I think I'd like the old hf's. Hopefully I can pick up some oldies this
spring or summer to play with.

Good luck on the repairs.

Thanks,
David

"Mark Keith" wrote in message
om...
"David 01" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. It's very interesting and informative.

David

I like the old radios... All those older hybrid kenwoods will go
down as some of the best ham rigs ever made. Real reliable workhorses,
and the audio quality was real good. I mentioned the audio on the
original 520... I've heard stories that when they first designed the
520, and maybe some of the other first kenwoods, they actually
borrowed the same audio engineers that designed the high end stereo
stuff to design the audio circuits on those radios. May explain why I
thought that first model sounded so good. They may have "dumbed" it
down a bit on later versions due to circuit changes...Who
knows...Kenwood has made a lot of good radios. The 430 is another
reliable workhorse that will enter the same museum... Of course, it
was one of the first all solid state. "The 180 was the first I think".
The 930 and 940 were super radios in my opinion. But some had some
problems that show up in later years, that is hard to fix without
parts. The 930 had a common problem with the power supply solder
joints, or something along that line...Cliff could probably better
fill you in on those...But when a 930 or 940 is working right, it's
hard to beat for an all around radio. A friend of mine had a 930 when
it was fairly new. It always worked perfectly then of course...I
always thought it was one of the best all around radios I ever used.
The 940 good too. Better in theory, but either is good. Like Cliff
mentioned, many of the older radios use parts that are getting hard to
get. Luckily, for the hybrids , it's mainly the relays, etc..There are
mods you can do to extend the life of them. I've got a nice icom 730
that is collecting dust, because I can't find one lousy 9 pin
transformer for the display board. I'll have to raid a junker some day
to fix it...The IC-730 was one of icoms better 1980's radios...
Really solid. The 735 was good too. I bought a 706mk2g to replace the
730 after I couldn't get the part...So far after three years, it's
been good. Knock on wood...But I'll fix the 730 some day. ...Great
easy to use mobile rig...Mines got the desirable passband tuning
filter in it. The 730 has a quad conversion receiver, believe it or
not...It's pretty good. MK