[Lowfer] TS-890

[Douglas Williams]

I forgot to mention earlier that I also purchased the optional 270 Hz
"roofing filter", which I installed today. It just involves removing about
20 phillips screws and not being a complete klutz, so the installation was
within my technical abilities. :-)  Not sure when crystal IF filters
started being called "roofing filters", but anyway, it's just a  270 Hz
crystal filter, as have been used in receivers for decades now.

A note on frequency accuracy and stability:

As we all know, these two things are of paramount importance given the very
narrowband modes we often use on LF.

According to the Kenwood specs, the TS-890 comes equipped with a TCXO and
has a frequency stability of +/- 0.1 PPM (from 0C to +50C). This is very,
very good, especially considering that it also has a 10 MHz reference input
on the rear panel, if even higher stability is required.

I did a quick and dirty test with the 890 tuned to WWVB on 60 kHz, and Argo
set to QRSS 30. I cannot see any drift at all. The factory frequency
setting also appears to be dead on.

https://i.imgur.com/KUPxYeR.png

D. KB4OER

On Thu, Oct 8, 2020 at 2:02 PM Douglas Williams <williamsdoug1966 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> It arrived today. I didn't expect it to be quite so......ginormous (and
> heavy). It dwarfs my R-75. I'm going to have to build a shelf for my little
> table if I want to add any accessories.
>
> https://i.imgur.com/qbazcls.jpg
>
> It seems quite sensitive at LF. I heard the usual daytime airport NDBs,
> and the close ones were S9+. WWVB is S9+10 and some MSK station around
> 40kHz was S9+10. It will not tune lower than 30 kHz.
>
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 4:35 PM Douglas Williams <
> williamsdoug1966 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Zack,
>>
>> Gratz. Always fun to play with new toys. :-)  This new generation of
>> transceivers is amazing.
>>
>> D.
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 4:30 PM Zack Widup <w9sz.zack at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I just got an FT897D. Nowhere hear the bells and whistles of that radio
>>> but
>>> it is a great small radio for portable operation, plus it has 144 and 432
>>> MHz, too.
>>>
>>> But I was tuning around in the NDB LF band as well as 475 kHz with it the
>>> other night. The FSK CW beacon (I forget the call now) on 475 kHz was
>>> just
>>> booming in on the radio and I heard a lot of NDB's between 250 and 450
>>> kHz.
>>>
>>> 73, Zack W9SZ
>>>
>>