just had this back off Kenwood Communications UK.


"Originally we were told by the authorities that the extended 40-metre
band limit wouldn't become an Amateur band until 2009 in our Region -
the situation was very uncertain and OfComm were recently saying January
2005 (possibly) which then came down to "after the October consultation
period".

Now of course, it has happened with minimal actual notice and
the new limits are in force.

At the moment any of our HF rigs can be expanded to full general
coverage TX by a simple dealer mod - there is no specific mod for
40-metres (or 5Mhz either) yet but production of new radios in Japan
will be changed to reflect the new band limits.

We are keeping Japan up to date on this situation and I expect that they
will produce firmware upgrades, if existing radios are suitable. Your
TS-570 is actually their number one priority as it's probably our best
selling model, so we are awaiting their advice on how this can be
accomplished.

I suspect that it would probably be by a physical change,
unsoldering and replacing a processor chip, so it would then be for
customers to decide if they want to incur the cost of this work or have
the much simpler and cheaper GC TX instead.
There is currently no modification that will expand only the 40 metres
band.

As soon as we hear further from Japan on their plans I will of course
contact you straight away."


Well, that clarifies it up a bit...

Doz

"Doz" wrote in message
...
Can this be done via software... ?

I don't fancy widebanding the rig.

Doz