"David 01" wrote in message ...
I've seen some of these (only on the net) and have become interested in
maybe purchasing one in the future.

My question is: which model is the best? Other than the fact that the 520
has no 160m band (I believe this is correct), what are other differences?

Thanks!
David

I guess they listed most of the differences... In theory, the 520S was
the best. The SE was the economy model, and the 520 was the first, and
yes, no 160m. I've had and worked on them all. They all work well, but
to me, the original 520 had the smoothest audio of the ones I tried.
The 530 series was a later digital readout version of this line. The
820 and 830 are also closely related, but each was the top of the line
rig at the time they were built. IE: the 820 was top dog at the time
the 520's were coming out. The 530 looks nearly the same as an 830,
"the 830 came out first", but has a few less toys. The 830 is the best
of the bunch hands down as far as the receiver goodies. Also the 830
has true rf speech compression which is very good. I still have a
TS-830 and VFO-230. Sold the last 520 about three years ago though..It
was a 520 original I bought as a basket case for $100. It had silky
smooth audio after I fixed and re-aligned it. Really clean sounding.
Probably better than the 830 I have. I had a 520SE in the shack at the
same time that I was working on for someone else, and compared the
two. The 520 was definitely cleaner as far as audio quality, but I'm
not sure why...Both were aligned straight up as per manual as well as
could be aligned, "dang near perfect" so it wasn't that. But the older
one was cleaner and smoother sounding to my ears. I had a 520S in the
late 70's when it was nearly new. At that time, it was like a cadillac
compared to the old junk I had been using previous. Really seemed
modern at that time... That shows you how far we've some since the
late 70's...:/ If I were to buy a hybrid kenwood, just to buy a hybrid
kenwood, I'd get a 830. It's the best. "I am biased though..." If not
that, a 530. The reason? You can use the ultra stable VFO-230 with
those two. Won't work with any of the others..But I guess any of them
are ok if you can live with some temp drift. The 520 I had drifted up
and down 40 cycles with the ac cycling off and on...That drives me
nuts...The VF0-230 doesn't budge. It makes the 830 feel like a 930 as
far as stability... MK