[CQ-Contest] The great Kenwood debate

[Kelly Taylor]

All this talk of the TS 570 vs. TS 850 (not even a contest in my book, in
favour of the 850) raises a wider question: are ANY of Kenwood's current
production radios competition grade?

At the risk of inflaming die-hard Kenwood fans, my guess is no. The 870 got
bad reviews on its IF DSP (basically high cut in one IF and low cut in
another IF) that lets signals into the AGC loop even if the second IF
filtering eliminates them. (Similar beef as with the 570.) The last I read
(please, correct me if I'm wrong), you could not install analog filters, or
if you could, you could only install one. Choose wisely, I guess.

The TS 2000 is very neat, but does it count as competition grade? Maybe if
you're into satellite, but I have to think all that frequency agility must
have a price somewhere.

And we know where the contest community stands on the 570.

The 950 is a very nice radio, but it's not made anymore.

Don't get me wrong. I love my 850. But did Kenwood start turning its back on
contesters after the 850? Or was it after the 940?

73, kelly
ve4xt