I have a Kenwood TS-440 which I have put a lot of operating hours on,
and got a lot of enjoyment from. It is certainly not a top of the line
rig in performance. Nevertheless I don't regret buying it and using it a
lot. I have got inside it a few times for either repairs or
modifications. It is a pre surface mount technology rig. So working on
the boards is not too hard, once you get to them. What makes it such a
bear to work on is the way they interleave and stack boards over and
around each other, and make cable runs in just about every direction
with barely enough slack to unplug them. There are probably about a
dozen PC boards in the radio, and of those probably only two can be
accessed without first unplugging and removing one or two other boards.
I really dread working on that rig. Sure you could say I'm comparing
apples and oranges. The TS-440 is much more compact than the Omni VI, so
some closer packing and less space inside is expected. I sure was happy
the first time I opened up my Omni VI. It's built the way a radio ought
to be, in my opinion. I wouldn't run it mobile though.
DE N6KB
I am mildly surprised that one of the more valuable attributes of the Omni
VI is that it is still (perhaps the only) rig that can still be worked
on/repaired/modified by the owner. Try that on the teeny-tiny tightly-packed
surface-mount construction utilized by most (all?) current rigs. It's a real
pleasure to remove the covers on the Omni and see all of that space and
relatively easy access to everything.
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