How to Program a TM-D750 — Step by Step

Kenwood's digital mobile — a tribander in the Americas, dual band in Europe — with APRS, D-STAR, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi all built in. Three layers of controls sit on top of each other: hard keys for the things you change while driving, a function layer under the F key for the things you set up once, and a numbered menu for everything else.

This page covers: Kenwood TM-D750A, Kenwood TM-D750E. They share the same firmware, so the steps below are identical on all of them whatever name is printed on the front.

What you can do on this radio

• Save a repeater to a memory channel
• Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL)
• Set the receive tone
• Set the offset direction and amount
• Set the squelch
• Change the transmit power
• Listen on the repeater's input
• Turn off the roger beep
• Turn off the voice announcements
• Turn off dual watch
• Lock the keypad
• Factory reset
• Turn on the built-in GPS
• Set up APRS with your callsign
• Put APRS on the right band and speed
• Send your position automatically
• Send and receive APRS messages
• Register your callsign for D-STAR
• Switch the radio into D-STAR
• Set your D-STAR message and auto reply
• Get on D-STAR with no repeater in range

Save a repeater to a memory channel on a TM-D750

The order matters here. You build the whole repeater on the frequency display first — frequency, then direction, then tone — and only write it into a channel once it is right. Do it that way and one save captures the lot.

1. Press VFO, then turn the ENC control to the repeater's output frequency.VFO›dial → the repeater's output frequencyThe screen should show: Your frequency, on whichever band is the operating band.This is the frequency you listen on; the transmit side gets worked out from it by the offset. To move in whole megahertz first, press the ENC control once — the MHz digit blinks, you turn to the megahertz you want, and you press ENC again to come back out. The microphone keypad can enter a frequency directly as well.
2. Check that Auto Offset is on at menu 141 before you set anything by hand.MENU›141›ENC›shows Auto Offset›dial → OnThe screen should show: Auto Offset, Off or On.With this on, the radio reads the frequency and picks the offset direction itself. On ordinary repeater segments that is the end of the job and the next step is just a check.
3. If you do need to set the direction yourself, it is F then SHIFT.F›SHIFTThe screen should show: A plus or a minus beside the frequency, or neither for simplex.Watch out. SHIFT only goes forward: plus, then minus, then −7.6 MHz on the TM-D750E only, then off, then round again. There is no back. If you overshoot, keep pressing. And note this is not a menu item on this radio — hunting for offset direction in the menu is a wasted trip.
4. The offset amount is menu 140.MENU›140›ENC›shows Offset FrequencyThe screen should show: The offset in MHz for the band you are on.Kenwood keeps this per frequency band, so 2 meters and 70 centimeters each carry their own value and the factory settings suit almost every repeater. Change it only for an unusual one — and remember Auto Offset applies whatever is set here.
5. Press TONE until the display shows Tone. Not CTCSS.TONEThe screen should show: The Tone icon in the band's icon row.Watch out. This is the Kenwood trap, and it is the single most common reason one of these sits silent on a repeater everybody else can hear. TONE cycles Tone, then CTCSS, then DCS, then Cross Tone, then off. Tone sends a tone and lets you hear everything, which is what a repeater wants. CTCSS sends a tone and also mutes your radio unless a matching tone comes back. One press too far and the audio stops.
6. Now F then T.SEL, and turn ENC to the tone frequency.F›T.SEL›dial → your tone frequencyThe screen should show: The tone frequency.T.SEL edits whichever of the four is currently switched on — the Tone frequency if Tone is on, the CTCSS frequency if CTCSS is on, the DCS code if DCS is on. That is why you choose the type first and come here second.
7. Write it in with F then M.IN. The ENC control is what chooses which memory channel it lands in.F›M.IN›dial → the channel number you wantThe screen should show: The memory channel number.Watch out. The guide says M.IN stores the displayed frequency into the memory channel selected using the ENC control, but does not say whether you pick the channel before or after pressing the keys. The channel number is on the screen either way — look at it before you commit, because writing over a channel you wanted is not undoable.

Three things worth knowing once the first one is in. F then C.IN puts the current frequency into the Call channel instead, which is what the CALL key jumps straight to and a good home for your home repeater. F then M>V copies a stored channel back onto the VFO, which is the fastest way to build a second repeater that is nearly the same as the first. And Memory channel mode will not open at all until at least one channel exists — so if MR seems dead on a new radio, that is why, not a fault.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL) on a TM-D750

One key picks which kind of tone, another sets its frequency. The whole job is stopping on the right one.

1. Press TONE once. The Tone icon appears.TONEThe screen should show: The Tone icon.Watch out. Keep pressing and you walk past it: Tone, CTCSS, DCS, Cross Tone, off. Tone is the one a repeater wants — it sends a sub-audible tone with your transmission and leaves your receiver wide open. Stop there.
2. Press F, then T.SEL, then turn ENC to the frequency your repeater uses.F›T.SEL›dial → your tone frequencyThe screen should show: The tone frequency.T.SEL sets whatever is currently on. With Tone showing it edits the Tone frequency; with CTCSS showing it would edit the CTCSS frequency instead. Same key, different setting, depending on what you did in step one.
3. If you do not know the tone, press F and hold T.SEL to run a tone scan.F›hold T.SELThe screen should show: The radio steps through tone frequencies and stops on the one it hears.It listens to a signal coming in and identifies the tone on it, so you can pick a repeater's tone off the air instead of hunting through a directory. Very few radios at any price will do that.

