[Kenwood] TS-870 Audio Problems

[David Hildebrand]

I have started having some problems with my TS-870 (SN 705xxxxx) and am
hoping someone on here might have some "pearls of wisdom".  Here are the
symptoms:

(1)  I am told by friends with whom I rag chew on a regular basis that my
transmit audio is not nearly as good as it used to be.  One who checked me
out on his monitor scope tells me that I have a lot of "spikes" around my
signal. This problem seems to be continuous.

(2) Occasionally both the receive and transmit audio become very distorted.
On the receive end it sounds like I am off frequency but am unable to tune
the received station in.  This condition will sometimes happen only a minute
or two from power up and sometimes not until I have been operating for some
time (half hour +).  Usually the problem will go away if I simply turn the
rig off for a while.

(3) I have also noticed that when I am having the problem (2) my SWR meter
will peak momentarily  when I stop modulating (i.e. just at the end of
words). When I hold the carrier or send a continuous carrier the SWR reading
is fine.  It's just as the carrier drops that the meter jumps.

Initially I suspected a bad coax or connection or microphone but was unable
to find any such problem. I tried various microphones (MC-60, hand mike,
Heil, etc) but the problem(s) still persists. Also I am now running my
TS-950 with the same antenna & microphone set-up and it works fine so I am
convinced that it is a problem with the 870.
----
David (VE9AV)