Callsign	Required
Password

If you've forgotten and/or need to reset your password, please enter your Callsign and use the button below.

You *must* have a verified email address on the account.

If you are not a member of the eHam community

Please consider registering to e-Ham.

Manager

Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: KN-850

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.

Review Summary For : KN-850
	Reviews: 1	MSRP: 279
	Description: HF/6m trasceiver designed and built by Ke Shi, BA6BF, in China. Rated 3-15W output on 10, 15, 20, 40, and 80 meters, SSB and CW. Also covers 6M at greatly reduced power.
	Product is not in production
More Info:
# last 180 days	Avg. Rating last 180 days	Total reviews	Avg. overall rating
0	0	1	3

W4TU	Rating:	2020-05-16
Very good on HF, not good at all on 6 meters			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The KN-850 is a decent HF rig. It has a really good DDS implementation. Sensitivity is quite good as well but not quite as good as more expensive rigs from the mainstream ham manufacturers. It has six programmable audio filters (SCAF filters, maybe) which really are nice for CW and digital operations as well as on SSB when a band is crowded. On HF it works very well, putting out rated power and getting very good reports on the air. 6m is problematic, with greatly reduced power output and lacking a bit in receive sensitivity. It also has a few birdies which are quite loud, something that is not true on HF. If you think of it as a 5 band HF rig you'd probably be satisfied with the performance. On 6m transmit audio is distorted and transmit frequency is unstable. The KN-850 is unusable on six. Some people added a TCXO which reportedly fixed the issues on that band. The manual has some of the most broken English I've ever seen and it is woefully incomplete. There are no schematics, no pin values/connections for either the ACC or ATU connections, and no information about the USB port or how to set popular software for rig control, it uses an Icom HM-36 for the stock mic, so digital operations should be easy to figure out. Another problem is CW chirp using the built in keyer. If you use an external keyer or a straight key the problem disappears. Overall this radio has some strong points for an inexpensive radio: receiver performance and filtering. Indeed, while the SCAF filters or SCAF-like don't compare well with crystal filters or a well implemented IF DSP filter, they do a good job. The weaknesses are the 6m problems, the CW chirp, at least with the default settings, and the poor documentation. Dollar for dollar you did get quite a lot of rig on HF for the money. A used KN-850 is a pretty good choice on HF for a ham on a very limited budget if you can find one at a low price.

Category:

Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

Product:

KN-850

Summary:

Rating:	Time Owned:
Great! Good OK Needs Help Poor Awful!	0 - 3 Months 3 - 6 Months 6 - 12 Months More than 12 Months

Remarks:

Describe your experience with the KN-850 and tell us why you give it the rating you did (required). Other useful information would include your experience with similar products, infomation on a product that you would purchase instead of this one, and so on.