The tone setting rides along when you store the channel, so set it before you press F and M.IN rather than after. If you have a channel that used to work and has stopped, press TONE and watch the icons — it is usually somebody's thumb having pushed it one step past Tone onto CTCSS.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the receive tone on a TM-D750

A receive tone keeps your speaker shut unless the signal carries the tone you nominated. Useful on a busy simplex frequency, and a good way to make a repeater go silent if you switch it on by accident.

1. Press TONE twice, so the CTCSS icon shows rather than the Tone icon.TONE›TONEThe screen should show: The CTCSS icon.Watch out. CTCSS does two jobs at once on a Kenwood — it sends your tone AND mutes your receiver unless a matching tone comes back. Tone only does the first. If you want into a repeater and nothing else, you want Tone.
2. F, then T.SEL, then turn ENC to the frequency you want to listen for.F›T.SEL›dial → the CTCSS frequencyThe screen should show: The CTCSS frequency.With CTCSS switched on, T.SEL is editing the CTCSS frequency rather than the Tone frequency. They are stored separately.
3. Menu 106 decides what the MONITOR function opens.MENU›106›ENC›shows MONITOR Type›dial → CTCSS/DCS OffThe screen should show: MONITOR Type, with SQL Off or CTCSS/DCS Off.Set to CTCSS/DCS Off, holding the key assigned to MONITOR lets you hear everything on the frequency including the traffic your tone is filtering out. That is how you check whether the channel is actually clear before you transmit onto somebody you have muted.
4. S-meter squelch at menu 103 is the other way to keep the speaker quiet.MENU›103›ENC›shows S-Meter SquelchThe screen should show: S-Meter Squelch, Off or On.This opens on signal strength rather than on a tone, so it works on stations that send no tone at all. Menu 104 sets how long it hangs on before closing again.

If your radio has gone deaf on a repeater that works fine for everybody else, this page is the first place to look. Press TONE and count the icons — nine times out of ten it is sitting on CTCSS when it should be on Tone, and one press of TONE brings the audio back.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the offset direction and amount on a TM-D750

The direction and the amount live in two different places on this radio, and only one of them is in the menu. That catches people out more than the settings themselves do.

1. Start at menu 141 — Auto Offset.MENU›141›ENC›shows Auto Offset›dial → OnThe screen should show: Auto Offset, Off or On.With this on, the radio works the direction out from the frequency you are sitting on. On the usual repeater segments it is right every time, and the two steps below become checks rather than work.
2. To set the direction by hand, press F then SHIFT.F›SHIFTThe screen should show: A plus, a minus, or nothing at all beside the frequency.Watch out. It cycles one way only: plus, minus, −7.6 MHz, off. The −7.6 MHz step exists on the TM-D750E and not on the TM-D750A, so an A owner sees three positions and an E owner sees four. Overshoot and you go round again — there is no back.
3. The amount is menu 140.MENU›140›ENC›shows Offset Frequency›dial → the offset in MHzThe screen should show: The offset for the band you are on.The value is held per frequency band, so setting it on 2 meters does not touch 70 centimeters. It leaves the factory on the standard offsets, so most people never open this at all.
4. Press REV to check your work.REVThe screen should show: The frequency swaps to the repeater's input.Reverse shows you the transmit frequency on the display. If it is not where the repeater listens, the direction or the amount is wrong — and finding that out here is far better than finding it out on the air.

One more display detail worth knowing: a split channel — one where transmit and receive are not related by a simple offset at all — gets its own icon, separate from the plus and minus icons. If you see it on a channel you did not mean to make split, that is what happened.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the squelch on a TM-D750

There is one squelch control on the panel and two squelch settings in the radio, because the two bands hold their own. Which one you are adjusting depends on which band is the operating band when you turn the knob.

1. Pick the band you want to adjust first.BAND SEL AThe screen should show: The operating band marker moves to band A or band B.Squelch is stored separately for band A and band B, so turning the knob without checking this is how you end up tightening the wrong receiver. BAND SEL B does the same for the lower band.
2. Now turn SQL clockwise, just until the background noise disappears.turn the SQL control clockwise until the hiss stopsThe screen should show: The hiss stops. The S meter sits at rest.Watch out. Just past the point where the noise goes is the right place. Every further click makes the radio deafer, and turning it well clockwise will lose you weak stations entirely — including the ones you most want to hear. Fully counterclockwise opens it up completely.
3. To listen through a closed squelch, hold the key set to MONITOR.hold the key assigned to MONITORThe screen should show: The hiss comes back for as long as you need it.This opens the squelch regardless of signal, which is how you check a frequency that sounds empty is actually empty. It is also how you set the volume on a quiet band, since there is nothing to set it against otherwise. MONITOR is one of the functions you can put on PF1 or PF2 at menus 940 and 941.
4. Menu 103 turns on S-meter squelch as well.MENU›103›ENC›shows S-Meter SquelchThe screen should show: S-Meter Squelch, Off or On.That opens on a signal-strength threshold rather than on the noise level, which behaves better on a noisy band. Menu 104 sets how long it holds open after the signal drops, from off up to half a second, so a station with a flutter does not chop your audio to pieces.

Where the noise disappears moves around with temperature and with whatever is being noisy nearby, so a setting that was perfect on a cold morning can be slightly deaf on a hot afternoon. It is worth a re-check now and then rather than assuming the radio has developed a fault.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Change the transmit power on a TM-D750

One key, three levels, and a small piece of arithmetic that is worth knowing before you go looking for a menu that does not exist.

