| EW1CK |
Rating:    |
2004-05-25 | |
| Reliable rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I owned TS-570D about two years. That's solid state reliable rig, never got any malfunction.
Here are a number advantages and drawbacks from my point.
Advantages:
* supperior TX quality, TX equalizer is a big plus;
* excellent reliability;
* easy to use design;
* good heat exchange(cooling) for RTTY as well;
* build-in RS-232.
Drawbacks:
* AGC can't be switched off. that is the real problem to receive weak signals;
* only one socket for optional filter;
* poor NB quality, NR1 is unusable on SSB;
* noisily receiver.
So, can't say that is best one you can get for this price, believe that used ts-850 or 940 is much better for the same price. I traded my TS-570D for TS-940S and really happy. |
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| KC0PMO |
Rating:      |
2004-03-10 | |
| GREAT RIG! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I agree with several other users that this rig works great. It has great senstivity, selectivity, dynamic range, and I think the noise blanker works great. I live in a high noise area, and only a select few rigs have EVER been able to eliminate any of the noise. This rig's NB works as well as the NB in the Yaesu FT-920 and FT-857 and almost as well as the Drake R8B receiver. The Icom IC-706MKII, IC-756, and IC-756 PRO could not hold a candle to this Kenwood, as all of the Icom's have a useless noise blanker. The NB makes or breaks my ability to copy weak signals, and the Kenwood works great!! |
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| W0EKS |
Rating:     |
2004-03-10 | |
| Good rig - except for NB |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have owned a TS-570D(g) since 1998. After that much time, I'm overdue to contribute my 'two cents worth'.
Here's what I like:
* It has a medium size which is valuable to someone who wants a rig which can be easily relocated (field day, cabin, etc.), yet still has plenty of front panel controllable features.
* It handles key-down modes well due to its chassis and cooling design. The fan seldom ever has to come on while using CW or SSB.
* I get good audio reports using my Heil BM5-5 (full-range element) mic.
* There is only one menu. A big one perhaps, but only one. No annoying sub-menus and trees to get lost in. Most of the menu items are "set and forget", and Kenwood provides a front panel "PF" key to quickly access a user-assignable menu item. I assigned mine to the NR1 (DSP noise reduction) settings.
* I like the appearance. It's a solid-looking rig, and the construction of the chassis and controls have a solid feel.
* This rig has been RELIABLE. Not a repair has been necessary. Note however that I don't use the auto-tuner, which apparently has been a trouble spot for some.
Ok, now for the bad stuff:
* It only accommodates one optional IF filter. Kenwood really blew an opportunity for additional accessory sales with that decision.
* The receive audio seems only adequate to me. I know this is purely subjective, but it seems my old TS-830s (I'm hanging on to that one with both hands!) has better receive audio - maybe due to the wider receive bandwidth.
* The "Multi" knob shares too many features. If you intend to adjust the DSP audio bandwidth and forget that it's set for frequency adjustment, you can unexpectedly QSY during a QSO.
* The auto-tuner is not broad enough to handle open-wire fed antennas.
* Here is the reason I can't rate it a "5".... The noise blanker (I use the term loosely) is sub-standard. Practically any Kenwood radio preceding this model is known for having a better-than-average noise blanker, including my trusty old '830. The 570's NB has no effect whatsoever on the intermittent powerline EMI / RFI that is so typical here in the urban snow belt (Minneapolis) during the dry winter months, so it stays in the closet from December through February. I'm thinking of trading it in for a Yaesu FT-920 for this reason alone.
In summary, I have found this to be a very solid, reliable radio to own and recommend it to anyone who does not have EMI / RFI problems to deal with. |
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| WA8EBM |
Rating:     |
2004-02-18 | |
| Be Careful of the Tuner |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Very good rig. I agree with most all of the positive comments. One point I would like to re-iterate is be very-very careful with the built in antenna tuner. It is fine for tweaking up to a beam or for matching up to the input of an linear but if your SWR will be over 3 to 1 do not try to tune it with full power.
A few weeks ago I was messing with using the G5RV on WARC bands and the smoke poured out of the radio. I opened it up and found a 10pf and 39pf 2KV disc caps burned up on the tuner assembly. Luckily no traces were burnt out under the board. It is a real hassle to remove. I just crushed the caps and piggy-backed the new caps on the existing leads. That's a 3 dollar repair compared to probably $100 if it had to be sent back to Kenwood.
