For the kernel
$B_{\kappa ,a}(x,y)$
of the
$(\kappa ,a)$
-generalized Fourier transform
$\mathcal {F}_{\kappa ,a}$
, acting in
$L^{2}(\mathbb {R}^{d})$
with the weight
$|x|^{a-2}v_{\kappa }(x)$
, where
$v_{\kappa }$
is the Dunkl weight, we study the important question of when
$\|B_{\kappa ,a}\|_{\infty }=B_{\kappa ,a}(0,0)=1$
. The positive answer was known for
$d\ge 2$
and
$\frac {2}{a}\in \mathbb {N}$
. We investigate the case
$d=1$
and
$\frac {2}{a}\in \mathbb {N}$
. Moreover, we give sufficient conditions on parameters for
$\|B_{\kappa ,a}\|_{\infty }>1$
to hold with
$d\ge 1$
and any a.
We also study the image of the Schwartz space under the
$\mathcal {F}_{\kappa ,a}$
transform. In particular, we obtain that
$\mathcal {F}_{\kappa ,a}(\mathcal {S}(\mathbb {R}^d))=\mathcal {S}(\mathbb {R}^d)$
only if
$a=2$
. Finally, extending the Dunkl transform, we introduce nondeformed transforms generated by
$\mathcal {F}_{\kappa ,a}$
and study their main properties.