1. Choose the band first.BAND SEL AThe screen should show: The operating band marker.Power is held separately for band A and band B. What it is NOT held separately for is each frequency band — so you cannot run high power on 2 meters and low on 70 centimeters within the same band slot.
2. Press LOW to step through the three levels.LOWThe screen should show: The H, M or L icon at the top of that band's display.Watch out. The key is labeled LOW but it cycles all three: medium, then low, then high, then round again. So the first press off high takes you to medium, not to low, and it takes three presses to get back where you started.
3. Read the icon rather than counting presses.check the icon before you key upThe screen should show: H for high, M for medium, L for low.On 144 and 430 MHz high is 50 watts, medium 10, low 5. On the 220 MHz band of the TM-D750A high is 20 watts, with the same 10 and 5 beneath it. Kenwood's own guide prints a table on the Basic Operations page that shows 20 watts as high for every band, which does not match the Specifications page or the radio's published rating — the 50 watt figure is the right one for 144 and 430.

Worth turning down more often than most people do. Working somebody two miles away on 50 watts is 50 watts of current out of your car's electrical system and 50 watts of splatter into every nearby receiver, and the contact sounds identical at 5. Current draw at high power is around 13 amps on 144 and 430, which is also why an under-specified power lead gets warm.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Listen on the repeater's input on a TM-D750

Reverse swaps your transmit and receive frequencies, so you hear the repeater's input instead of its output. It answers one very useful question: can I hear this station without the repeater's help?

1. Press REV. It is a hard key on the front panel, no function layer needed.REVThe screen should show: The frequency changes and the Reverse icon appears.You are now listening where the repeater listens. If you can hear the other station clearly, the two of you are in simplex range and could move off the repeater and leave it free.
2. Press REV again to come back.REVThe screen should show: The Reverse icon clears and the frequency returns.Watch out. Do not forget this one. Leaving Reverse on means you are transmitting on the repeater's output frequency, which is both useless and inconsiderate to anybody listening. The icon is your only warning, so it is worth learning where it sits.

The radio has an Automatic Simplex Checker that does this listening for you and tells you when a station is workable direct — the display has an icon for it. Kenwood's published guide shows the icon but never says how to switch the function on, so we are not going to invent a keystroke for it. When the detailed manual appears this page will get the steps.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off the roger beep on a TM-D750

This radio does not have this feature. What follows is what it does have, and why the thing you were looking for is not here.

Short answer: there is not one. Kenwood's published menu list for this radio runs from 100 to 999 and contains no roger beep — no courtesy tone at the end of your transmission, nothing to switch off. If a beep is annoying you it is one of two other things, and both are here.

1. Menu 920 is the key beep — the click every button press makes.MENU›920›ENC›shows Beep›dial → OffThe screen should show: Beep, Off or On.This is the one people usually mean. It is the sound the radio makes at you, not the sound it sends over the air, and switching it off changes nothing anybody else hears.
2. If you want the beep but quieter, menu 921 sets its level from 1 to 7.MENU›921›ENC›shows Beep Volume›dial → Level 1The screen should show: Beep Volume, with the level.Worth knowing before you turn beeps off entirely — the key beep is the only confirmation you get that a press registered, which matters when you are driving and not looking at the panel.
3. Menu 113 is the other candidate: TX Notification.MENU›113›ENC›shows TX Notification›dial → OffThe screen should show: TX Notification, Off or On.This tells you the radio has gone into transmit. It is still not a roger beep — nothing is added to the end of your audio — but it is the setting people reach for when they say the radio is beeping at them when they key up.

If you are hearing an actual courtesy beep after somebody stops talking, that is the repeater doing it, not your radio, and there is nothing on your end to turn off. On D-STAR there is a standby beep at menu 645, which is a different thing again — it marks the end of a received digital transmission.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off the voice announcements on a TM-D750

Voice guidance reads the radio out loud. It is genuinely useful in a car, where taking your eyes off the road to read a menu is the actual hazard — but it is four settings, not one, and switching it off entirely also removes the VOICE key from the panel.

1. Menu 922 is the main switch, and it has four positions rather than two.MENU›922›ENC›shows Voice Guidance›dial → Off, Manual, Auto1 or Auto2The screen should show: Voice Guidance, with the four choices.Watch out. Manual means it only speaks when you press the VOICE key. Auto1 and Auto2 mean it announces things as you change them. Off means silence — and the VOICE key marking only appears on the panel display when guidance is set to one of the other three, so if you turn it off and later wonder where the key went, this is why.
2. Menu 923 sets how loud it speaks.MENU›923›ENC›shows Voice Guidance Volume›dial → Level 1 to 7The screen should show: Voice guidance volume, level 1 to 7, default 5.This is separate from the receive volume on the BAND SEL controls, which is what you want — the announcements stay audible when you have the band turned down, and stay out of the way when you have it turned up.
3. Menu 924 sets how fast.MENU›924›ENC›shows Voice Guidance Speed›dial → Speed 1 to 4The screen should show: Speed 1 to 4.Once you know what it is going to say, faster is better — the announcement stops competing with the traffic you were trying to listen to.
4. Menu 925 decides how it reads a callsign out.MENU›925›ENC›shows Callsign Readout›dial → Standard, Phonetics (Full) or Phonetics (Suffix)The screen should show: Standard, Phonetics (Full), Phonetics (Suffix).Standard reads the letters; full phonetics reads Kilo India Five and so on. Phonetics take longer but survive road noise, which is exactly the condition this feature exists for.

One trick worth keeping: after a Full Reset you can put voice guidance straight back on Auto1 without going near the menu — hold the CALL key while you switch the radio on and let go when the Kenwood logo appears and it beeps. That is the way back if you have reset a radio you cannot comfortably read.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off dual watch on a TM-D750

This radio genuinely receives two things at once rather than flicking between them, so there is no dual watch to turn off in the sense a cheap handheld means it. What there is, is a switch between showing both bands and showing one.

