On 9/2/2010 2:37 PM, Rick - NJ0IP / DJ0IP wrote:
I wanted to suggest the TS-120 or TS-130 too.
I have recently seen them for $200 and $300.
I have never been a Kenwood fan, but when you are looking for bangs for the
buck in this price class, they are hard to beat.
The comment on the front end is valid but probably not a problem in his
neighborhood.
Its detectable but not disastrous. Some strong signals have a bit of
splatter that's not heard with a Corsair II on the same antenna.
Another feature of the 120 and 130 is that the PA protection from high
swr works well. You can put a brick on the key at full power and
manually tune the antenna tuner for maximum RF from the radio and the
radio will not be hurt. Not like a tentec that might trip a circuit
breaker when the PA current gets too high from a low impedance load (as
seen at the PA transistor collectors). So the 120 and 130 has a robust
PA section.
As a CW rig I would prefer the Triton IV or Omni (original models), but you
have to be careful with the PTO; it might have to be rebuilt and that costs
a bit more.
I just helped a local ham in a similar situation.
We went with the TS-130.
One more thing to remember; he's going to probably need a matchbox, an SWR
or Watt Meter, and a couple of coax jumpers.
You're looking at another $50 to $100 to get all this stuff, and you still
don't have an antenna or coax.
So true.
Now days it's hard to get started on a shoestring budget.
You really need to budget for a bootstring.
73
Rick
73, Jerry, K0CQ
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