I have both the Kenwood TH-6A and TH-79. The '79 is a great but old radio. Large by todays standards, but a good starter radio if you can find one cheap. Lots of features and easy to program. Rugged as well.

The TH-6a is also a good radio. It is not as sensitive on some of the SWL bands as a larger radio would be, but I can listen to SSB with a wire antenna attached.

Only real problem with the TH-6 is the alkaline battery pack. Only holds 4 batteries so if you are not using alkaline or lithium batteries, the voltage will be too low for high power operation. NiHh cells are a bit lower in voltage so the total of 4 is a bit low for full power operation. I usually keep lithium batteries in the pack as a back-up to the lithium factory battery. But the factory battery seems to provide excellent service.

TH-6a has a lot of nice features, but does not do full duplex which the '79 does, but not many folks will miss that feature.