Topband: FT-1000MP Key Clicks

[John Kaufmann]

On Fri, 18 January 2002, "Mike" wrote:

> 
> Also, I recall some articles appearing in the literature
> talking about phase noise performance (it might have been by K1GQ)
> about the time those low serial number TS-940S were terrorizing the
> bands with excessive TX phase noise in the mid 80's. A good article in
> QST on key clicks and how to minimize them coupled with key click
> data in QST test reports would go a long way towards raising awarness
> among the general ham population much in the same way that people
> started paying attention to phase noise in the mid 80's. 


I agree completely on this.  I might also point that it was K1GQ and I who both worked together on the TS-940S phase noise problem.  GQ performed his original phase noise measurements on my TS-940S and I later did additional measurements which got distributed or published in many places, including a Japanese magazine.  Kenwood's initial response to an editor of one of the publications which carried the results was that there was no phase noise problem.  However, within a year or so, Kenwood issued a service bulletin with a modification which improved the phase noise significantly.  This fix got incorporated into all production TS-940S units. QST now includes phase noise measurements as a part of their equipment reviews.

Let's hope some publicity about the key click problem will get similar results.

73, John W1FV