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Old 07-08-2011, 10:01 AM   #38
wa8yxm
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Mobile, on the road
Posts: 1,139
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Got my TS-2000 at Dayton in 2006. Installed it shortly after, Very nice rig, Rather than sing it's praises though I'll list the "problems" I've had and that way you can see the other side.. (And just how minor the problems are)

Occasionally it acts weird, For example last Monday the auto-tuner (I use a KAT-1 Marine Grade automatic tuner on the back of the motor home with a long wire antenna) Would not tune.. This has happned to me 3 or 4 times in the last six years. Once I found the coax cable connector (PL-259) needed to be re-tightened.. Did so and it worked,, Another time it was the other end of the coax inside the KAT-1 that was loose, same cure.. Last time I did a "Partial Reset" or VFO Reset and ... it worked.. I've had to do VFO resets a few times.

Recommendation, download the kenwood memory manager and back up your memories.. Had do do a full reset once.

The other complaint is that the TS-2000 seems to have a high noise floor, In my case this is not so much a problem as the Radio's noise floor is about .01% of the ambient noise floor (Where I'm at now I see s-9 noise levels, S-3 to S-5 are common) But there is a low noise diode kit which my eyes are no longer good enough to install (Surface mount diodes) I may hire it installed in a few years.

Now the praises part: This radio is nothing short of fantastic.. It does most everything, It covers bands from 160mtrs to 70cm without the "X" module, You have 3 CW memories standard and 3 Digital Voice memories optional, and much more, It will asct as a cross band repeater, as a remote base or with sky command you can completly control it from another radio, You have a choice of two antennas "Built in" for 160 through 6 meters, one with a built in auto-tuner the other (1) uses the external auto tuner (The KAT does not do six meters) YOu can dial down the power level, I keep getting great audio reports from other stations. (OF course getting great audio OUT may have something to do with the audio INput to the microphone) but even if I forget to kill equalization and such I still get good copy when I fire up DM-780 and go Digital. it does digital modes very well.. Kind of fun chatting with places like France, or Spain running 30 watts into a 100' wire tossed over tree limbs.

In short, I like it... Now, that said there is anoter (ICOM) I think that has a few more features... but the decision in my case had to do with case size. It fits where I put it.. See the "How do you not bother others" thread for where I put it.
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