Who is King of the Hill HF base radio ?

[K8PG]

CW-SONWATCHER

Hello :
well just keep at it,and soon you will be on the HF cw bands having a lot of fun with cw,te key is you must practice practice and more practice,once you have really learned the charactors,letters,numbers,punctuation and some pro signs your speed will go up,the key is you must practice everyday 1/2 hr is long enough,you must OVER-LEARN THEM,INSTANT RECOGINITION without a thoight,Its MUSIC to my ears!Good Luck and keep up the good work.CWGet is a decent program,but you should be copying QSOs on the air and W1AWs cw broadcasts on a regular basis just in your mind,head and dont worry if you miss a few ,just keep picking ouy the ones you know the rest will come.73/GL/esDX
DE-K8PG-Paul-CW LIVES
es I dont use a pc for xmt/rcv

 

[CDX-007]

Re: Which radio is best

Ive had the IC 7800 and the Yaesu FT 9000D and both are overated and very over priced all the so called bells and whistles just make them much more difficult to repair and you dont need all them if you just operate cw, I have 2 FT 1000Ds and 3-FT 990s and would not ever get rid of them I also have a TS 520.TS 530S,TS820S,TS830S,TS850S AND A TS870S ALOND WITH 2 FT 101E AND EX A HEATHKIT SB 102 ,HW 101 AND A SB104 THESE are just a few of the rig I currently have along with 2 Collins Rigs and a SignalONE xcvr.Beleive it or not I use all of them and are all in line now HI HI I also collect paddles and keys I have 281 different in my collection.When I was in tha Navy I acquirred a few nice ones from around the world,I was a SEAL for 15 yrs,had enough of that XXXX! and became a civi .73
Paul-K8PG-cw lives

Yes Sir, I can relate, albeit on a smaller scale! :shock:

I sure enjoy running my much-appreciated early '90s vintage iCOM IC-751A (Best $500 rig on the planet, period. End of discussion.) and doubt I'll ever NOT have one, regardless to which mega-buck rig I upgrade,
however,
I'm still trying to understand just how * KENWOOD-of-OLD * got all that charm and sweetness into the TS-520 series.

I don't know what it is, but I just LOVE that old school boat-anchor.

Maybe it's that "Kenwood audio" about which people are always frothing at the mouth.
- I did have a nice TS-930SAT B4 the iCOM 751A and liked it, but it just didn't offer the same kind of audio 'sweetness' or charm of that ancient TS-520S.

New stuph is kewl for sure, but there will always be a level of charm and solidness found in older quality gear which seems to be getting ever more displaced by newer gingerbread & whizbang, wowee-zowee radios.

I acquired my TS-520S in a trade with the simple idea of reselling for profit, ...until I turned the dam thing on and played with it for an hour!!!
"I'm keeping this jewel!", I heard myself say out loud, and you bet I still have it in my small rotating collection.

You know, I've had a TS-820S, a TS-830S, and a TS-930SAT, (and borrowed a TS-940SAT for a few weeks) but there was no love lost when I sent them all on their way in trade for $$.

Uh, ...no way you'll soon see me kissing my TS-520S good-bye.

So anyway, I believe anyone wanting a definitely SUPERIOR SSB rig for *10* meters should find one of these in A-1 condition, learn the simple but CORRECT tuning procedure and enjoy it's receiver superiority, and transmit audio richness and punch!

Now, if you REALLY want even a richer sound, add a 2.8kHz filter in place of the 2.4kHz and an even louder "WOW" will be the reports back on your audio.

- And the meter? It's HUGE, with a bright white backlight and it moves like a Supercharged Hydrogen fuel Dragster crossed with a piece of test equipment.

Now please don't misunderstand, there are tons of really sweet rigs out there, but the TS-520 series is what put Kenwood on the map, and if you get a good one (that's 'dialed-in' just the way you want it!) - I'm betting you'll soon discover exactly WHY.

"They don't make 'em like they used to" is one of two old addages which come to mind, and "Sometimes less is more" is the other. :!:

- What do you think Sir Stu?

73 & Happy DXing!

 

[W4GSK]

Seriously though..

What does everyone think is a better radio and why..

Icom IC-7800

Yaesu FTDX9000

both are well over $11,000

Later

Since there is no way I'll ever have that much money to spend, I can't help much on this discussion.

I'm going to crawl back to my lowly FT-857D now. Sigh!

 

[novakor]

CDX-007 I could not agree more,with a properly aligned 520 you can't go wrong.I have done some side by side comparison with my Yaesu FT-100D and in most case's my 25 year old TS-520 out performs my FT-100D,except where high noise level is present then ofcorse my FT-100D with DBP shines.

I also have had excellent audio reports,the type of reports that make you smile and as far as the meter.....yes you gotta love that big analog meter.......easy on the eyes.

And lets face it for what you pay on the used market for TS-520/520S series..... anywhere from $150 to $300,$300 rigs ofcorse being in prestine condition ..........you really cant go wrong,great bang for the buck. My 520 has a home for live,infact i wouldn't hesitate to buy another one.Great to see you around Scott,stop by more often.
73,CDX-288

 

[N8YX]

New - Orion II

But you're not going to easily mod this one for MARS/CAP - requires a TenTec distributed microprocessor program update in order to TX outside the ham bands.

Used...IC765/761, Kenwood's TS-820S/TS830S series...and my personal preference, Drake 7-line stuff. While the latter doesn't have the bells and whistles of today's DDS-based rigs, it does just fine without them.