey it may be worth mentioning for holsters to look into getting a radio strap, I know sometimes the radios can fit into it without removing your belt clip
For those wondering NO you cannot use the vp8000 or any vp for passive monitoring a trunk system. A key is required and it will affiliate and is not designed for the NAS method. End of story.
Can it do P25 phase 1 & 2 / analog / DMR and NAS on P25 phase 2 ?
Thanks for the videos!
I can't wait for you to discover analog audio profile in P25. The salespeople and secretaries thought they were using analog radios.
I would love to have that VP. I have had an APX7000 for about 7 years and I bought it used at a pretty penny and took me forever to save up for.
I think my first radio ever was a Saber and then had HT750, 1550, XTS5000, XTL5000, EFJ5100 (never quite worked right, think it needs to be tuned) and then bought my APX7000.
Still have all of them I think except for the Saber.
Stopped using the APX7000 for work since they went to NXDN digital.
That battery release is very common on the newer Kenwood stuff we had, NX-5300 have the same battery release.
I have been messing around with radio programming since about 2002 with the DOS days of programming.
One day I hope I can afford the VP. I love the fact it’s larger than the APX8000, and looks like it has more of a sturdy feel, where you know it’s in your hand and not afraid that squeezing it too hard will break something.
You lucked out getting that for the price you did. That thing has tons of features that the APX can only dream of. I love the brightness adjust. The NX-5300 has it, and it has auto, but I like the manual ability to it.
The things i like about the Kenwood/EF Johnson line are they all use the same battery and charger unlike the Moneyrola apx line.
You're Kenwood is Beautiful ❤️
Does it do MDC1200?
It does.. about a $40 license.
Cool, feature-packed radio at probably half the price.
I've been loving my Harris Unity XG100P
what were the upper uhf band cutt-offs you mentioned? would it do hospital/ems 470mhz?...Any internal crossband repeat?
Kenwood could excite the market with a DMR Mobile with a detachable mobile face !! I need THAT now for my car.
Does it do 25khz and fpp for hams? If so, how did you go about getting it done?
It will do 25khz for hams on the ham bands. This has been confirmed by EF Johnson tech department.
@@UltimateDoomer1 siiiiick
Hello sir, is the APX 8000 and APX8000 XE available to civilian sale with amateur radio license?
Recently we just launched the DMR and Possibly NXDN in the future.
Would you be able to review the Bendix King BKR5000 radio?
Thanks for the heads up
Where can we buy them from ?
I really want one, but I wish that they added Kenwood's NXDN software, because that want I want.
What do you have programmed under your menu button in armada?
Can this unit do 800mhz NAS?
Great overview.
Would you recommend the motorola r7 for tactical comms?
Which XPR did you have?
How does APX CPS compare as far as ease of programming to XTS CPS?
How much tho
You know it’s expensive when dealers don’t post a price on the website and instead ask you to “email for a quote” 😂
Considerably less than an 8k
A gazillion bajillion dollars
An arm and a dingus. Plus the blood of your first born child's first born child.
@@The1Ramsey3 this made me lol
That latch is what they used on the kenwood TH-D74A triband ht 2m/1.25m/70cm aprs
The odd thing is shopgoodwill has 4 of these in the boxes. Bidding is up to $951
If it has Wi-Fi maybe it will have RoIP in its future?
I see that you are a ham as I am. Can I easily purchase the software without getting the run around?
I don’t have a 3D printer what would it cost for you make me a channel knob for my APX-7000 i use for fire department
Old post, but I bought the “fat” channel knob for mine. Not sure what Moto was thinking with that skinny, difficult to operate knob.
Out of curiosity Do you know if the VP supports DTMF ?
5:12 it must be a good ham radio as well
As scanner to
Battery latching system is similar to the Kenwood D72.
You should make a tutorial on how to obtain the Armada software.
Order an Armada subscription from your local dealer. You will get 5 years of Armada along with firmware upgrades for your radios as well. Viking Tech support has a list of dealers in each state if you are unsure of who to contact.
