[Kenwood] TS-850 AGC / QSK Clicks and Pops

[Dennis McGrew]

I recently purchased a used TS-850SAT,  8 million S/N.  I've spent some =
time evaluating it's performance and have run across a couple of =
characteristics that I didn't expect to find.  All the reviews I read =
touted the 850's strong signal handling capabilities, but the 850 I have =
falls short of my expectations.  I'm primarily a cw operator and want to =
use the 850's QSK mode. In all testing I've done the noise blanker and =
notch were switched OFF.=20

=20

1) When I operate QSK cw, the audio output has spurious clicks and pops =
during the switch over between transmit and receive. The higher the =
receiver background level is, the louder they are.   If I operate on 40 =
meters (with it's high QRN levels) the pops and clicks are very =
distracting.  If  I transmit on a quiet (dead) band like 10 meters the =
clicks are NOT present. =20



2) The AGC circuit appears to overshoot, when in the "Fast" position =
when the received signal level is above S-9.  If I select  "Medium or =
Slow" AGC, the overshoot problem isn't there.  Using this radio under =
contest conditions is a chore. The typically strong contest signals =
combined with the 850's " Fast AGC " overshoot makes copying high speed =
cw  difficult.=20

=20

I'd be curious to know if anyone has experienced similar problems with =
their 850 and has a modification I can install.

=20

73,  Dennis  K8IFF



--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
or had an attachment.  Attachments are not allowed.  To learn how
to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html  ---