[Kenwood] Yes! - Kenwood SM-220 Station Monitor is a great way to

[peter markavage]

SM-220 no longer manufactured. Average price in great condition should be
around $250 to $275. Maybe $50 to $75 more if the BS-5 or 8 is installed.
As a station accessory to monitor your transmit signal, it's a nice
accessory. As a band scope/spectrum scope, it's only fair; maybe cute is
a good word to describe it.  Not highly accurate and limited in its
ability. Kenwood, SM-230, also discontinued, is also a good replacement
for the SM-220, if you can find one. Better band scope/spectrum scope,
but again limited in its ability. Both are great conversation pieces.
Great spectrum analyzers can be found on the used market but usually are
pricey but much more accurate and versatile.

Anyone paying $850 to $900 for a SM-220 probably needs some counseling.
External circuitry to emulate the BS-5/8 functions to interface with an
external scope is possible, if one is willing to spend the time effort to
design the interface.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Sun Mar 13 14:19:44 2005 k5uj at mc.net writes:
> 
> I'm sure the kenwood station scope accessory is nice to have, but is 
> it still being made?  if so, what does it cost?
> I saw a used one for sale last summer at AES Milwaukee and I think 
> they wanted around $850 or $900 for it.  For a nonessential station 
> accessory, that seems like a hell of a lot of money for what seems 
> to me to be a specialized oscilloscope.  If it were generic enough 
> to work with a wide variety of rigs I'd think differently about it.
> what would be needed in the way of external circuitry to get a scope 
> to do what a sm220 does?
> 
> rob/k5uj, cheap ham.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wd8arz at ix.netcom.com
> To: k5uj at mc.net
> Sent: Mar 12, 2005  8:37 PM 
> Subject: [Kenwood] Yes! - Kenwood SM-220 Station Monitor is a great 
> way to
> 
> Conrad, once you use a SM-220 with the Panadapter installed, you are 
> in for 
> a new enjoyable way of linking up to the 'ether'. Not even covering 
> the 
> other aspects of the SM-220 scope, but focusing on panadapter 
> spectrum view 
> only, makes the ownership of this grand piece of equipment a 
> fortunate 
> experience. Keep in mind that the IF connection point in the first 
> IF must 
> be wide and not limited by a front end roofing filter, or the 
> panadapter 
> feature is useless.
> 
> For those that can integrate what they see on the display, tune on 
> their 
> radio, and hear with their ears, the world of exploring radio gets 
> changed 
> forever. It is difficult to do with out this added dimension to our 
> 
> enjoyable hobby that explores what is out there, once you have 
> opened the 
> door and stepped through it with this visual add on. It becomes 
> special to 
> find that elusive special signal, to feel connected to world that we 
> explore 
> with our minds through our senses, not just hearing, but also now 
> with our 
> eyes.
> 
> Adding this visual mode to the tuning listening experience, is a 
> added 
> dimension that gives much more to the exploration of the radio 
> spectrum. It 
> can help absorb you into 'being out there' from your arm chair. How? 
> Simply 
> by expanding the bandwidth of the information that is going on 
> around the 
> area you are tuning, you will find much that is going on that is 
> simply not 
> detectable from the narrow slice of the spectrum you tune through.
> 
> Much of the utility stations, military broadcasts, and even laid 
> back 
> conversations with lots of pauses, are easily tuned through with 
> even 
> knowing the frequency is active. However with the spectrum display, 
> you see 
> signals pop up above and below the slice you are on, or tuning 
> through. You 
> instantly know which way to tune, and how far, to catch those 
> elusive 
> signals. Even if they are quiet when you tune to that general spot, 
> you now 
> are on a quest and will get them on a future transmission. By having 
> the 
> graticule in place, you can actually adjust the span of the display 
> to allow 
> calibration of the marks to represent frequency units. By noting 
> where the 
> signal was that popped up, you can actually add or subtract that 
> amount to 
> your display, and tune so close to the actual frequency, that you 
> only have 
> to do a fine tune on the next transmission to captured that signal.
> 
> The finding of active transmissions improved significantly with this 
> visual 
> aid. It is a must have for tuning the shortwave spectrum with the 
> multitude 
> of signals and modes to discover.
> 
> With practice, you will recognize the mode type of a signal, you 
> will see 
> sweepers moving up and down the band. You can actually see where the 
> tuner 
> upper moving around the dial found a spot to roost and is calling 
> cq.
> 
> On wide mode, you can see the condition of the band. By seeing how 
> much 
> energy is above the base line for the whole spectrum, it provides a 
> good 
> indication of propagation condition. You can see how tight an 
> antenna is by 
> the decreasing signal strength around the listening sweet spot. Of 
> course 
> you can see how wide a signal is, and if it is related to the 
> splatter your 
> hearing ........ gosh, once you get absorbed into the panadapter 
> display 
> experience, it becomes so natural to relate what you see to what you 
> hear, 
> or will hear by tuning with the added information you now have about 
> what is 
> going on around the frequency of interest. Your situational 
> awareness goes 
> way way up!!! ... and with that, your enjoyment of a great hobby.
> 
> For the ham bands, it is a god send to see where the open spots are 
> for a 
> qsy, to look for transmissions of interesting to discover, to see 
> those 
> sudden meteor scatter signals pop on, and then fade out ..... I 
> could go on 
> and on.
> 
> The experience that is had with a spectrum scope is only limited by 
> the user 
>  
> 
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