[600MRG] Kenwood TS-990S first impressions

[sbjohnston at aol.com]

My new Kenwood TS-990S transceiver arrived very quickly and I've had several days to try it out in my shack.  The LF and MF receive performance is excellent - the best I've experienced.  To my reckoning it is as good there as on the HF bands - which is the best HF performance I've ever had too.  

I am very pleased with the performance as well as the functionality.  Everything makes sense and the manual is well done to look up questions.  I found the service manual readily available in two parts online, as well as an interesting "in-depth manual" which is a series of essays by engineering on the how and why of the various systems of the rig.

I implemented the expanded transmit coverage modification and gained the ability to generate a 0 dBm multimode signal via rear panel jack everywhere (except the AM broadcast band) including 137 and 475 kHz.  Very cool.

So far this unit has had nearly every feature I've dreamed up built right in, except for one:  the ability to use the USB keyboard to type CW for immediate transmission.  The RTTY and PSK modes have this capability and it works great.  I usually send with straight key or paddle, but sometimes I use my K40 keyer and a USB keyboard to just type.  Having it built right into the rig would be very convenient.

Since the rig can take keyboard entries and save them into a CW memory for *later* transmission in CW mode, it seems possible that that direct transmission of keyboard typing would be possible with a change to the firmware.  I've suggested it to Kenwood for a future firmware upgrade.


 

 

Steve WD8DAS

sbjohnston at aol.com
http://www.wd8das.net/
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