1. Hold BAND SEL A or BAND SEL B to switch between dual band and single band.hold BAND SEL AThe screen should show: In single band the other band's display goes dark and stops producing audio.Each hold toggles it. In single band mode you are down to one receiver and one thing to listen to, which is the right answer when a second band is just noise.
2. The gentler version: leave both bands on and turn one down.turn the BAND SEL control for the band you want quieterThe screen should show: Nothing changes on the display; the audio balance shifts.The BAND SEL controls are the volume controls, one per band. Turning band B down to nothing keeps the receiver running and its traffic visible on the display while you have a conversation on band A — which is the usual answer if you are running APRS on one band and talking on the other.
3. PF2 switches which band is the operating band, without changing what transmits.PF2The screen should show: The operating band marker moves.PF2 leaves the factory set to CTRL, which does exactly this. Pressing BAND SEL instead moves the operating band AND the transmitting band together — a distinction worth having straight before you key up on the band you were only listening to.

If both bands go busy at the same moment, only the operating band produces audio, so you are never listening to two conversations at once by accident. And on the TM-D750A the 220 MHz band is available on band A only, which quietly limits which pairs you can watch together.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Lock the keypad on a TM-D750

There are three separate locks on this radio — the panel, the microphone keypad, and the DTMF keys — and they are independent. In a vehicle it is usually the microphone one you want.

1. Hold F to lock and unlock the panel.hold FThe screen should show: The key lock icon appears in the common icon row.This is the quick one and it needs no menu. Hold F again to release it.
2. Menu 960 decides what that lock actually locks.MENU›960›ENC›shows Keys Lock Type›dial → Key Lock or Frequency LockThe screen should show: Keys Lock Type, Key Lock or Frequency Lock.Watch out. Frequency Lock only stops the frequency changing — the rest of the keys still work. Key Lock stops the keys. If you locked the radio and it still did something you did not want, check which of the two this is set to before assuming the lock failed.
3. Menu 962 locks the microphone keypad.MENU›962›ENC›shows Mic Keys Lock›dial → OnThe screen should show: Mic Keys Lock, Off or On.This is the one that matters in a car. The MC-62 has a full DTMF keypad on it, and a microphone hanging on its clip with a seat belt across it will happily retune your radio. Kenwood uses this very item as the worked example in its own guide, which tells you something about how often it gets asked.
4. Menu 961 locks just the DTMF keys, leaving the rest working.MENU›961›ENC›shows DTMF Keys Lock›dial → OnThe screen should show: DTMF Keys Lock, Off or On.The narrower option: you keep VFO, MR and the band keys on the microphone but stop it sending DTMF tones over the air. Worth it if you use the microphone's function keys but never dial anything.

None of these lock the PTT. A microphone jammed against something will still key up whatever you have set here, which is the failure that gets you called on the air rather than the one that just annoys you — so the real fix in a vehicle is a microphone hanger somewhere the button cannot be pressed.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Factory reset on a TM-D750

Four resets, two routes to them, and the important part is choosing correctly the first time. Partial Reset is the one most people actually want, because it keeps every memory channel you have built.

1. Before anything else, if there is a card in the radio, write your settings out at menu 800.MENU›800›ENC›shows Export Config DataThe screen should show: Config Data export.Menu 810 imports it back. Five minutes here saves an evening of rebuilding, and menu 801 does the same thing including your voice messages. The 800 series only appears when a microSD card is fitted.
2. With the radio off, hold F and switch the power on until the reset screen appears.hold F›switch the power on, still holding FThe screen should show: A list of four resets.This is the route that works when the radio is misbehaving badly enough that you cannot reach the menu. Menu 999 gets you to the same four choices when the radio is running normally.
3. Choose your reset with the ENC control and press it in.dial → VFO Reset, Partial Reset, PM Reset or Full Reset›ENCThe screen should show: A confirmation message.Watch out. Read the four properly. VFO Reset clears the VFO and what hangs off it. Partial Reset clears everything EXCEPT your memory channels and DTMF memory channels — that is the safe one. PM Reset only touches programmable memory. Full Reset wipes everything you have customised, memory channels included. Full is not the thorough version of Partial, it is the destructive one.
4. Press OK to go through with it.OKThe screen should show: The reset runs and the radio restarts.OK is a soft key along the bottom of the screen rather than a button with a label on it, which is worth expecting the first time you see this screen.

Two things survive a Full Reset: the date and the time. Everything else, including your callsign in menus 500 and 610, has to go back in. If the radio comes back up and you cannot read it comfortably, hold CALL while switching on and let go at the beep — that puts voice guidance on Auto1 without the menu.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn on the built-in GPS on a TM-D750

The GPS is inside the radio, it is on when the radio leaves the factory, and it does two jobs — it sets the clock and it feeds your position to APRS and D-STAR. Most of this page is about knowing when to trust it.

