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write your own review of the Kenwood TS-2000.
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K7GLE
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 31, 2009 12:26
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Added an ATU
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Purchased new in July 20009. Not much to add to others' comments regarding strengths and shortcomings. I'm a casual user without a lot of room and was attracted to the "rig in a box" configuration. I have been very happy with it on all bands and modes, including digital, plus or minus for band conditions.
As mentioned elsewhere, the range of the onboard ATU is somewhat narrow...too narrow to cover the entire range of all bands on my HyGain AV640 multiband vertical, so I recently added an LDG KT-100 autotuner, which is a direct replacement for the discontinued Kenwood AT-300 (plus the addition of 6M).
On HF the KT-100 is activated "transparently" using the tuner button on the TS2K front panel. Because the old AT-300 didn't cover 6M, that band requires tuning "by hand" using a button on the AT-100 while holding down your CW key.
So the rig, the ATU, a couple of closely-matching thrift store speakers, and a Navigator interfacing to a laptop comprise a very capable, tidy little desktop shack.
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KC9MLL
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 27, 2009 06:07
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Great Rig!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have owned my 2000 for almost 2 years.
Once I got past the initial apprehension of touching the wrong buttons, I love it!
Kenwood did it right when they made this rig.
Being the ALL IN ONE station made it affordable for me to work all the freqs. available to a ham!
Just recently I started work on 160 Meters. Plugging right along! Go Kenwood!! de KC9MLL 73
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AB9TX
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 24, 2009 12:32
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Multi-Tasking Gem
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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After several months of research, I purchased the TS2000x. Looked at the Icom 7600- very pretty radio- but 4000.00$?? -- Fancy LED displays dont last long --
With a cheeseball homemade inverted V, I made contacts in the UK. The DSP works very well, and the filtering is incrementally adjustable, not like others with a few fixed filters.
Overall im very pleased with this rig- The build quality is outstanding- built like a tank. I like the ability to experiment with satellites, no other radio made is as diverse as this one.
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N0FPE
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 17, 2009 07:52
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Ok, just not great
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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works ok. lacks in the receiver as folks have stated. Good all around radio just not a real bright star. I have the 2000X, works ok on 1.2ghz. I use it in crossband on 1.2 to UHF. If you want a good general radio this is it. If you are looking for high preformance this is NOT the radio.
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KD5DSH
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 17, 2009 07:37
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Great Radio dollar for dollar
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have only had my TS 2000 a few weeks and am very impressed with it over my old Icom 746. I love the fact that I can adjust RX and TX filters to my taste. I have had many comments on the audio that it is great. Here is what I have on the audio, program downloaded from the NU9N site the N3GX program for TX and RX audio with a Heil PR781 mic, another thing I found out is the processor works differently (after reading the manual) than on other radios I have owned it is a leveling processor, most processors I leave off because of distortion of audio, but with this on my setup it needs to be on and is fully adjustable from 1 to 100 having someone to listen and help get it right is very valuable, my processor is set on 40 we tried it lower, off, higher but 40 is where it seems best on my radio. I leave it on all the time locally or whatever and get great audio reports. I have been told it is the best sounding TS 2000 that they had ever heard. Also on a scope a friend was analyzing my signal and said it was completely level all the way across the spectrum. RX has several adjustments also and mine has the N3GX receive download the 2 levels of NR both has 10 settings to get it how you want it. No it may not be a $10,000 dollar Yeasu or Icom but dollar for dollar in my opinion is the most and best radio out there for the money. If you are not a patience person and wants to throw it on the bench and work perfect from the start this radio is not probably for you but take a little time read the manual and in my case the N3GX software and you can have a great radio for a relatively low price compared to other radios.
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KF4HR
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 18, 2009 18:52
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Jack of all trades, master of none.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've owned my TS-2000X for several years and use it mostly as my backup HF rig and also for local FM work. I would have to say this best part of this radio is that is is feature rich, but the receiver and overall package (human factors wise) is a major step backwards in performance, compared to Kenwood's top-end HF gear of years gone by. I enjoy the cross-band-repeat function regularly, as well as Sky Command feature. The receiver isn't on par with transceivers in this price range - but it's tolerable. On VHF and UHF you can get close to the receive sensitivity of competitive equipment, only if you leave internal the pre-amp turned on.
Other things I don't like about the radio is the small buttons and the even smaller print on those buttons and on the face of the radio. Also the slow scrolling menus aren't much fun to weed through and I find I refer to the manual more often than I would like.
The TS-2000X is not my favorite radio, but I do plan to keep it in my shack as a back up radio only because I like all of its functionality and band coverage. It's a shame Kenwood didn't put a bit more effort into a better performing receiver.
I rated this radio a "4" only because of it's numerous functions, otherwise I would have rated it a 3.
If ICOM would have added cross-band-repeat and some type of way to remotely operate their new IC-9100 with one of their HT's - I'd sell my TS-2000X in a minute.
