The Radio Information Board

Hey all,
Does Kenwood sell the software for their radios to anyone or do you need to be a dealer? I can get some Kenwoods to play with, but don't want to invest to much in them if I have to take them to the dealer each time I want to change the program. Thanks...

No, you dont have to be a dealer, you can obtain software for most any Kenwood on eBay.

...let's say you wanted to legitimately purchase Kenwood programming software, where would you get it? I browsed Kenwood's site but didn't see anywhere any software was available...

What gives?

I have been told that Kenwood on sells software to Kenwood dealers. Dealers sell to customers and others who need it.

brisk13026 wrote:No, you dont have to be a dealer, you can obtain software for most any Kenwood on eBay.

eBay has been getting strict prohibiting anything that may be a copy of software or a service manual so you no longer see the CD's with Kenwood software or manuals that used to be common.

Kenwood does not sell anything direct to end users. That is why there is no listing of service parts or software on their website. You need to order parts or software through a Kenwood dealer.

Go to:
http://www.kenwoodparts.com/
do a part search for a zkpg-4 programming cable and the same for software,just add a Z in front of the part number.
hope this helps...
mod

Correct. You need to get the s/w from your Kenwood dealer. You can't get it directly from Kenwood. Any Kenwood dealer who has it should be able to sell you it. I had no problems buying s/w for my 3180 portable from my dealer whom I've only dealt with once before.

k2hz wrote:eBay has been getting strict prohibiting anything that may be a copy of software or a service manual so you no longer see the CD's with Kenwood software or manuals that used to be common.

I just bought a CD off of eBay that supposedly has all of the Kenwood software. It said very plainly in the description that it was a copied CD.

...makes me wonder if Kenwood doesn't care that people are selling copies of their software?

Kenwood is not as strict as Motorola in licensing agreements but there are still laws about unauthorized duplication of software or copyrighted material. eBay has been shutting down people selling CD copies of any manufacturer's software or manuals if they happen to catch them.

I bought a CD copy of an out of print Kenwood manual from a company in Canada on eBay a few months ago and I got it OK. A few days later I got a message from eBay that the sale was in violation of their policy on unauthorized duplicates of copyrighted material and the seller was no longer registered and I was not obligated to purchase the item.

Also, the s/w you get could easily be corrupted, changed, etc., and you could end up with a boat anchor using it. Of course, you can get corrupted s/w anywhere, but at least you might have some type of recourse buying it from a reputable dealer.

I did the ebay thing was described as 99% of all the kenwood programming for portables and mobiles. When I recieved it was not a bad deal but could tell someone just copied the stuff and burned it to a disk. Still Works Though !!!!