1. Menu 400 is the switch.MENU›400›ENC›shows Built-in GPS›dial → OnThe screen should show: Built-in GPS, Off or On.On is the factory setting. Turning it off is a legitimate choice if you do not want your position going anywhere, and it also stops the clock correcting itself.
2. Give it a minute and watch for GPS Locked at the top of the screen.watch the top of the display after switching onThe screen should show: GPS Locked appears, then the GPS icon changes to its located form and the time and date set themselves.Watch out. GPS Locked only appears the first time it acquires after you power on or switch the GPS on, so it is not a permanent status line — and the GPS icon on this radio does not blink, so do not wait for a flash that never comes. The icon shape is what tells you whether it is positioning.
3. Menu 401 chooses between the live GPS fix and a position you typed in.MENU›401›ENC›shows My Position›dial → GPS, or My Position 1 to 5The screen should show: My Position, with GPS or one of five stored positions.Five fixed positions are stored, which is what you use at home or at a regular operating site — a typed position is exact, does not drift and does not need sky. Set this to GPS in the car and to a stored position on the bench.
4. Menu 402 blurs your position on purpose.MENU›402›ENC›shows Position Ambiguity›dial → Off, or 1 to 4 digitsThe screen should show: Position Ambiguity, Off or 1-Digit through 4-Digit.Each digit you suppress widens the area you appear to be in. Worth knowing this exists before you beacon from your driveway — it lets you be on APRS without publishing your house to the world at a resolution of a few yards.
5. Menu 410 records where you have been to the memory card.MENU›410›ENC›shows Track Log›dial → OnThe screen should show: Track Log, Off or On.Menu 412 chooses whether it logs on a timer, on distance travelled, or on each beacon; 413 sets the interval and 414 the distance. Menu 411 clears the log. Useful for a mountaintop trip or for working out afterwards where the coverage actually ran out.
6. While you are here, set the units at menu 970.MENU›970›ENC›shows Speed, Distance units›dial → mi/h, mileThe screen should show: mi/h and mile, km/h and km, or knots and nautical miles.Menu 971 does altitude and rainfall, 972 does temperature, and 973 sets whether latitude and longitude read as decimal minutes or as minutes and seconds. Getting these right now saves squinting at an APRS screen later.

If the GPS cannot see sky the clock falls back to the internal battery, which holds the date and time for about a week with no power on the radio at all. After that it resets to 1 January 2025 at midnight. You can set the clock by hand at menu 950, or let menu 953 fetch it from an NTP server over the radio's Wi-Fi — which is the answer for a radio that lives indoors.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set up APRS with your callsign on a TM-D750

Four settings identify you on APRS, and all four sit together in the 500 block. Get these right before you transmit anything, because a beacon with the wrong callsign on it is worse than no beacon at all.

1. Menu 500 is your APRS callsign. Up to nine characters, which is what gives you room for the SSID.MENU›500›ENC›shows My Callsign›type KI5NPL-9The screen should show: My Callsign, with your entry.Watch out. This is the APRS callsign and nothing else. D-STAR keeps its own at menu 610 and DV Gateway keeps a third at 651. Filling one in does not fill in the others, and that is the single most common reason a new TM-D750 beacons happily but will not pass a D-STAR repeater.
2. Menu 501 picks the icon everybody sees you as.MENU›501›ENC›shows Icon›dial → Car, Person, Bicycle and 65 othersThe screen should show: The icon list, 68 of them.Pick the one that is true. A car icon on a station that never moves makes the map harder to read for everybody, and the icon is the only thing most people ever look at.
3. Menu 502 sets your position comment.MENU›502›ENC›shows Position Comment›dial → Off Duty, Enroute, In Service and the restThe screen should show: Off Duty, Enroute, In Service, Returning, Committed, Special, PRIORITY, seven custom slots, and EMERGENCY.Watch out. EMERGENCY is on that same list, one turn of the knob away from the ordinary choices. Selecting it puts an emergency flag on your position for everyone receiving you. Know it is there so you do not select it by accident, and never select it as a test.
4. Menu 503 is the free text that rides along with your position.MENU›503›ENC›shows Status Text›type your textThe screen should show: Five status text slots, and a TX rate.Five slots, 42 characters each, and a transmit rate that decides how often the text goes out — every beacon, or one beacon in four, or one in eight. Sending it on every single beacon is a lot of air time for a line that does not change; one in eight is plenty.

One more worth setting while you are in this block: menu 591, Network. It leaves the factory on APRS (APK103), which is what you want on the normal APRS network — the Altnet setting is for a separate network and will make you invisible to everybody else. If your beacons are going out and nobody can see you, check that before you check your antenna.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Put APRS on the right band and speed on a TM-D750

The radio has two receivers, and APRS uses exactly one of them. Telling it which is the setting people miss — everything else is configured correctly and nothing happens, because the packet side is listening to the band you are talking on.

1. Menu 506 puts the internal TNC on band A or band B.MENU›506›ENC›shows Data Band›dial → A Band or B BandThe screen should show: Data Band, A Band or B Band.This is the one to set first. Put APRS on the band you are not going to talk on, then tune that band to your national APRS frequency — 144.390 MHz across most of North America — and turn its volume down with its BAND SEL control. The receiver keeps working with the audio at zero.
2. Menu 505 sets the packet speed.MENU›505›ENC›shows Data Speed›dial → 1200 bpsThe screen should show: Data Speed, 1200 bps or 9600 bps.Watch out. 1200 is what APRS runs at almost everywhere. 9600 exists for the places that use it and will make you completely inaudible to a 1200 bps network — the packets go out, they just mean nothing to anyone. The display carries a different icon for each, which is how you check at a glance.
3. Menu 507 lets the radio put the data band on the right frequency itself.MENU›507›ENC›shows Auto Ch Setting›dial → OnThe screen should show: Auto Ch Setting, Off or On.Convenient, and it removes one way of getting this wrong. Leave it off if you deliberately run APRS on a local frequency rather than the national one.
4. Menu 508 decides how the radio judges the channel is clear before it transmits.MENU›508›ENC›shows DCD Sense›dial → BusyThe screen should show: DCD Sense, Busy, Detect Data, or Off (Ignore).Watch out. Off (Ignore) means transmit regardless of what else is on frequency. On a shared APRS channel that makes you the station stepping on everybody, and it is very hard to notice you are doing it. Leave this on Busy unless you have a specific reason.
5. Menu 509 is the pause between keying up and sending data.MENU›509›ENC›shows TX Delay›dial → 100 to 1000 msThe screen should show: TX Delay, from 100 ms to 1000 ms.It gives the receiving end time to lock on before the packet starts. Too short and the first part of your packet is lost, which shows up as beacons that other stations only sometimes decode. If you are being heard intermittently and your signal is strong, lengthen this before you blame anything else.
6. Menu 50A locks the APRS side against accidents.MENU›50A›ENC›shows APRS LockThe screen should show: APRS Lock, with Frequency, PTT and APRS Key.It can lock the data band's frequency so a stray knob does not move APRS off channel, lock PTT so you cannot transmit voice on the packet band, or lock the APRS key. Note the number: 50A, not 510 — two of the menu numbers on this radio end in a letter.

