Which new rig for use with CT?

[Howard Brainen]

>Advice (directly to me) from those who have used (or written code to interface)
>more rigs than I have would be appreciated.  I'm trying to decide between the
>TS-870 and FT-1000MP.
>
>Dick, AA6MC <dieven@almaden.ibm.com>

I bought a TS870 a few weeks before CQWW SSB and used it exclusively
(mostly because I didn't have a good switching arrangement to share
the Alpha 87A between the 870 and the 950).  Its a great radio...but
a few caveats.

First of all, there is no provision for using a beverage.  There are
two front panel switch selectable antenna terminals, but no way to
allocate one to receive and the other to transmit.  There is also
a provision to share either of those antenna inputs (the active one)
with another receiver.  Not sure why Kenwood decided that half of the
capability would be more popular than use of a separate receive antenna,
but they did.  Anyway, it requires a relay switching setup to use
your receive antennas.

Secondly, the internal voice keyer, which sounds very good and is
easy to use, has about a half second delay that doesn't seem to be
programmable.  The VOX delay is set on the front panel, but not this
insidious delay after playing one of the four DVK (actually DRU-3)
memories.  Totally useless for sending your call in pileups.
Marginally OK for CQing, but a little weird.

Also, the four memory channels on the DRU-3 can only be remoted through
the built-in serial port using Kenwood's obscure ASCII command set. No
chance to hardwire it by using LPT keying on the computer.  If CT is to
control this device, Ken will have to write code to do it.

By they way, I was using 9.21 this time, because 9.26 crashed hours before
the test and wouldn't restart properly.  I set the RADIP config for
a TS850 and connected the DB-9 port on the radio to the computer (actually
through my Smart Antenna Switch to the computer).  Everything worked
fine:  radio, antenna switch, CT.

The DSP is amazing.  It often made it possible to copy signals, especially
when QRN was bad (lots of line noise and other junk in these urban jungles).
The selectable upper and lower skirts on the SSB bandwidth controls is
very good, but I didn't find it pulled stations out of loud adjacent
QRM any better than the crystal filters in my 950.  In fact, I really
missed the SSB SLOPE TUNE on the 950.

The DSP notch filter is several orders of magnitude better than conventional
units on previous radios.  In fact, you forget there is even a carrier.  It
tracks it/them and leaves you with a solid signal to copy.  Very nice.

So that's my humble opinion.  I'm not usually big on SSB tests, but really
wanted to test the rig and get my station ready for CW.  I'll report more
after the "real" contest!

73, Howard WZ6Z



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