About 11 years or so ago I got my General license and went hunting for an HF radio online. Not knowing really anything about what I wanted I stumbled upon Jack KG6PX selling his TS-820s and my quick web research (as well as asking my friend Jim N3VJ) led to believe this probably a good one to start with.
Over the years I scoured eBay for additional parts and eventually assembled the station seen above: TS-820s, AT-200, VFO-820, SM-200, MC-50, an SP-200 all tucked away in a computer armoire.

This was my station for a decade and while I didn’t use it often until recently, I was always tinkering with it. Eventually finding the the website of the late, great K4EAA (https://www.k4eaa.com) who I purchased many replacement parts (couplers, capacitors, resistors, etc) from as well as K9TW (http://www.k9tw.com) who was gracious enough to walk me through some complicated troubleshooting when two mosfets failed on my RF board. All in all, this is a superb, hybrid tube radio that is a joy to operate.

I find myself often now going back to fire it up even though I have since acquired a newer Kenwood Hybrid (TS-530S) and a (comparatively) ultra modern FT-450d. Something about manually tuning the final tubes seems like less of a chore and more of a deeper connection with the radio.

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Filed under: HF,Hybrid,Kenwood - @ February 23, 2021 11:07 pm