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| Reviews Summary for Kenwood TS-120V |
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Reviews: 5
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Average rating: 4.0/5
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MSRP: $(missing—add MSRP)
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Description: Early 1980s entry-level low power CW/SSB transceiver
10 Watt, SSB and CW HF transceiver. Covers 80/40/20/15/10 Meters. The lower power version of the TS-120S
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write your own review of the Kenwood TS-120V.
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PD0RTL
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 16, 2008 12:58
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Sweet QRP rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Got this qrp HF rig now for some weaks.
TX is 10 watts,, good audio, and rig contains a'n CW
500 hz mod.
VFO drift seams not efactive here, or it comes that the rig never is turned off HI.
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KH7L
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Rating: 4/5
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May 14, 2004 13:36
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A good performer
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I had the TS-120S 28 years ago. The TS-120V is the same but 10 watts made for the Japan market. No memories, no filters, no lock button, no dual VFO. Just a simple rig. At least it has IF shift and RIT. I use an external filter like the Autek QF-1A. CW or PSK31 is a lot of fun with this rig.
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G4AON
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Rating: 3/5
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Feb 12, 2001 16:41
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Good value for money on the second hand market
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Don't expect a transceiver of this vintage to perform as well as the more recent
TS-850 or TS-570. Where this radio scores is the value for money stakes. I bought mine for 140 UK pounds, it was fully working and in good condition - that price included CW filter.
Used mostly on CW, this transceiver is an adequate performer. The transmitter is pretty solid at 10 Watts on most bands. The receiver shows it's age, you can hear stations well off frequency if they are strong. There isn't an attenuator switch, if it starts to overload you have nowhere to go. On a multi-band antenna there are image signals due to the limitations of the filters, this is no worse than other rigs of a similar design (I'm comparing it against a much stronger receiver in my home made transceiver, which isn't a fair comparison).
The VFO drifts a few hundred Hertz in the first hour from switch-on. Again more of an observation than a criticism as rigs of this era all used to exhibit the same drift with a free running 5 MHz VFO. The tuning rate is adequate at around 25 KHz per turn.
The calibrate function seems useless as the digital readout works fine. There is a frequency display shift in frequency of 800 Hz when going from receive to transmit on CW, this is annoying to say the least, but I've now got used to it.
Bought at the right price this makes a good second shack transceiver, provided you accept it's limitations.
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KU4QD
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 24, 2000 11:52
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Still performs well after 20 years.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I recently purchased a TS-120V, a rig I had owned once before, remembering that I liked it as a nice, simple, QRP rig with really decent performance. My existing QRP rigs only covered 6, 15, and 40 meters, and I added this rig back into my shack to cover more bands. Honestly, it's better than I remembered.
The TS-120V, as someone commented, is a QRP version of the TS-120S. It is a bit smaller and lighter, lacks the bigger heat sink, the fan, and the 100 watt PA, and has a few other minor circuit differences. The rig covers 10 through 80 meters (no WARC bands), plus WWV/JJY receive at 15 mhz. (Receiver coverage is actually from 14.5-15 mhz in the WWV position.) Rated output power is 10 watts SSB or CW, but both rigs I have had have put out a fair bit more than that. The nice thing about this rig for the QRPer compared to it's main competition in it's day, the Yaesu FT-7, or even some newer 10 watt rigs like my NCG 7/21/50, is that there is not only a front panel mic. gain, but there is also a front panel carrier level control, making it easy to turn the rig down to 5 watts or less for "true" QRP CW contacts. The rig features RIT and IF shift for fighting the QRM, and also has the allowance for either a 500hz (YK-88C) or 270hz (YK-88CN) CW crystal filter. That filter really lets this rig shine over other early low power rigs if you operate CW. One minor complaint common with rigs of that era is a bit of drift, especially when the rig is first turned on, and also if it becomes really warm.
The rig features a blue flourescent display as did most Kenwood rigs of the '80s. While this is a great display to look at, it's not the best choice for a QRP rig, since it requires a fair amount of power. While there is an analog dial as well, there is no option to turn the display off. Adding a switch to do just that is one mod I highly recommend if you intend to use this as a portable rig. One note, though, is that the analog dial isn't terribly accurate, and a 2khz error is considered "in spec". Also, the display lamps are quite bright, which is great in a dark room, but requires too much power consumption portable. A simple mod (bright LEDs to replace the lamps) helps reduce power consumption and also increases VFO stability by decreasing heat inside the rig. Again, I recommend making this change. Details on this and other mods are at the excellent www.mods.dk web site. I should also note that this rig is *big* by today's standards for portable/mobile use.
Both transmit and receive audio are excellent on this rig. There is no notch filter or narrow SSB filter, so an outboard DSP is a good idea with this rig. Options include a matching SP-120 speaker, which really helps bring out how nice the audio is, the matching VFO-120 outboard VFO for split operation, the matching PS-20 4.5 amp power supply, the AT-120 small, mobile antenna tuner, the matching TL-120 100 watt linear amplifier (which is quite rare), and the PC-1 phone patch.
The later TS-130V added the option of independent CW/SSB filters, a speech processor, and the WARC bands, so it is the better choice, but it's hard to find. The TS-120V makes an excellent, inexpensive QRP base rig, and while I can nitpick a few things, on the overall I do think it's a good rig, even 20 years after it was introduced.
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AA0B
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 20, 2000 15:07
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Like the TS-120s
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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The Kenwood TS-120s, has reviews under the HF Transcever section.
The 120v is like the 120s but has a different (low power) final stage.
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