Wonderful initial review! My agency opted for the APX line sadly and still waiting for them. Have the NX5700/5800 myself and the RSS is less then stellar to the point I can’t stand it. May have to look at upgrading in the near future to the EFJ. Looking forward to more feedback.
Unless you absolutely need multi-protocol operation, Viking/EFJ is the answer. Hopefully we'll see DMR for more than just the VP8000.
Where do you get VP 8000 or 6000
Motorola - you can also purchase better but you will never pay more….. plus licensing and subscription…..
thats been typical of Kenwood HT's since the TK-2180.
How is the battery life? Heard that might be an issue
How does the Kenwood compare to the BKR9000?!!
Send me one and I'll let you know!
@@w3axlSpent your last penny on the Kenwood and have nothing left! 😂😂👍👍👍
I have a EF Johnson 5100es but i need to know how to get it to listen as a p25 scanner
The NX-5000 series portables use that same battery release mechanism.
I only use Motorola gear for 2 meters/440. They're spectrallly pure, sensitive, have great audio, and if necessary, you can use it to literally beat an attacker to death.
price?
I want to know that too.
Reach out to a dealer in your area (Viking tech support can get you a list if you don't know who that would be), they should be able to get you current pricing depending on what features you are wanting. That all plays a factor into the end price for each radio!
I couldn't even afford the custom knob... where, pray tell, where people get the money for these???
Can this radio do NAS
DMR?
Tier 2 in July. Tier 3 by year end.
What is the model number on the apx radio battery?
I have an APX and there are several different ones depending on how many milli amp hours you want. From 3000mAh to 6000mAh
Nice Comparison, I have been looking for an APX alternative and it looks like this might work. What's the pricing compared to the APX?
How much sir?
I wish we went with these since they are suppose to support nxdn soon. We have a county that touches my district that is on nxdn. Unfortunately we are going with Motorola. Great review!! Keep it up!
I knew about DMR. I also heard about their being a software upgrade for the 8000s to support NXDN. Odd that a Kenwood radio will not support nxdn. Lmao.
I would so love to have one.
5:39
That is not the antenna, it is half of the antenna.
The other "half" is the radio chassis and some capacitive coupling to your hand. As a result, the antenna is a specific length to marry up with the size of the chassis and the expected capacitive coupling effect.
A wet piece of string will pick up RF, so not such a big deal, but I wouldn't expect a random stubby from another radio to work well on something with a totally different sized chassis.
On the Moto DMR gear, you can drop into a service menu to see the RSSI displayed in dBm (not sure about the Kenwoods). Press the left navigation key 3 times, followed by the right navigation key 3 times. Try it - then swap antennas around whilst recieving a repeater (fixed signal). You'll see the RSSI change by a couple of dB with the "wrong" antenna.
I would like this radio better if it also had NXDN.
Only rich people can afford these radios.
you pay a premium price for a premium product
Audio test please
Thanks for not telling the price of the radio.
Ricky from IBM K4VMS / AAT9WG
I know right. My man said he got it for half price of a new one but keeps that number to himself. I wish he would have told us.
Public safety radio rule of thumb: the list price is the model number, so this is about $8000, with typical options, a battery and a charger. If you're an agency with a contract, you get around 25%-33% off list. If you're a ham and buying 1, you're paying about list, but you forgo options like encryption and TDMA trunking, so it's in the same ballpark.
Are they ham radio
They can be.
Depends what your frequency needs are, the VHF band only supports 136-174Mhz
Anyone have any luck with a good bluetooth RSM? Please don't say prime RMS!! :)
Nice. If you're rich.
seems a interesting. rig, i have the nx in my car was looking around for a new ht. vp seems cool
Ill take the APX off your hands if you don’t want it lol
I know right. I have the APX 6000 in the 800mhz band. I wanted the all band 8000 but that price tag...Ouch!
WHEN KENWOOD PRODUCES DMR.. I’m buying it.
I have missed Kenwood !!! Come back Kenwood to amateur radio HF/VHF.
