I have the Corsair I, I have the Kenwood TS-830S, and I also
own one not mentioned but should be in the running, the Kenwood
TS 440S/AT, and it is not a bad rig at all, but that is for
a different post.
The Corsair I will do full QSK in CW, slick as a whistle. That
is very, very nice for CW. The TS-830 is semi QSK, slower.
The Corsair I has very nice selectivity on CW. The TS-830
has probably a bit better selectivity on CW depending on
the filters you put in it (you can put in a pair of CW
filters cascaded in the IF's in the Kenwood). The Corsair I
has an SSB filter only in the first IF, then a 6 pole CW
filter can be cascaded, probably not quite so strong as
the Kenwood in super heavy QRM (See the topband reflector
messages on their receiver pole and the receiver specs on
the Sherwood website for some more information about this.)
The Corsair I probably is not quite as stable as the Kenwood,
but it is not too big a deal. The Corsair I runs on 12 vdc,
the Kenwood requires AC, and has tubes....requires tuneup,
but you can avoid an antenna tuner for many loads of under
3:1 with it.
Overall, if you are mainly CW, full QSK may be the deciding
factor. However, in total selectivity the Kenwood has the
edge. The Corsair I and the Kenwood TS-830 are the best
bargains out there as far as I am concerned. If you want
Ten Tec, the Corsair I is a very fine radio and it can be
found quite reasonably.
My humble comparison.
Clark
WA3JPG
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