[OKDXA] Best low band rig <$600

[Kim Elmore]

I have a late serial number TS-930SAT that I have lovingly taken care 
of since I bought it new in 1985. My primary radio is now my TenTec Orion II.

My '930 has all the INRAD filters in it (except for the AM filter) 
and I have aligned it very carefully. I've been told by several 
others that it is one of the best 930s they've used. The TS-930S was 
not originally a computer controlled radio, but I've put the PIEXX 
board in mine and that yields as much computer control as is possible 
with this radio. A useful mod that I'd like to make is to replace the 
original roofing filter with one of the new INRAD units. That would 
cost another $125 or so (I think -- maybe $200) The first IF is at 44 
MHz, and xtal roofing filters are difficult to make at those 
frequencies. The original is ceramic. I have the speaker with mine 
and it looks nice, but is otherwise no great shakes.

Note that the tuner will not handle 160 m.

In my experience, the radio does extremely well as long as there are 
no local, strong signals. The phase noise specs are quite good for 
its day, but it does have some. It has not DSP and I found that 
something like a DSP 59+ (which I also have) is an excellent addition.

I used mine mainly on CW, but it did very well on SSB and RTTY and 
the various other digital modes. CW QSK is simply flawless -- better 
than my Orion II.

Mine has been opened up for general coverage tx, and it will transmit 
from about 1.6 MHZ through 30 MHz. Mine has the power supply mods 
(the PS could fail in an over voltage condition -- and it did once on me).

The main drawback is that the radios are getting very long in the 
tooth. Parts are hard to find and anything unique to the radio must 
come from other radios that are not worth repairing. It's mostly 
straightforward to work on and easy to align. I've replaced the 
finals and driver, and those components are still available.

The radio has a lot of small plugs/connectors internally, and these 
occasionally need to be wiggled, as some slight corrosion can 
sometimes cause some odd-ball problems. I've gotten to know the radio 
well enough to know where to go to start wiggling things.

I've used the '940 in contests and didn't like it as well. It's main 
claim to fame was computer control: it had significantly poorer 
performance figures, due mainly to phase noise issues.

If you find a good, late serial number '930SAT one with the PIEXX 
board, it will likely cost more than $600, though not a lot more. I'm 
guessing $650-$675 range. A few might fetch more than that, but I 
can't imagine much more.

73,

Kim Elmore N5OP