[Kenwood] RE: Rig Rumors/TS-2000 review by an owner.

[Mike Baker]

I have a question.
What is wrong with the TS-2000 DSP? In your opinion.
I ask because over a year ago I tested each of several rigs side by side
over an extended period of time and band conditions and my decision to
purchase was the TS-2000. Here are my reasons why.
1.	Band coverage.  160 to 70cm and all modes plus a second built in rig for
2m and 70cm fm.  Keep the amount of gear on the desk top to a minimum.
2.	Primarily a CW op and the filtering down to 50Hz is remarkable. CQWWDXCW
test weekend and it performed excellent. Just enough blow by to let me know
of the BIG signal (S9+40) up 2khz while I am doing search and pounce in 300
to 400Hz bandwidth with fully adjustable offset.
3.	No pull down menus.  Most all frequently used items are on the front
panel with a button.
4.	Built in antenna tuner with 2 antenna positions for HF thru 6 and
dedicated outputs for 2m and 70Cm.
5.	Reasonably compact table top design.
6.	Price. At $1400 New with my discounts and a FREE Heil Gold Line mic it
was THE best deal around compared to the IC-746Pro which was its closest
comparison.  Nothing made by any other vendor came close by comparison for
the price.  Oh sure, I could have bought the IC-756ProII but it was another
$800 more and didn't give me anything above 6 meters.

Things I didn't like but got use too.
1.	Style.  Too Art Deco/ Car Stereo appearance. I still prefer a plain flat
front panel.
2.	TOO many too small buttons. Better labeling would have been nice but you
do get accustomed to it after a month or so of use.
3.	A REAL analog meter.  OK, so I am old fashion. I still like meters.  I
have gotten accustomed to the digital one.

Things I was hoping for when I first looked at the rig and its specs but
didn't fully understand until I got to operating it.
1.	The left hand main dial/band select it all modes all bands. I was hoping
the second did the same. It is ONLY FM and ONLY 2meters or 70Cm. The only
time it is dual band receive is in FM mode on either 2m or 70Cm. So much for
setting the second band on 6 meters and monitoring it while on another band.
That was my initial hope but disappointment.
2.	Only 3 memories in the CW keyer and the SSB voice keyer. So 10 to match
the keypad would have been too expensive? Oh well, that is why I run
WriteLog anyway.  But it would have been nice. Even better is there would
have been multi-banks of memories so you could tailor each bank to a
separate contest format.

End resulting opinion after ownership for about 18 months?
I still think I made a good decision. My audio reports are excellent, it is
a fine performer in any mode I have tried and my only regret is that I
didn't have the extra $500+ to spend on the 23Cm module. Would be nice for
the UHF rover contest operations to have it all in one box.
Would I buy another one in todays market with the same money to spend?
Yep,no question. I still think it is the best bang for the buck.

As Dennis Miller says,"Hey, thats just my opinion, you might think
differently."

C U on the air.


Mike Baker  K7DD
k7ddmjb at qwest.net