Kenwood Installation Cable extension question

[Tiktaalik]

The HAM is installed and is working fine. I haven't started using the extensions yet. I installed external speakers as well. There are two outputs for external speakers on the rear of the unit. I assumed this was left/right but it appears to be one for each channel. Is there a way to wire it up to get both channels on both (left and right) speakers? I'm also considering adding an amp that has bluetooth streaming capability. Is there a way to connect the AMP to the HAM or do they need to be separate?

 

[dreadlocks]

If you only plug in one speaker it gets both sides of the radio, if you plug in 2 speakers each one geta a tuner dedicated to it..

You cant stream music over HAM so yeah keep that seperate.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Understood... I'm just trying to figure out how I can run the Amp and the HAM on the same pair of speakers. Ideally I don't need to get a separate pair of speakers just for the HAM radio.

 

[dreadlocks]

How are you gonna hear anyone calling for you when your music is playing? you need more than an amp to get one to mute the other on activity.. just hide a speaker under the dash, a speaker for voice is gonna do a ******** job at music and vice versa.. Ive got over 20 speakers in my vehicle from the factory, whats one more.. If you want two audio sources to play out one speaker at the same time you need a mixer not an amp, but you'll want the mixer to be within reach so you can independently control the volumes of each source.

You dont need a pair of speakers unless your monitoring 2 channels in voice at same time and dont wanna have to look at the VFO to tell which side of the radio its coming in.. since I'm always doing APRS on one side and either 2M or GMRS on the other I've never even had two people talking on 2 halves at the same time.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I think the TM-D710 external speakers are configurable in the same way as the TM-V71 but it's not clear in the D710 manual. On the V71 You can put both sides on one speaker, each side on a dedicated speaker, one band on the internal and one on the external.

 

[Tiktaalik]

I don't intended to use them both simultaneously. I don't use the HAM around town running errands. I have two high quality marine speakers already installed in the dash. They will do a great job at both if wired up correctly. I could just bypass the HAM and use the built in speaker in the HAM for communications, but its mounted under the dash and sounds like ****.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I don't intended to use them both simultaneously. I don't use the HAM around town running errands. I have two high quality marine speakers already installed in the dash. They will do a great job at both if wired up correctly. I could just bypass the HAM and use the built in speaker in the HAM for communications, but its mounted under the dash and sounds like ****.

If you're dead set on not just using a communication speaker you could use a DPDT switch. Speaker on the common (3 & 4), ham external on 1 & 2 and stereo on 5 & 6. If you want to use both speakers with one lever you'd have to gang two sets of contacts.



Just my $0.02 but a small communication speaker will work better, though.

 

[dreadlocks]

yeah the internal speaker sucks, but I've got one of these under the dash and IMO it sounds perfectly fine: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZIC18Q

Dont discount using it running around doing errands, in town where there is more active traffic is the best place to brush up on your skills and keep fresh on operation of your radio.. If you only use your HAM a few times a year when your out in the backcountry, away from your user manual and a quick internet search then good luck remembering all the functions of the radio and how to access em, especially if your in a stressful situation... Its like firearms training, I hadn't gone to the range in a while and it took me a while to get back on target and hit anything w/my revolver, not brilliant if I've gotta use it and cant hit anything with the 6 shots I got.. needa spend more time shooting paper so I'm not carrying around a heavy useless piece of equipment.