[Kenwood] Kenwood TS-870s

[Rick Markey, KN3C]

Dennis,

While I like my 870, I'm disappointed in the Noise Reduction feature of the 
DSP.  Perhaps I just haven't figured out how to adjust it properly, but I 
don't think so.

My benchmark is my Clear Speech DSP speaker that I use with my TS-50 in the 
car.  It's unbelievable.  It get's rid of background noise and heterodynes, 
and does exactly what I thought the DSP would do in the 870.  The 870 
allows you either noise reduction or heterodyne auto nulling, not both.  I 
find the noise reduction capability marginal at best.  The degradation in 
the received audio is annoying.

The transmit audio DSP is terrific, and so are the DSP filters on receive. 
 Overall it's a fine piece of equipment.  I suspect I will end up 
purchasing the Clear Speech base unit to use with the 870.  Kenwood could 
probably improve the noise reduction with an EPROM upgrade, but I doubt 
that will happen since the 870 is now an orphan.

de Rick, KN3C