Again-it's a great rig but be careful of the tuner. |
|
| KT0DD |
Rating:     |
2004-02-10 | |
| Good/ NR needs work! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've played with my new TS570D(G) for a week now. Overall, I'd say it's a good radio considering it's price range, (but I'm spoiled by my high end Ten Tec Omni 6+). You're paying for quite a few features, Built in Antenna Tuner, Voice recording option, TX audio monitor etc. The one area that really is lacking in this radio is the Noise Reduction NR 1 & NR 2 settings.
NR 1 is ok on atmospheric hash, but does nothing on electrical/powerline/pulse noise, except maybe changes the tone of the noise. NR 2 Takes out almost all noise AND alot of the voice audio as well. Also, what audio is left has a raspy distortion to it. Adjusting the NR settings manually helped a little under certain conditions, but not all. I just guess DSP systems in general have a long way to go in development.
The NB seems to do nothing in home applications, But I haven't used my 570 mobile, so it may perform better there. It is very intuitive and easy to use. I Get great TX audio reports! A good lower midrange rig. Better NR and I'd give it a 5. 73. |
|
| W7DUD |
Rating:    |
2003-12-22 | |
| cw ops - my cw problems |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought my first TS-570DG in about 1998. I quickly noticed that the internal keyer was messing up my cw. I continued to use this rig for about 8 months. I then bought another TS-570DG, and sold the first one. Once again, the keyer was putting in extra dots and dashes. Other people, on the air, told me they were having the same problem, and a Kenwood fix had been made.
I sold the second TS-570, and bought a new one about 2000. I was shocked to find the newest TS-570, with the same keyer problems.
In my opinion, and with the experience of 3 bad keyers, this is not a serious cw rig, at least, for me. I have enough problems sending good cw, without the keyer making me look worse!
The problem couldn't even be "fixed" by connecting an external keyer. The same thing happens! The problem seems to be in the internal PTT. It just "stutters". It even does it with a hand straight key.
In my opinion, the second major problem, for me, was that the TS-570 DSP, seems to be Audio based DSP. Many times, I had to revert to the IC-746, in order to eliminate the annoying AGC pumping. This was happening when a strong signal was near the frequency I was working, making copy impossible. The difference, is that the IC-746 has IF based DSP. The intereferring signal can be mostly "dropped" out of the IF bandpass, with the passband tuning controls. This stops the AGC pumping. I have found the IC-746 keyer to be essentially flawless, as far as I can tell.
This is probaby why tranceivers, with IF DSP cost more.
I just can't use the TS-570DG, in very crowded band conditions, such as the evening 40M CW wars.
Other than that, I found the TS-570 DG tranceivers to be very rugged, small, and very easy to operate.
Thats the way I see it..
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| WS4Y |
Rating:      |
2003-10-26 | |
| cw ops note fb rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Actually I have two of these radios. One area
I want to bring to your attention if you operate
cw much is the timing on the internal TX/RX relay to control an external amp. In the full-break mode the relay time is 10 ms. However when you advance the delay out of full break the timing on the relay slows to 25 ms. No doubt the Kenwood engineers did this so that it could be used with the TL-922A amp that has a slow internal relay.
With timing much faster you would be hot switchin the 922's t/r relay. The 25 ms delay in the semi mode is enought to cause a noticable clip of the leading dit especially at higher speeds. The solution in the barefoot mode is to disable the internal relay by selecting menu 39 to the off position. Many other amplifiers have faster relays that could benefit from a faster controlling 570 relay especially in the semi break mode. The solution is to use the 12vdc that appears on pin 7 of the remote socket in the tx mode. This voltage appears regardless of the condition of menu 39. Only 10 ma is available but this is just enough to key a small 12 vdc reed relay available fron radio shack with a little over 1000 ohms of coil resistance. The contacts of the reed relay will key the amps internal 12 vdc relay. The reed relay is not capable of keying the 100+ vdc required by the TL-922A and some Heath amps. In my case I leave menu 39 off so not to hear the clicking of the 570's internal relay and I key an Ameritron AL-82 with the reed relay with no evidence of hot switching and no clipping of the first did. I found no ground pin on the remote socket so the coil of the reed relay is wired one side to pin 7 and the other to the ground lug just above the socket. Really a nice rig for the bucks. 73, Bill WS4Y |
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| W3ULS |
Rating:      |
2003-05-25 | |
| Best Combo of Analog/Digital |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Like the IC-746PRO, which I also admire, the TS-570D(G) (it has to be a [G]!) offers an excellent performance/value proposition. But the radios are quite different, with differing strengths.
