Kelly Pierce wrote:

Hello all,

I am the proud owner of a Kenwood R5000 that I bought in 1990. it was in
the
days before the Internet, and I was floored when I checked out this radio at
Erickson electronics here in Chicago. I had heard about the varied
programming and information available on shortwave but this visit to the
store was my first exposure to shortwave listening. The radio sounded so
good and had so many
stations and features for enhanced listening. It was so exciting to bring
the radio home, take it out of the box, string the long wire antenna I
picked up at the store, and listen to people from different cultures in
distant lands. the radio has been everything I had hoped it could be and I
have been attached to it ever since. It has expanded my view of the world
greatly.

the longwire antenna stretched across my small backyard from my roof to the
garage snapped in two a few weeks ago. obviously reception is poor and I
won't be climbing up on a snowy Chicago roof anytime soon.

I am taking my first pause in shortwave listening to explore methods of
improving sound quality and reception. Adding filters is definitely in my
future. What is unclear are modifications from Kiwa, described at:

http://www.kiwa.com/R5000.html

Does anyone have experience with these particular mods or Kiwa mods in
general? How much of an improvement occurred following the modifications?
Was it noticeable? If so, I wonder if it was
as noticeable as adding an AM filter. I am also concerned that the
alterations might cause problems with the radio. Are these concerns
justified or misplaced? It seems like some important parts are being
replaced or removed. I love this radio so. It has been with me through
world crises like the attack on the russian parliament building, the Asian
currency crisis, the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and the
gulf war. we have seen happy times together too like the world wide
millennium
celebrations and the 2000 Sydney Olympics. I don't want anything to happen
to it.

I will appreciate any insights that can be offered on these modifications in
helping me decide if it is worth it to add them.

The only thing I did to the R5000 that I had was to replace the stock 6 kHz
filter with one that had better skirt selectivity. That and use an external
speaker of course.

There was also a way to make an adjustment, located below the S meter if I
recall to align the USB and LSB so it sounded the same when switching between
the two.

dxAce
Michigan
USA