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[CQ-Contest] Re: ts-830s value?, and suitability for contesting

Subject: [CQ-Contest] Re: ts-830s value?, and suitability for contesting
From: n4si@pobox.com (n4si@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Mar 12 05:44:36 1997
> Have a chance to buy a ts-830s....Before we all think I am nuts, it 
> will be a backup unit, and I am wondering how much I should offer
> the guy for it.  It has NO cw filter (drats), but I will be primarily
> using it in cw contests.  Are they any good?  (besides not having any 
> digital whizz-bang options and only 1 vfo)
> Also, how much (if any) more versatile are they than the 530s?
> p.s.-how rare are the cw filters generally?

Hi Mike,

I had a TS830 for about 10 years. I thought it was a nice radio, 
generally; a decent SSB radio, and a superb CW radio. Having said 
that, when I moved up to a TS850, I forgot most of what I liked about 
the TS830.

Drawbacks: tube finals (that's a factor not only in quick QSY, but 
also lack of QSK, and negative keying). No autotuner. External VFO 
required for split operation beyond about 7 or 8 kc. Band switch gets 
funky after a while (I don't know if that was just mine or a general 
problem). Fixed CW offset.

Pluses: tube finals (for relatively broad range of antenna loads). 
Variable bandwidth tuning (not on the '850; I miss it). Easy to use 
separate RX antenna.

The '830 had RF speech processing (and darn good, too); the '530 had 
audio speech processing. I can't remember the other differences. 

I would say somewhere in the $400-500 range would be about right for 
an '830 with no filters.

IRC should still have filters for it. They are the ones to get if
you go shopping. There are frequent ads on the packet systems (BBS
and PacketCluster) as well as the Yellow Sheets for the KW filters. I
had the KW 500 Hz for CW and they were pretty good. I had the IRC
2.1 KHz for SSB and they were very good.

Hope this helps.

73, Rod N4SI
    The DXer formerly known as N9AKE
         (c) 5 November, 1996

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