On Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 12:39:07 AM UTC-6, Irv Finkleman wrote:

There's really nothing that these older rigs won't do if you tune and
operate them properly. I do have a Yaesu FT-857D which has almost
every bell and whistle you could ask for, but is largely
microprocessor controlled and every time you want to make a small
change such as Mic Gain and Carrier Gain you have to revert to
the manual and change a bunch of settings by which time you have
probably missed that rare piece of DX you have spent years searching
for. I'm no dummy with digital stuff, but it's still nice to
be able to twist a knob or two for quick adjustments.

Irv VE6BP
RADIATE OR DIE TRYING!

I always liked all the hybrid Kenwoods. The original 520 had the
best audio of all of them. But the receiver on the 830 was the best
of all the ones I had, and it's the only one I still have. With the
VBT and it's CW filter, it's very good. And having used the 930, it's
just as good.
The only issue I have with the hybrids is stability. For my standards,
I can only run the TS 830 on a daily basis if I using the digital VFO-230.
Which I have.. It makes the 830 feel like a 930 as far as stability, and
gives five memories. It's rock solid.
The rigs are electrically stable, but not thermally.. Or at least to my
standards, and I am picky. Once I set a freq, I expect not to have to
touch it again, no matter what the room temp is. I won't tolerate any
noticeable drifting.

wrote in message
...
The only issue I have with the hybrids is stability. For my standards,
I can only run the TS 830 on a daily basis if I using the digital VFO-230.
Which I have.. It makes the 830 feel like a 930 as far as stability, and
gives five memories. It's rock solid.
The rigs are electrically stable, but not thermally.. Or at least to my
standards, and I am picky. Once I set a freq, I expect not to have to
touch it again, no matter what the room temp is. I won't tolerate any
noticeable drifting.

Not long after the 820 came out a friend bought one. The receiver was
unstable compaired to his Heathkit sb-101. He talked with the factory and
they said to try changing some capacitors in the VFO. Not just replacing
them with the same kind, but use some with differant temperature coefficents
and values. He finally got it about as stable as the Heathkit. The
external vfo did seem to be a lot more stable.
About a year or 2 ago I bought an 820 and it was not all that stable either.
Don't now why I bought it, except I was at a small hamfest and did not see
anything else I wanted. The fellow only wanted $ 150 for it. I did take a
service monitor and went through it as I was told by some local friends the
audio on transmit was not as good on one sideband as the other. The audio
was fine then on both sidebands from the reports. Took it to the next
hamfest and sold it for what I had in it. Did not need another rig as I
already had 3 others.