I want an all mode Kenwood Radio. VHF/UHF/HF.
You're thinking of toy radios. Kenwood radios already do DMR; the NX/VP line is the first and currently only radios that do multi-digital mode: P25, DMR and NXDN.
Let's get something straight, You are not now and never were a Motorola fan boy. A true Motorola fan boy would never stop carrying a Motorola radio and start carrying a Kenwood just because it does everything, A true Motorola fan boy would carry multiple radios before they would start carrying a Kenwood period. So sorry but you Sir were never a Motorola fan boy!!!
Agree he should donate that Apx to me I never had anything nice before
That's just like my Ailunce HD1
Lmao I have an ailunce, a XPR7550, XTS5000s, an APX8000, and have played with the VP series. The ailunce won’t do P25, encryption, or 800. But for $200 not a bad radio to play with.
I have the HD 1 as well and it is not like this one at all. Especially having the ability to TX and RX P25
Sounds like a good radio but can’t ever trust kenwood again
I wanna get one for Free
Tell me you're a whacker without telling me you're a whacker
Since Motorola has been widely used by law enforcement and many agencies over several decades as well as being well made, it may not seem like much of a concern to many but, for whatever it's worth, it is a Chinese company.
Kenwood is Japanese, not Chinese. All EFJ handheld and mobile radio hardware is made in Japan.
Kenwood is Japanese, not Chinese. All EFJ handheld and mobile radio hardware is made in Japan.
Quit jostling, moving, wiggling, wogglin the radio around in the intro!
Lemme have a look at it.
Quit watching, thumbed down. This all too common utuber tenancy is right behind the use of goofy faces on the click bait title slide.
If your content is good, please let us get to it without making us resort to trying to freeze frame to see the product.
what is dmr?? you mean digital mobile radio??? this pricey radios dont have a digital mode already????
DMR is a specific system type. The VP8000 is capable of doing conventional analog and digital, P25 trunking (FDMA/TDMA), Smartnet/Smartzone (V16) with DMR tier 2 and 3 in the pipeline currently. This radio is also tri-band capable meaning it can utilize VHF, 7/800 and UHF frequency bands.
@@midwestzed thnxs so much appreciated. it seems to be a fantastic device
@John Reno most of the public safety communication use P 25 not DMR. DMR is mostly a HAM communication. It sucks for me because I have to buy two radios. If That kenwood in this video can TX and RX on VHF/UHF/800mhz and do DMR I would only have to buy and carry one radio.
@@wcsoblake85 Tier 2 in July, Tier 3 by year end.
Kenwood has quality issues.
I work in a Kenwood shop, and have been fully let down on their quality.
Most issues are the cheap volume controls, and the tiny flex connections used all through their models.
The NX-820 series are a pain with their assembly, being slapped together by automation. The B+lead and ground connection is really in need of an upgrade for their cheap power cords.
The overall quality stinks.
KPG-3DN is a software platform designed by idiots, and you can only use it on one computer, and it's cost is NOT for the small shops.
I do not like the build quality of the 3000 series portables, like the 3220 Etc..
I will never be a fan of NEXEDGE.
P-25 is the digital system of choice, it's codec has the best recovered audio and it sounds fantastic, even the older XTS/ASTRO SABER are still going strong.
I have an old XPR6550, and sadly, pretty bare bones, but still does DMR.
I think Kenwood still does a better job in assembly/quality with ham gear than their commercial lineup.
The older analog portables, such as the 2140, 3140, 2170, 3170 have garbage volume controls, and the biggest issue, is the 2140, 3140 series comes from their internal 'audio' card, which often flops around, flexing the socket pins, causing TX Audi to become nasty, and worse. A horrible design to shrink physical size.
I would be far more interested with an EF Johnson label on the radio.
To each, their own.
P25 is amazing. Regularly have QSOs on P25 simplex with a buddy who is about 30 miles away from me and the audio is amazing.
Viking radios are engineered by EFJ, marketed by Kenwood. It's complicated.
You’re basing your opinion on kenwood stuff. Viking radios are a while different world.