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Reviews For: Kenwood TS-480SAT

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

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Review Summary For : Kenwood TS-480SAT
Reviews: 218MSRP: 1499.99
Description:
100 watts HF & 6m allmode portable and mobile transceiver w/ built-in antenna tuner
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/ts_480/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
24.52184.7
GB001 Rating: 2008-10-26
Nothing to touch it. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
If you need a HF/6m radio for base & mobile use, you can't beat one of these. I've tried the Icom 706 & Yaesu 857. Believe me, they don't come close to this on performance.

Everything can be done on the front of the radio. Unlike the other radios, you are not always in & out the menu. For mobile use this is a real boost.

Filters are not necessary. The bandwidth can be narrowed & widened with the onboard adjustments.
This radio has 950SDX technology & it certainly shows up in the receiver.

Kenwood have got this radio spot on. Could anything be better or added? Again, the only thing I could think of would be a Kenwood TS480HXSAT , but that would be like having your cake & eating it. Besides I don't think there would be room for a 200w pa & an atu.

This radio has the best receiver I ever found in a radio aimed at mobile use. TX audio reports are always complimentary.

I'll stick with this radio until there is something better. I think I will have this radio a long time.
AB0RE Rating: 2008-10-10
Competent Radio / Great Value! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Let me start by saying I'm no HF radio connoisseur by any means. Previous I've only owned an IC-718, IC-706, FT-857, and TS-520. Not quite a year ago I decided to give the Kenwood TS-480SAT a try, just for something different. For the purpose of this review I'll share my thoughts on the TS480 but won't be able to really touch on the technical details of the radio.

The TS-480SAT was what an incredible value it is. For the price paid, ~$980 today, one gets a lot of bells and whistles that aren't normally found in transceivers in this price range. To name a few: built-in antenna tuner, built in A/B antenna switch, TX-audio equalizer, RX-audio equalizer, transmit monitor, AF-level DSP, three CW memory slots, and plug-n-play computer control. I’ll elaborate on some of these features below.

The antenna tuner is not extremely wide ranged. For instance, on my 75/80M dipole the first and last 50KHz are out of the tuners range. When this happens the radio will respond "SWR" in CW. It goes without saying that it's not a wise idea to tune coax-fed antennas with extremely high SWR due to the efficiency losses, so I'm fine with the somewhat limited range of the tuner. I run a multi-band dipole with parallel wires for 20M, 40/15M, and 75/80M. The built-in tuner does a nice job at flattening out the SWR at some of the higher points. I hope to add a 10M vertical to my antenna collection before the sunspots come back, taking advantage of the built-in antenna switch.

I've not had great luck with the DNL or NR, but then again none of my previous radios have substantially reduced the level of noise from power lines and noisy consumer electronics in my neighborhood. The IF-shift does a good job at minimizing the effects of offending signals near the operating frequency. I have a whistle noise on 3.860, the MN net frequency - moving the IF-shift 1/8 turn counter-clockwise eliminates the whistle and makes the intended signals sound a bit lower in tone than they originally were (which actually makes the net more pleasant to listen to).

The AF-level filtering does a good job. On SSB I set the audio pass-through at 300Hz - 3000Hz, which does a good job of taking out some of the static and hiss to make listening a bit more enjoyable. The AF-level filtering really shines on CW, where one just sets the desired "bandwidth", anywhere from 200 - 2000Hz, I believe. If the IF-level CW filters are added they work in conjunction with the AF-filtering. The CW filters available are 250 & 500Hz, and both filters can be installed at the same time. When the AF-DSP is adjusted to around 600Hz bandwidth the 500Hz IF-filter will activate... When the AF-DSP is adjusted to around 300Hz bandwidth the 250Hz IF-filter will activate. I currently don't have either of the CW filters but would like to get one or both of them before Field Day '09.

I experience some AGC-pumping with strong adjacent signals. When another fellow in town fires up his 1KW amp I see the meter moving as far as 10kC away. Additionally, when strong signals are on the frequency the AGC-decay time causes the first several syllables of the next (weaker) stations transmission to be missed. Setting the AGC to Fast when this happens seems to cure this problem. Having front-panel buttons for Pre-amp, Attenuator, and RF-Gain make it easy to make adjustments for extremely strong signals if necessary.

Hooking the TS480 to a computer is done easily with a straight-through serial (9-pin) cable, which can be had on eBay for less than $10 shipped. I've interfaced the radio to my computer for the sake of auto-populating the band/frequency in my N3FJP logging software, but have not experimented with Remote IP-based operation of the 480.

Some radios seem to have a front-panel button for every feature and settings. Other radios bury nearly every feature or setting in the menu setting. I think the 480 keeps a good balance with all the common features having their own front-panel button. Usually holding down the button for a particular feature will allow you to change its parameters. The less common settings are stored in the menu, which is not nearly as obnoxious as other radios I've owned (FT-857D).

I'm torn as to whether I like the separated face plate or not. I've found that under certain circumstances the faceplate stand will slide around a bit on my desk - I've been meaning to clamp it down somehow. I did purchase the MB-480 bracket to attach the faceplate to the radio. However, it looks a little silly and makes it a pain to attach cables to the TS-480 as there is such little clearance between the front of the radio and the back of the faceplate.

