[CQ-Contest] CQ-Contest Digest, Vol 43, Issue 46

[Peter Dougherty]

At 12:00 PM 07/25/2006, you wrote:
>johngeig at yahoo.com>
>
>Along a similar line, has anyone compared the 746 to
>the Kenwood TS570SG?  Or used the 570 for contesting?
>I like the size of the TS570SG a little better-easier

I used a TS-570D(G) for contesting for 3 years (no 6m in the D 
version), until buying my Mark V a year and a half ago. It's a great 
beginner and intermediate rig but it's not what one would consider a 
contesting radio. First of all, forget CW contesting with it right 
off the bat. There is NO close-in selectivity at all with the 570. 
AGC pumping makes even DXing split up-1 to be next to impossible, let 
alone in a crowded band.

That said, I did some serious time-in-the-chair for CQWW-SSB and 
ARRL-SSB with it in the years I owned the radio, and if you know how 
to use it, it's very effective. I'd say on phone, with a 1.8kHz INRAD 
in there, it's maybe 80% of what I could do with my Mark V. By 
default you can't turn off the AGC, however. This is a serious 
problem. There's a published mod out there to re-purpose the ATT 
button to toggle the AGC on/off; I did that mod to my 570, cranked 
down the RF Gain and rode the volume control and I could finesse my 
way through 40m SSB with ease. The Hi-Cut and Low-Cut controls were 
great, although they're just in the AF chain, not IF. The DSP noise 
reduction was one step removed from utterly useless, however.

What I found on the 570 is that it's an EXTREMELY easy radio to 
configure and use right out of the box. Definitely one of the nicest 
rigs I ever used. In contesting I found it to be capable on SSB but 
unusable on CW.



Cheers,

Peter,
W2IRT