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

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 18:03:41 -0500

No problem/complains about the AGM, but I do agree with you that QSK with
the 850 has a lot to be desired. In fact, it annoys me! So, I use semi break
in with mine. I am also a 95% CW op.

73,
Ron, 6Y5/4S7RO
----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis McGrew <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2003 5:03 PM
Subject: [Kenwood] TS-850 AGC / QSK Clicks and Pops

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.

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.

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.

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

73,  Dennis  K8IFF

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