If nothing is decoding at all, work down this page in order rather than around it. Wrong data band accounts for most of it, wrong speed for most of the rest, and between them they explain nearly every TM-D750 that beacons into silence.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Send your position automatically on a TM-D750

How often you transmit your position, and how far your packets are allowed to be relayed. These two settings are where a well-meaning new APRS station turns into the one everybody complains about, so they are worth understanding rather than just setting.

1. Menu 510 decides when you beacon at all.MENU›510›ENC›shows Method›dial → Manual, PTT, Auto or SmartBeaconingThe screen should show: Method, with the four choices.Manual sends one when you ask. PTT sends one each time you finish a voice transmission. Auto sends on a timer. SmartBeaconing works it out from how fast you are going and how sharply you are turning, which is the right answer in a vehicle and the reason the 530 block exists.
2. Menu 511 is the timer, for Auto.MENU›511›ENC›shows Initial Interval›dial → 0.2 to 60 minutesThe screen should show: Initial Interval, from 0.2 minutes up to 60.Watch out. 0.2 minutes is twelve seconds. On a shared national channel that is antisocial, and on a channel with a digipeater on it your packets are being repeated as well, so you are using several times the air time you think. For a car, two minutes is generous; for a station that does not move, half an hour is plenty.
3. Menu 504 sets how far your packets get relayed.MENU›504›ENC›shows Packet Path›dial → New-N, Relay, Region or OthersThe screen should show: Packet Path, with type, WIDE1-1, RELAY, and a Total Hops count from 0 to 7.Watch out. This is the important one. Total Hops goes up to 7, and setting it high does not get you heard further — it gets your packet duplicated across a whole region by every digipeater that hears it. One or two hops is the normal, courteous setting almost everywhere. Seven is how you get a polite email.
4. Menu 512 stretches the interval out when you stop moving.MENU›512›ENC›shows Decay Algorithm›dial → OnThe screen should show: Decay Algorithm, Off or On.A parked car does not need a beacon every two minutes. With this on, the gap widens the longer nothing changes, and snaps back when you move off. It is the single easiest way to be a good citizen on the channel.
5. For SmartBeaconing, the 530 block is where it is tuned.MENU›530›ENC›shows Low/High Speed›dial → your low and high speedsThe screen should show: Slow Rate and Fast Rate speeds.530 sets the two speeds it switches between, 531 how often to beacon when slow, 532 how often when fast, and 533 to 535 how sharp a turn has to be before it beacons on the corner. The defaults are sane; the one worth adjusting is 531, because slow means stopped and stopped means you do not need many.
6. Menus 514 and 515 add your speed and altitude to the beacon.MENU›514›ENC›shows Speed›dial → OnThe screen should show: Speed, and Altitude, Off or On.Both make the packet longer, so both cost a little air time. Speed is genuinely useful on a moving station; altitude mostly matters if you are on a hill or in an aircraft.

If you take one thing from this page, take the hop count at menu 504. Interval affects how often you use the channel; hops multiply every one of those transmissions by the number of digipeaters that hear you. A two-hop path at a sensible interval will get you seen further than a seven-hop path that everybody has learned to filter out.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Send and receive APRS messages on a TM-D750

APRS carries short text between callsigns, not just positions. The radio will hold canned phrases so you are not typing on a microphone keypad at the wheel, and it will answer for you when you cannot.

1. Menu 560 stores twenty phrases you can send with a couple of presses.MENU›560›ENC›shows User Phrases›type your phraseThe screen should show: Twenty slots, 32 characters each.This is the setting that makes messaging practical in a vehicle. Write the ones you actually send — on my way, at the site, call me on the repeater — while you are parked, and you never have to spell anything out with a DTMF keypad while moving.
2. Menu 561 turns on the automatic reply.MENU›561›ENC›shows Auto Reply›dial → OnThe screen should show: Auto Reply, Off or On.With this on, anybody who messages you gets an answer without you touching the radio. Menu 564 is the text it sends, up to fifty characters.
3. Menu 563 makes it wait before replying.MENU›563›ENC›shows Reply Delay Time›dial → 0 to 60 secondsThe screen should show: Reply Delay Time, 0, 10, 20, 30 or 60 seconds.Watch out. Do not leave this at zero. An instant automatic reply collides with the tail of the message that triggered it and with any other station replying at the same moment. A short delay costs you nothing and stops your radio from being the one that transmits on top of people.
4. Menu 562 narrows the auto reply to one station.MENU›562›ENC›shows Reply To›type a callsignThe screen should show: Reply To, with a callsign.Useful when you are working with one other operator and do not want the radio answering the whole channel.
5. Menu 570 decides what makes a noise when it arrives.MENU›570›ENC›shows RX Beep›dial → Message OnlyThe screen should show: Off, Message Only, Mine, All New, or All.Watch out. All means every packet the radio decodes, which on a busy channel is a beep every few seconds and will drive you out of the car. Message Only is the setting most people want — it beeps for text addressed to you and stays quiet for the position reports.
6. Menu 574 controls how long an arriving packet covers your display.MENU›574›ENC›shows Interrupt Time›dial → 3 to 60 seconds, or InfiniteThe screen should show: 3, 5, 10, 20, 30, 60 seconds, or Infinite.Watch out. Infinite means the notification stays until you clear it, which is a poor idea while driving — the frequency display is what you need to be able to glance at. Menu 573 sets how much of the screen it takes, and One Line is the least intrusive of the three.

