[Kenwood] Details on TS-430S Confusion.

[Joe]

Hi All,

Many of you have been trying to help me out here and THANKS!  But Things 
are still very confusing with this rig.

Of course I bought it used. But it's my only second rig I have had since 
I first got licensed in 1975.

'OK when I got it, it had a few of the typical bugs this rig is known 
for.  Like the oxidation on some of the low pass filter relays.

That was fixed easily with the resistor and power supply treatment.

Then there was the balance of the carrier oscillators. The tone 
passbands on rcv was horrendous, switching between LSB and USB was night 
and day.  LSB was all high pitches and hissy background noise, while USB 
was all bassy and low tones. The adjustment is made on the Control Unit. 
Two, small ceramic trimmer capacitors are located next to two crystals 
in the lower left hand corner of the board. The designators are TC3 and 
TC4. The capacitor nearest the front of the radio adjusts LSB. The other 
capacitor TC4 , adjusts USB. With the IF shift on "0" , these 
adjustments can be set "by ear" while listening to a broadcast station 
tuned to zero -beat. And also listening to a dead band and the resulting 
background hiss. Adjustments are made to make switching between LSB and 
USB identical in sound so much so you can not tell the switching is 
happening.

OK done and nice now

BUT......

And there always is a but isn't there?  This is the confusing part. 
Transmits frequency vs the dial readout.

I have no real way to verify if when running SSB if I am indeed 
transmitting as seen on the dial.

But on CW there is a way.

I know for a few years now, when I see my spots on either the RBN or 
other spotting networks, I have been consistently been posted about 
300Hz lower in frequency than what the radio says it should be.

Not seeing in the service manual,
Link to download one if you want to look.
https://www.box.com/shared/knem0aqxz6epesqps8z0

Not seeing anywhere in the service manual a way to adjust the readout to 
be on freq, I went to the web,, yeah I know....  But I found this guys 
video where he is curing many of these described ailments of this radio, 
and at

http://youtu.be/U56M9Bm-QL0

at a little past the 1 hour and 11 minute point, how to calibrate the 
dial readout to be on freq.

and I did it and it was easy and WWV was awesome on all freqs except 2.5 
today. so I did that adjustment it indeed was still a little off. I made 
it exactly the same. and even checked on all of them 5, 10, 15, 20 & 25 
Mhz no difference at all,

So now to see what it does on the air.
I threw out a CQ on 10.110 and this is what came back,
10.109.8  three spots
and 10.109.7 three spots

I moved up to 10.113.5 and CQed again and this was the result.

10.113.4 one spot

10.113.2 nine spots

10.113.3 one spot

Now what makes it even more confusing is, if I ignore this, and I just 
use the radio and throw out a CQ, people answer me right where I would 
think they would in tone. And if I answer someone elses CQ no one has 
ever said I was calling off freq ever.

OR if a spot is made on either RBN or other spotting systems, and say a 
station I want is posted as being on 10.115.6 I dial up that freq and 
there they are dead on freq. I call them and most times get them first call.

Now one thing I have noticed  that freq calibration is temperature 
sensitive for sure when the rig is first powered up and I check it 
against WWV it is off for 30 minutes or so then is still dead on after that.

Now one of you here suggested to be able to adjust that transmit freq by 
adjusting another trimmer, he said,,,


HI Joe
Well according to the service manual, on page 39 under adjustments, No. 
3 carrier, step 5 mode CW send,
It says freq counter should read 8,830,700 Hz (8.830.700 mHz). Adjust 
VR1 on the Control board, picture on page48, until it reads 8830700 hz 
+/- 10 Hz.

OK I do not have a counter, so I marked the controls current position so 
I can at any rate return it to it's original position.

OK I went and threw out a CQ again and noted the freqs returned.

I made a small adjustment on that trimmer and CQed again.

No Change

I made a bigger change on the trimmer

No Change

I went both extremes fully CCW and CW and still no change. whatever this 
control actually does I have no idea, but it obviously doesn't change 
the frequency at all.

So gang, what to do next to try to raise that transmit freq to match the 
display?

Joe WB9SBD

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