Bottom line is that there are radios out there with better receivers, better DSP, better feature-sets, etc, but for the money the 480 really can't be beat. It does a good job and is an absolute pleasure to use.
W6NFL Rating: 2008-08-26
Great for Base or Mobile Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This rig is something special. From the moment i turned it on and just listened, i knew it wasnt your typical low to mid class run of the mill radio. Excellent receiver for this price range. Shack getting a little cluttered? No problem with this radio. it comes with a very long remote cable so you can place the remote head in a nice uncluttered location. Im very happy with this radio and i am one of those picky hams. No wonder its getting such good scores here on eham reviews.
M0VEY Rating: 2008-08-05
The Best HF/6m mobile radio currently available. A True Keeper. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned a TS480SAT for more than 2 years now. I can say that this is the best mobile radio I've used for HF & 6m. I had a TS50 & AT50 auto atu for over 6 years. That was good, but the 480 is better.

The amount of features is just great. Most of these being available from a button on the front panel. The metering is good also. The ability to adjust the bandwith like my 870 is another good one.

Having an atu onboard can save you having to adjust the antenna at times. I also like the backlit keys, great for night time operation. RX audio is extremely good. TX audio is fantastic. I use a Heil Handi mic with the HC5 insert & always receive good audio reports.

This radio is so useable, with the brackets provided & if like me you ordered more brackets from Kenwood, the possibilities are endless. One minute, set up for base, next mobile, then /p.

I tried a Yaesu FT857D for a while & it is at the opposite end of the scale compared to the Kenwood. Too often you had to go into the menu to adjust everything. Then you had to go to the manual to find where in the menu you needed to be. The TS480SAT is a lot easier to get around.

Compared to even the TS50 , having vox, processing, onboard atu , DSP & a whole host of other goodies is great. At just over £600 for a new radio & around £400 on the secondhand market, there is nothing to touch this.

I have the Recordind unit/voice guide installed in mine. It makes the radio really useful, as does the narrow ssb filter I installed.

I'm sure that like my TS870 I've had for over 5 years & my 1981 Trio TS830s I've had more than 2 years, the 480SAT is a real keeper.

Perhaps at some point I may buy a TS480HX . At Just over £700 new, this is the cheapest 200w radio on the market. I'd still keep the 480SAT though. Trying to part with any Kenwood/Trio is a real hard thing to do once you've had one a while.

All in all, I'm really satisfied with mine & think that the little bit extra size of the unit is worth the sacrifice, over a smaller shack in a box type radio that is jack of all trades & master of none.

I work mobile just 30 feet or so from the North Sea & have made a few contacts to VK on 40m. the ability to filter qrm on 40m is great. I have also had good results on Topband & worked other mobiles around Europe.

The TS480SAT will be in use in my car for a long time to come.

Phil. m0vey
2E0TZM Rating: 2008-06-29
Very Happy Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My freind went out and bought one of these with a heil goldline mic i was so impressed i bought the same.
I only work ssb and have lots of comments on my excellent audio and gets me heard better than past radio which was a 570dge, rx is also very good.
My only niggle with the radio is the buttons can be a little fiddly due to there size ie small me having big hands, i only use the radio at home in the shack and use computer control so don`t really need to touch radio very often.
I will update reviews in a few months when i have put it through its paces a bit more plus i plan to try to digi modes.
DO9ST Rating: 2008-06-15
super happy Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I´m so happy to work with this TRX. I sell my Icom IC-706 and the Kenwood TS-50 and buy this. All in one my best TRX. I use CAT and soundcard-modes, make contests and talk with a heatphone more than 12 months. All the times no problems.
N5EAT Rating: 2008-03-15
A great HF rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
A superb easy to operate radio with a superior receiver. This is the best value in all of amateur radio.

In addition to the receiver - it talks great. On full power it just takes a normal voice to hit 112 watts on the peaks. No fiddling required. If you are a fiddler - this radio has a full suite of audio tailoring features.

If I had it to do over again, I'd have purchased the 200 watt version. I have an outboard battery operated Z-100 from W4RT which is my favorite antenna accessory. The internal Kenwood tuner operates exactly as does the tuner on my FT-2000 - barely :).

This is a great radio - get one before Kenwood decides to pull the plug.
AD9Z Rating: 2008-03-15
Still Like It!!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've had mine for three months now & still love it! I'm going to try it in the mobile soon.
KILO4UUG Rating: 2008-02-29
Kenwood TS-480SAT Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned my TS480SAT for over a year now Its a big radio in a little package .This is one awsome radio.In fact I plan to buy the 480HX MDL for the shack as a back up for my TS 2000.The Tuner tunes my windom antenna from 160m thru 6 meters with no problems.Good audio and sig reports.You can not go wrong with this hf rig.
KG4GLI Rating: 2008-01-16
Great Rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just purchased a new ts 480 sat and all I can say is it is just great. It has one of the best recievers I have every listent to. When you use an external speaker with the rig the recieve quality is great. For the money you really cant go wrong with this little rig. I was not a great big Kenwood fan. I owned a Knewood ts 570DG and really wasn't inpressed with the reviever in the rig the front end seemed a little weak. Howevery, this is not the case with the ts 480. Really good job with this rig Kenwood. Also, the TX audio is very good as well every one I talk to says it sounds great.