Menu 575 will read the callsign of a station out loud when it arrives, which pairs well with turning the visual interruption down. Between them you can have APRS tell you who just called without ever taking the frequency display off the screen.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Register your callsign for D-STAR on a TM-D750

D-STAR does not work at all until your callsign is registered in the radio, and this radio has three separate callsign fields for three different jobs. Knowing that up front saves an evening.

1. Menu 610 is the D-STAR callsign — eight characters, plus a four-character identification code.MENU›610›ENC›shows My Callsign›type KI5NPLThe screen should show: My Callsign, with six pattern slots.The four characters after the callsign are the identifier for which of your radios this is — the D-STAR equivalent of an SSID. Six patterns are stored, so you can keep a mobile setup and a portable setup and switch between them.
2. Check menu 500 as well. That is the APRS callsign and it is a different field.MENU›500›ENC›shows APRS My CallsignThe screen should show: My Callsign, up to nine characters.Watch out. This is the trap on this radio. Menu 500 is APRS, menu 610 is D-STAR, and menu 651 is D-STAR over the internet gateway. Filling in one does not fill in the others, and a radio with 500 set and 610 empty will beacon perfectly on APRS while every digital transmission goes nowhere.
3. If you are going to use DV Gateway, menu 651 is the third one.MENU›651›ENC›shows DV Gateway My Callsign›type KI5NPLThe screen should show: My Callsign for DV Gateway mode, with six patterns.Direct Mode and Terminal Mode reach the D-STAR network over the internet instead of over a repeater, and they carry their own callsign registration. Fill it in now even if you are not using it yet — it is one less thing to debug later.

The callsign in the radio is only half of it. To use the D-STAR gateway network your callsign also has to be registered with a gateway administrator, which happens on a website rather than on the radio and is separate from your license. Local traffic and simplex work without it; anything routed through the internet does not.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Switch the radio into D-STAR on a TM-D750

Getting into digital is two keys. Understanding what the screen is then telling you takes slightly longer, and this radio can receive two D-STAR signals at once, which nothing else in its class does.

1. Pick the band first — each band carries its own mode.BAND SEL AThe screen should show: The operating band marker.Band A and band B are set independently, so you can sit in FM on one and DV on the other. That is a large part of the point of this radio.
2. F then MODE steps the operating band through its modes.F›MODEThe screen should show: FM or NFM, then DV or DR, then AM, then round again.Watch out. MODE moves you between the three groups but not within them. It will take you to DV or DR but the guide is explicit that it does not switch FM against NFM or DV against DR. FM against NFM is menu 102. What picks DV against DR is not documented in Kenwood's published guide, so we are not going to invent it — the display icons are different for the two and will tell you where you have landed.
3. Check which of the two you are in before you call.read the icon on that bandThe screen should show: A DV icon for Digital Voice, a DR icon for Digital Repeater.DV is plain digital voice — simplex, or straight to a repeater you have configured yourself. DR is the guided mode that works from the repeater list. Two different jobs and two different icons, which is why the icons are worth learning.
4. Menu 617 lets a digital channel still hear an FM station.MENU›617›ENC›shows FM Auto Det. on DV›dial → OnThe screen should show: FM Auto Detect on DV, Off or On.With this on, an analog signal arriving on a channel you have set to DV is detected and passed through rather than sounding like noise. Worth having on a mixed-mode repeater where people arrive on both.
5. Menu 645 marks the end of a received digital transmission.MENU›645›ENC›shows Standby Beep›dial → OnThe screen should show: Standby Beep, Off or On.Digital audio stops dead rather than fading into noise, so there is no natural cue that somebody has finished. The standby beep supplies one, and it is genuinely useful when you are new to digital.
6. Menu 644 has the radio speak the callsign of whoever just transmitted.MENU›644›ENC›shows Callsign Announce›dial → Off, Kerchunk, Except Kerchunk, Mine or AllThe screen should show: The five choices.D-STAR sends the callsign with the audio, so the radio knows who it was. Except Kerchunk is the sensible setting for a car — you hear who called but not every station that keys up for half a second.

One more thing this radio does that its rivals do not: it receives two D-STAR signals simultaneously, one on each band. If you are monitoring a local repeater and a reflector at the same time, that is what makes it possible rather than a compromise. In DV and DR only the bands the radio can actually transmit on are selectable, so some of the wide receive coverage drops out of the list once you switch to digital — that is expected, not a fault.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set your D-STAR message and auto reply on a TM-D750

Every D-STAR transmission carries a short text message alongside the audio, and everybody receiving you sees it. It is the digital equivalent of what is painted on the side of your vehicle, so it is worth setting deliberately.