I have reviewed the IC-746PRO on this site. Suffice to say, for everything but CW, and for 6 and 2 meters as well, the IC-756PRO is a tough transceiver value to beat. Where the TS-570D(G) shines is on CW. On CW I believe it provides performance superior to the IC-746PRO. (Adding the optional Kenwood 500 Hz CW filter is a must.)
This may sound surprising, since the 746PRO is a much more advanced radio, whose design team incorporated sophisticated DSP functions that are without parallel for a rig costing under $2000 US. The designer of the TS-570D(G), Toshio Torii, JA6QXW, on the other hand, utilized basic analog circuitry that hasn't changed in 20 years. What makes the 570D(G) so successful, however, is that it seamlessly weaves in audio-based DSP to provide the best combination of analog/DSP circuity that I have found in a ham transceiver. The end result is a very fine CW rig. (The Yaesu MP Mark V is not as successful in combining analog/digital circuits, IMHO.)
I had a chance to try out both the Icom and the Kenwood this weekend during the CQ WPX CW contest. Operating during the contest made the choice clear for me because I found the TS-570D(G) to be both simple to operate AND very effective. CW filters from 50 Hz to 2 kHz can be chosen simply by turning the detented "MULTI" knob. Even with all the racket on the bands, there was never an instance when I could not pick out the signal I wanted by careful selection of the very flexible filter choices. At one point, I was astonished to find that the very narrow filter settings (50 & 100 Hz) of the TS-570D(G)reduced the key clicks of a particularly loud station more so than did my trusty OMNI VI with a 500/250 Hz filter combination that I switched to the same antenna. I could read the station I wanted on the TS-570D(G), but not on the OMNI! This proves that the front end of the TS-570D(G) is robust enough to play with "the big boys."
I could accomplish pretty much the same thing with the 746PRO, but doing so took considerably more fumbling with knobs and buttons, while simultaneously monitoring the display, in achieving the same result. In other words, the IC-746PRO's multiplicity of features got in the way of the contest.
The TS-570D(G)'s split operation goes smoother than the 746PRO although again the PRO can do all of the things the Kenwood can do. (The keying envelope of the TS-570D(G) is superior to that of the PRO, meaning that key clicks will be much less of a problem with the Kenwood.)
My experience in the WPX CW contest has led me to conclude that the TS-570D(G) is as fine a CW rig as is out there and that it will serve very well in virtually all circumstances. |
|
| N8UW |
Rating:      |
2003-02-11 | |
| Keyer WPM |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Hooked my computer to this & quiried KS; while sending with KY; and got the following values (keyer speed - WPM) : 0 - 10, 10 - 5, 16 - 18, 20 - 20, 30 - 25, 40 - 30, etc. so with proper 3:1 spacing, the WPM = 10 + Keyer Speed / 2. This jives with the 10-60 WPM in the literature and "sounds" right.
All I can compare rig to is R-390's I used as an intercept op in the 70's and a beloved Knwd R-1000 that got me into Ham. The rx sounds hollow as the CW filter is narrowed and SWR meter seems to read very low on higher freqs. Will not tune my G5RV on 30M. However, it does a lot very well for the price and looks like it won't break. Fun to operate and has everything a beginner like me needs. |
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| N5QAF |
Rating:      |
2003-01-18 | |
| Great Radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I just purchased this radio after using the Yaesu
FT 747GX for 8years. I have fell i love with the TS 570dg. It has far more features than Yaesu has
the receive is far greater also the audio quality
is far more superb. I like the menu selection it allows you to control your rig the way you want it to sound (audio and receive) and for the price you cant beat it. Also let's not forget the antenna tuner!! All in All it is a great rig . It is a good starter radio. 73's Tony N5QAF |
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