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One option that is not available for my Kenwood TS-450SAT is a buildin voice keyer. That’s a shame, but if it isn’t there and you still want it, you probably can buy it or…. build it!

I could find some MFJ voice keyers, but to spend more then hundred euro’s for a voice keyer I think is ridiculous… When I googled around for a design of a home made voice keyer, I stumbled upon a project that has been published in a magazine of my own club (Veron): Electron, august 1998. In this design they use a ISD1016 voice recording chip. After a lot of searching I found the designer and contacted him. It seems like the ISD1016 isn’t produced anymore and is hard to get. So I discussed that with the designer and was able to get my hand on a good replacement: the ISD1020. The designer sells the PCB and programmed GAL-chip himself. So I ordered these. I’m waiting for him to send this stuff to me so I can start to build. Should be fun!

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TS-450SATMy main HF rig is still the good old Kenwood TS-450SAT. I absolutely love this rig! It looks beautiful, it sounds beautiful and it works great.
The most funny about this rig is, everyone who owned one in the past and see it again on my desk, sighs and says: “I should never never never sold that baby!” Even guys who own a Icom 756 pro III nowadays like the looks of my 450 more.

I’m a quick learner, I never want to sell this piece of equipment too. So I figured, if I never wanted to sell it, I might as well start the hunt for all the available options for it. If I’m gonna enjoy the rig, then please with all its options in it!
So I opened the manual to see what kind of options there are. Actually there a a few of them! Let me publish a little list:

Filters:

– YG-455C-1 CW filter 500 Hz
– YG-455CN-1 CW filter 250 Hz
– YG-455S-1 SSB filter 2,4 KHz
– YG-88C-1 CW filter 500 Hz
– YG-88CN-1 CW filter 270 Hz
– YG-88S-1 SSB filter 2,4 KHz
– YG-88SN-1 SSB filter 1,7 KHz

Other options:

– SO2-TCXO crystal oscillator oven
– VS-2 voice synthesizer (reads frequency)
– TU-8 Tone unit (so you can use tone enabled repeaters on 10m)
– DSP-100 MF digital signal processor.

I opened the hunt for all of these options. I was able to find the YG-455C-1 500 Hz CW filter, the YG-88SN-1 SSB 1,7 KHz filter and the VS-2 voice synthesizer. The only filter I don’t understand is the 2,4KHz SSB filter at 455 KHz MF. There is already standard a 2,4 KHz filter in this rig for 455 KHz. So I’m still looking for the other filters, the SO2-TCXO, the TU-8 and the DSP-100. Would be great to complete the rig!

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dxwatchI use DXwatch as my primary dx cluster for years now. Funny how it never crossed my mind I could also make an account for this site so I also can add spots.
The other day I signed up for an account (free) and I discovered another cool thing! You can create filters for specific spots and when that spot appears on DXwatch, DXwatch will send you a mail and/or an IM!

Pretty cool! I should sign up way earlier! 😉