| SIERRAHOTEL |
Rating:  |
2007-03-20 | |
| Great! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought my TS850 on Ebay a while back, total cost, including shipping, was less than $700, with both the optional 1.8 SSB, and the 250hz CW Filters installed. I've wanted a TS850 since I installed some options and did the noise blanker mod for a friend of mine, years ago, who is always scared to poke around inside his stuff, and has me do it. That's a great way for me to play with new rigs and make a little cash doing it.
I have several high end receivers here, and it's the equal of the best of them, and has better audio than the rest by far, even on the internal speaker, it sounds pretty good, and on the same external speaker my old R5000 really sounded great on, it's amazing. I found that speaker in my basement after moving into this house, and it's about 50 years old. Kenwood rigs really sound great on it for some reason. It's a 6" full range, and has a manufacture date of June 1957 on it. I have no idea who made it. It's shielded too, came in handy when I had a CRT monitor.
I've only made a couple of quick test contacts so far, I hate usin hand mics and haven't got any of my desk mikes wired up yet. All reports were that it sounded very good, and my wattmeter says it's putting out a full 100 watts on all bands.
Only real negatives are the usual "too many knobs and buttons" stuff, and the way some things work seem backwards to me, and the filter switching is kind of annoying if you switch them often. These are all picky things, and the basic package is all I could ask for, for twice the price I paid.
When you search around, it seems like the TS850 has had a lot of problems, but most involve the battery (Why they put them in so they can leak onto the PC board is something I will never understand), and caps failing. There seems to be a lot of problems with electrolytic caps lately in general, industry wide, so I can't fault Kenwood directly. Most of the caps aren't that hard to change. I recently lost an audio amp after the filter caps failed, with a bang. A big bang, actually! It was less than 5 years old. There were swelled caps all over the insides of it. It started sounding funny just before the caps blew up.
It has had zero issues so far, but I will change the battery ASAP, and mod the noise blanker, it's totally useless as it comes from the factory. With a decent 850 going for the price they are going for now, it's hard to really say anything really bad about it. |
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| CWDX73 |
Rating: |
2007-03-14 | |
| Best Buy! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
After a 10 year absence from amateur radio activity I was excited to learn about the new line-up of HF transceivers with DSP and VHF coverage. I tried out the IC-718 with an INRAD 500Hz filter, an IC-746PRO and a TS-570DG and read many QST reviews. In the end, I chose the TS-850S and have been very happy.
Receiver performance (Two-tone 3rd order IMD dynamic range)is one of the most important standard by which I judge an HF transceiver, and these newer radios in the below $2000 category just do not produce the base-level performance as the TS-850S. To those new to HF, you will discover what this means during the evening on 40m or during any contest. A receiver that maintains an IMD dynamic range (at the original ARRL standard of 20kHz spacing) near 100 dB I find quite capable under crowded conditions. Fall below 90 dB and your receiver sensitivity will start to degrade significantly and produce distortion artifacts among strong signals. This can be very fatiguing to listen to. I urge any person shopping for an HF Transceiver to take these numbers into consideration. It will take spending $3000 on an IC-756PROIII to get about the same overall performance as the TS-850S (minus some fantastic extras). Even the least expensive HF transceiver with one filter option will cost more than the used price of a TS-850S loaded with filters (~$700).
From my experience, I would try out some of the previous generation transceivers such as the TS-850S before jumping on an FT-897D, TS-570D,or IC-718. If you want strong base-line performance for well under $1000, it may be worth it to give up VHF in the same box and go with the 850. |
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| W8AKS |
Rating: |
2007-02-22 | |
| Thanks |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I recently purchased a TS850sat and couldnt be happier. Licensed for a long time and operated just about everything going, this is got to be one of the best. I bought this after reading the reviews here on eham. Once again, you came through and did good. The receiver is top notch, the cw is fanastic. Doing more cw now that I have a really really good rig. Thanks again, guys. Appreciate it. Marty W8AKS
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| FORMER_W5TD_JOHN |
Rating: |
2006-10-16 | |
| Contest quality on a ragchewing budget |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
If you want a contest quality rig but can't afford the $1200 or so they are going for, check out the TS850. For about half the price you will get a competition grade rig, with some nice features that the others might not have.
I have used this rig recently in the CA QSO party and the PA QSO party, and the receiver is outstanding. Very quiet, and no overloading or IMD products, even with a bunch of S9 signals in these state contest. Truly a competition grade receiver. The NB could be a little better, but it did remove some of my line noise.
So how is it better than some of the current contest radios?
