Kenwood Ts 850s Serial Numbers
One Of The Best HF Radios Ever BuiltThe Kenwood TS-850 S is in my opinion one of the finest ever produced by Kenwood. The receiver is one of the most sensitive out there and great for pulling weak signal contact out of a pileup. The slope tuning ability to pull in slightly off frequency signals is near unbeatable. This is one of the last radios that had a knob or a button for each function.Unlike later model radios that have electronic multiple menus that you have to jump through, just to adjust things.
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The known problem of the Kenwood TS-850S transceiver is the failure of the YM 6631 or YM 66312 chips on the CAR unit board. Now this problem is completely solved!!! Our engineers developed a full analogue of the CAR unit board for the TS-850S transceiver. TS 940 serial number question. FS: Kenwood TS-940 with SP 940. FS: Kenwood SP-940 for TS-940. FS: or FT: Have 20 mil serial TS-940 LOADED! Kenwood TS-950 serial numbers. FS: KENWOOD TS-850S/AT 60M SERIAL NUMBER. FS: or FT: Kenwood TS-940SAT 20 M Serial Number Loaded (See PIC) 10. FS: Late Serial Number Kenwood TS-930S.MINT.
Personally I liked the 940 a tiny bit better but the 850 was bought instead because it had 12vdc power input. It's not married to an AC wall outlet like the 940.
The TS-850s is not without faults though, early serial numbered units below 20million had 4 Kenwood proprietary chips on the carrier board that were prone to fail. Kenwood built a more durable chip to replace them but the replacements went out of production about 15 years ago and if you can find any.You'll give your first born and your right arm to get them. There are ten electrolitic capacitors on the carrier board that are prone to leakage, which if left unrepaired, the traces under them will corrode and destroy the board. The memory battery should be replaced along with it's holder, if it starts leaking and not repaired, the digital board it's soldered to will be ruined.
Outside of that, these radios consistently get high marks for having the best RX and TX audio reports among ham operators world wide. If you want one.Get it.Outside of the early serial number bad chip issue.They are easy radios to work on should the need arise. Modifications for MARS and other things are also easy to do for anyone who can read a schematic or board layout diagram. I had one when I first started in ham.Made the mistake of selling it and buying a menu driven radio that started with a Y in it's name.The auto tuner didn't have as good a range as the auto tuner in the Kenwood and the audio and receiver of the Y radio didn't hardly come close to the Kenwood.I bought another 850 and the other brand is now the backup rig.Verified purchase: Yes Condition: Pre-owned. Great radio for computer controlI have a LP Pan2 from Telepost that I was using on my Kenwood TS830.
While the 830 is one sweet radio, it cannot be computer controlled.So I began looking for a more modern radio so I can use the panadapter and computer control of the Telepost Lp Pan2,I found a perfect radio for computer control and the LP Pan2 with the Kenwood TS850. I had owned one several years ago and so getting the 850 was like going back in time.The receive audio on the 850 is not quite as good as the 830, but it is very, very close. The transmit audio is also just a tad under the 830 but most folks would not notice the difference.The Kenwood TS850 does have some problems that may or may not make getting one a good idea. Any radio that has a serial number under 30,000,000 should be looked at closely. There ar e some Ic's that can go bad and are no longer available. Most of the ones with the problems are now gone so getting a bad one is less an issue.To be safe though, a radio with a later serial number is better.The Kenwood TS850 along with the Telepost LP Pan2 brings the 850 into the modern radio world. Having the SDR ability of the Telepost and the old style knob radio of the 850 makes for a perfect combination.I highly recommend the Kenwood TS850.Verified purchase: No.