1. Menu 611 holds five messages and chooses which one goes out.MENU›611›ENC›shows TX Message›dial → Off, or 1 to 5The screen should show: TX Message, Off or slots 1 to 5.Five slots means you can keep a mobile one, a home one and one for an event, and switch rather than retype. Off sends no message at all, which is a perfectly reasonable choice.
2. Menu 61A answers a call for you.MENU›61A›ENC›shows Auto Reply›dial → Off, On, or On (Voice)The screen should show: Auto Reply, with three settings.Watch out. Note the number — 61A, not 620. On (Voice) sends a recorded voice message back rather than just an acknowledgement, which is a genuinely useful thing to leave running when you step away from the radio. Menu 312 is where the voice message itself is recorded.
3. Menu 613 sets how long it waits before answering.MENU›613›ENC›shows Auto Reply Timing›dial → Immediate, or 5 to 60 secondsThe screen should show: Immediate, 5, 10, 20, 30 or 60 seconds.Immediate means it transmits the instant the other station unkeys. A few seconds gives you the chance to answer in person first, which is usually what you would rather happen.
4. Menu 612 lets you answer a station straight back.MENU›612›ENC›shows Direct Reply›dial → OnThe screen should show: Direct Reply, Off or On.It sets your transmission to route back to whoever just called you, without you having to enter their callsign. On a linked system where the other station could be anywhere, this is the difference between replying and going hunting.
5. Menu 620 stops the radio opening for everybody.MENU›620›ENC›shows Select Type›dial → Off, Code Squelch or Callsign SquelchThe screen should show: Off, Code Squelch, or Callsign Squelch.Watch out. Code Squelch opens on a two-digit code set at menu 621; Callsign Squelch opens only for a callsign you nominate. Both are useful for a group on a busy channel and both are excellent ways to sit in silence wondering why the radio has stopped working. If a D-STAR channel has gone quiet, check here before anything else — the display carries a separate icon for each.

Menu 619 turns on Break Call, which lets you interrupt a conversation already in progress on a repeater — the digital equivalent of saying your callsign between overs. It is the polite way in on a busy machine, and it is off by default.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Get on D-STAR with no repeater in range on a TM-D750

This is the feature that makes a TM-D750 useful somewhere with no D-STAR repeater in range. The radio has Wi-Fi built in and can reach the D-STAR network over the internet directly, with no computer, no hotspot and no dongle in the middle.

1. Menu 710 turns the radio's Wi-Fi on.MENU›710›ENC›shows WLAN›dial → OnThe screen should show: WLAN, Off or On. A wireless LAN icon appears in the common icon row.The icon has three states and they are worth knowing: on but not connected, connected, and connected with a network error. That last one is what you will be looking at if the password is wrong.
2. Menu 711 is where you join a network.MENU›711›ENC›shows Access Point ListThe screen should show: The access point list.Menu 700 sets whether the radio takes an address by DHCP, which is what you want on a home network. Menus 701 to 705 are there for a fixed address if you need one, and most people never open them.
3. Menu 650 chooses which of the two gateway modes you want.MENU›650›ENC›shows DV Gateway Mode›dial → Direct Mode or Terminal ModeThe screen should show: DV Gateway Mode, Off, Direct Mode or Terminal Mode.Watch out. They are not the same thing. Terminal Mode puts you on the D-STAR network as if you were sitting on a repeater — you route to reflectors and to other callsigns, and nothing goes out over the air. Direct Mode carries your D-STAR traffic to a gateway server over the internet. Choose deliberately; the menus underneath each only apply to one of them.
4. For Terminal Mode, menu 670 chooses what you connect to.MENU›670›ENC›shows TERM Mode Select›dial → Reflector TERM Mode or Repeater Terminal ModeThe screen should show: Reflector Terminal Mode or Repeater Terminal Mode.Reflector mode takes you to a reflector, which is where most of the conversation is. Repeater mode routes you through a particular repeater's gateway, and menus 671 and 672 are where its RPT1 and RPT2 callsigns go. The display marks the two with different colored indicators, green for reflector and red for repeater.
5. Menus 664 to 667 keep the reflector lists current.MENU›664›ENC›shows ReflectorHosts (REF)›dial → Auto UpdateThe screen should show: Auto Update or SD Card, for REF, DCS, XRF and XLX.Auto Update fetches them over the Wi-Fi you just configured, which is the whole point of having it. SD Card is the fallback if the radio has no internet path. Menu 681 does the same job for the repeater list.
6. Menu 663 is the setting that gets you working behind a home router.MENU›663›ENC›shows UDP Hole Punch›dial → OnThe screen should show: UDP Hole Punch, Off or On.It is what lets the radio hold a path open through a router that would otherwise drop the return traffic, and it saves forwarding ports by hand. If Direct Mode connects and then goes one-way — you can hear but nobody hears you — this is the first thing to try.

Worth being clear about what this replaces. A hotspot is a small box that puts a low-power D-STAR signal into the room and bridges it to the internet, so any D-STAR radio can use it. This is the radio doing the bridging itself over its own Wi-Fi — fewer boxes, no RF at all in Terminal Mode, and nothing to carry. What it does not replace is gateway registration: without your callsign registered with an administrator, none of the internet-routed modes will pass your traffic.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Not covered yet on this radio

Delete a memory channel · Name a memory channel

These are honestly missing rather than hidden. Nothing goes on this page until it has been walked on the radio itself, or two independent sources agree on it, or it comes straight out of the manufacturer’s own manual for this model — and guessing at a keystroke is exactly the failure these pages exist to avoid.