1. The autotuner matches almost anything you throw at it. Much better than the current autotuners.
2. The CW memory keyer can be controlled from the front panel (unlike the FT1000MP) and the voice keyer can be installed internally and also controlled thru the front panel (also unlike the FT1000MP).
3. The slope tuning works very well, but you MUST have the same filter widths at both IFs. So, you want to cascade CW filters and forget the SSB filter if you do alot of CW. Just use the slope tuning on SSB instead. If you only install the YK-88SN the slope tuning won't work correctly.
Overall a very nice rig, which looks very classy also. You can't go wrong with this radio, unless you need 6 meters also. Also remember to check the lithum battery occassionally so it doesn't leak over the circuit boards. There are some mods to install a battery and holder in place of the solder in battery so you can replace it yourself. |
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| F6IQA |
Rating: |
2006-09-13 | |
| Bridge from past to future |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I own this radio for a few months now. I had it used from a carefull owner. It came as a replacment for my TF-897 radio. I had the FT-897 that was my main transceiver but due to poor receiving performance on 40m with a big center-fed antenna, FT-897 has been downgraded to mobile rig in my car and it performs 5/5 this way, all bands.
In this condition, my new old TS850 is realy perfect: I like very much the way it looks, not too small, not too big, it is a very good receiver to my sense, almost perfect, nearly NO x-mod on 40 and no noticeable on 80, but I have not a 3el beam on 80, have I ?
I made two major improvements on it, found on the Internet, the adjustable side tone volume control using the monitor ring, and I decreased attenuation on AM MW band.
I had also to adjust PLL voltage to an average mid lock-in range value (aprox 3.5V) and NOT at 1.0 like indicated in the service manual (to fix a sometimes raspy RX audio), and since then it is realy perfect and it is exactly what I was waiting for.
I will keep it until the issue of a maybe K3 ;-) (a K2 with bigger case and less double function keys) |
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| YO4FKO |
Rating: |
2006-08-28 | |
| YO4FKO |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Hello everyone from Romania, :)
Wow!!! The TS-850S-AT is just a great radio. No problems.The internal antenna tuner is great. For the cw operator, having the built-in keyer is nice too. Another advantage over other radios I've used is the wide variety of filter options that can be selected, and the slope tuning.This is the best transceiver I have ever own. Great receive, auto-tuner works great. Receive audio sounds very smooth.... easy to listen to for extended periods. AM on ham bands, and broadcast bands is also above average, especially if outboard speaker is used. Coupled with a few IF filters, and a Datong outboard filter, I can copy all I need to! TX audio is typical Kenwood: TOP NOTCH!
Noise blanker is....okay, slope tune works great, notch works great.
Plus, the price for a used TS-850 today is a good ! I highly recommend the 850, and will be holding on to mine for many years.
73`s for all,Remo,YO4FKO & Veronica,YO4HYL. |
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| KE7FD |
Rating: |
2006-08-08 | |
| Great Rig |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I bought two at the same time and though each has different filters in them (1 each) copying SSB or CW is remarkable! It's my understanding the TS-850 was Kenwoods last "analog" radio before going to full digital modules. Well, the 850 can out perform even some of the newest DSP units both in receive and transmit. The tuner is very good; it gives me a good match on any freq. from 80-10 on my 80m loop. Without a doubt, the best radio I've ever owned. |
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| W5AJ |
Rating: |
2006-06-28 | |
| It just Works |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
installed Inrad SSB & CW filters. a fine radio. A keeper. Still have it and use it.
Tried to mod the internal keyer so it would do Iambic A style but no luck, bummer.
Kenwood should go back and look at this model. |
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| K4KWD |
Rating: |
2006-05-21 | |
| Super Rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have the 850SAT and to keep it short. This is one of the best receiving rigs i have owned. Easy to use. And the tuner will tune my long wire with no trouble. I have received great audio reports as well. If you run across one of these you will not regret picking one up. |
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| KC2CT |
Rating: |
2006-04-15 | |
| Sigh! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I hope that I have left a bit of legacy with my digging into the TS-850. It was probably the BEST radio I'd ever owned. I continually lament over the fact that I sold it, however, I knew it went to a great home (are you reading this Steve?)
I had all the bits and pieces for the 850 because I could not afford the TS-950SDX--I loved that radio as well.
If I could find a late-model serial number TS-850S/AT at a fair price, I would not hesitate to do it all over again. Perhaps we could roll back the clock?
Such a shame that Kenwood is practically out of the Amateur Radio business. They actually got it right with the TS-850.
73,
Jan - KC2CT |
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