Tag: Rigs

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Kenwood TCXO-SO2last month that I bought my Kenwood TS-850, I’ve got a mail from Joerg, DL6IB from Germany.
Joerg did offer me something nice. He bought 2 pieces of the Kenwood TCXO-SO2 in the USA. The first one he had used to build in his own Kenwood TS-870 and the second one he did offer me for a good price. You know I’m a sucker for
accessories. I already did manage to find a voice synthesizer (VS-2), a digital recording unit (DRU-2) and several filters for my precious TS-850 . The only thing that was missing was the temperature compensated cristal oscillator (TCXO-SO2). So it was a very good timing of Joerg to contact me!
But I find it always a little bit scary to just send money over the internet and hope the other end will deliver what he promised.
But yesterday the package arrived and there was my “little bug”. Maybe I’ll mount it this weekend. Then my TS-850 is fully loaded and even more capable of operating so nicely, the way I want it.

Thank you Joerg! Thanks for the offer and it was great doing business with you! Hope to hear you on the bands sometime.

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Kenwood TS-850For years this radio has been my dream. I already did own a Kenwood TS-450SAT. A very nice radio. But the other day I saw a TS-850SAT on internet for sale. In the corner of the shack was a Icom 910H which I never used. I traded the Icom in for the Kenwood TS-850SAT. A pretty nice deal, I thought!

After close inspection it turn out the TS-850 has a serialnumber in the 20-million…. Bummer! That numbers turn out to have several leaking problems. But the salesman ensures me he checked the rig and there where no traces of leaking capacitors. He also gives me a 6 months of warranty. So with a good feeling I went home and plugged in my brand new TS-850. The rig performes excellent. Really cool features (e.a. slope tuning) and a good quiet receiver picked up at least twice as many station as my TS-450SAT does.
But now lift up the hood to check the dealer claims.

The capacitors of the CAR-board ARE leaking, let there be no confusion about that. Now I can do two things: bring back the TS-850SAT to the dealer to let it fix. But he already replied my e-mail with above picture saying: this is no proof, if you want it fixed, you have to pay half of the bill.
Well, I’m not want to pay anything since he promised me 6 months of warranty.
The other thing I can do is fix the problem myself. So I ordered the 10 capacitors of 10 µF/25V. I hope they arrive tonight. I will replace them immediately! The 47 µF-one wasn’t available so I have to search a little bit harder for that one. But before I order, I’ll inspect all boards for these faulty blue smd capacitors and replace these too.