KF4HR
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HAMMYGUY
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Rating: 2/5
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Aug 30, 2009 10:32
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Noisy HF receiver but shines in other ways.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've owned the TS-2000 for several years. Like others I've found the amount of white noise from the receiver very hard to listen to for any length of time. I've found that leaving the pre-amp on and using the RF gain control to adjust volume is the best way to get around this issue. Most old timers would recommend that all receivers be tuned this way! Aside from that this is a feature rich radio. It has more bells and whistles than most others. Mine is in use primarily for UHF/VHF packer/APRS where it really shines.
Would I recommend it for others? Probably not for use as a persons primary radio. Kenwood has known about the noisy receiver and UHF birdie on 436.800 since the radio came out. Both have been ignored. How are you to receive a satellite down link when you have an S9+ internally generated carrier on frequency? Sure you can play games with shifting of the received frequency to get around the carrier, but when the satellite is at maximum strength, you can't hear it.
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WS2L
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 15, 2009 08:48
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Overall nice rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought my TS2000 in 2004 and owned it until about April 2009 and I found it to be an overall good radio. If you enjoy all modes on HF/VHF/UHF then this is a serious radio to consider.
I operated CW, SSB, Packet, APRS, RTTY and PSK31 for the most part and the radio performed very well. If you are into working 2 meters you get a full 100 watts output where as most other similar rigs only put out 50 watts.
The rig has a built in TNC which I found useful for operating Packet and APRS. There is a BD9 port on the back of the radio and they also have the Kenwood rig control software available. The software is a bit dull but it does have it's own software to run packet with.
I used my radio to do some contesting, mainly operated the VHF/UHF contests, RTTY, SSB and CW contests and once you have your settings customized to your liking you will be happy with the TS2000.
Overall this is a radio that can do many things, if you don't use a certain mode, band, etc you may in the future.
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KE7AAS
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 11, 2009 19:22
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Just Fine
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Aint no contesting rig but it works just fine in my non contest shack.. Thumbs up all the way
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AD7VH
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 11, 2009 18:15
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Good Overall
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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No, it is not the best radio out there. However, it is a "Jack-Of-All-Trades." I find that it has a great receiver for CW; not the best for SSB and AM is so-so.
I have had 2 issues with both of the TS-2000s that I have owned: One, ALC pumping (would only max out at 50w) and the other was the receiver on 6m and 2m. Both of these problems were easily fixed by getting into the service menu. I also touched up the S-meter as well. Now the ALC works perfect and the receiver is great on VHF. I did not get much more noise on the receiver, but I can now hear weak signals without the preamp, which before, even with the preamp on, the signals were still weaker than they were on my Yaesu FT-857. Now it will walk all over my Yaesu.
The DSP is not the greatest on SSB, but on CW it works unbelievable. I have compared it to my Yaesu FT-857D, Icom 756 ProII, and an Icom 746 Pro, and it walked all over all three radios on CW. Both the Icoms were a little better on SSB, but on CW the TS-2000 excelled. This past winter I used the TS-2000 to pick up many of the 500KHz experiment beacons; were the Icoms could not pull them out.
As for the TX audio: I have not had a radio that was so easy to setup for good sounding wide SSB audio as the TS-2000 has been. I use the N3GX DSP modifier program, and it works great. I did not use the presets. I spent a few hours with an audio spectrum analyzer. I now have an audio bandwidth of 42Hz-3.5KHz! I just need to get a W2IHY 8 band EQ. I use a W2IHY dual band, which helps, but is not good enough.
I have also been playing around with ARCP2000 EQ feature to tailor the receive audio. I find that it helps quite a bit, and does not change what I have saved for the TX setting using the N3GX program. I also use an audio spectrum analyzer for this as well. I see what the peak frequency the noise is occurring at. I then do a notch at that frequency using the ARCP2000 receive EQ. Works like a charm for digging out the weak ones on 75m/80m and 160m.
Over the next few months I plan on setting up for 2m EME, which I now believe that the receiver is up to the task. I will be using a 4 bay array of 9 element corner reflector yagis on 16' booms. I figure that I will have a free-space gain of around 20dBi, and I will also be using a 500w amp. This will be right at the limit for hearing my own CW echos. I will be using mostly JT65B, so it will be like shooting fish in a barrel. If this works, I will be trying the same on 432MHz as well, but with 30dBi and a little less power.
Overall, you cannot ask for a better radio. Yes, there are radios that do better in a specific area, but I have not found one that does as well as the TS-2000 does in all areas that it covers. Yes, the Icom 746 does better on 2m, but it has too many problems compared to the TS-2000; which the problems that the TS-2000 has are easy to rectify.
My overall impression of the TS-2000 is that you cannot go wrong for the money and If you only want (or can afford) one radio to do it all, this is it!
I would have given it a 5 if it wasn't for the minor issues that I had to fix right out of the box.
73, John, AD7VH, east central Nevada
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