If this demo used the same speaker for both radios, and the same antenna, then this is an adequate demonstration comparison. Kenwood has always had good audio, sensitivity and selectivity, but from an operator's ergonomics point of view, the older Kenwood serves the operator far better. 1. No menus. Each function has a knob or button. 2. Circuitry is not crammed into a tiny box using shortcuts. 3. Ham radio is about sound, not sight. It's fun to watch a screen make blips, but radio is about the skill of listening, hearing, and analyzing in order to make contacts. Radios with screens divert and subvert the operator's listening skills.
icoms will come and go. 7300 is a great rig- have one. My 8xx Kenwoods are lifetime radios. Will never sell my 830, 870, or 890. I’d like to find a nice 850. There is nothing better than a 5x9 signal on any of these kenwoods for ssb listening pleasure - I ran my 870 partial break in on cw last night and with amp relay off it was very pleasurable and quiet. Have you heard the icom t/r relay in the 7300- I had to wrap wall hanging putty around it to tame the clack. So we move so far forwards in many regards and yet backwards in others. Actually all of the big 3 need to remember how to implement silent t/r in their intermediate price radios.
I have got a chance to pick up a really nice ts850 with ps50 matching power supply and matching speaker for 640 I think I'm going to jump on it over these new rigs they make today
TS850, 100Watt the whole day long, no heat problems, Filter ? Why on 6Khz? set ist on 2,7 and you can work also beautiful with high and low cut. TS850 much better for Contests, DxPed and heavy Duty, very faster to work with, no Menue to menue, to menue. It is old that's right but absolute worth to keep ist. And you can repair it by yourself.......
6 Khz on 8.83 and 2.7 Khz filter on 455 khz result a 2.7-2.8 passband wide. Not to donald duck narrow, not to broadcast wide... result a pleasent audio. I cold'nt agree more on the 850 but unfortunately it is an old rusted radio. Icom 7300 is a new and modern SDR at a good price. Audio is good, "dsp" filters are OK. Worth the money and I enjoy it every time I work with it. About the menu's on the 7300, all the function you need to operate are available on hard buttons and fast touch screen icons. So the the menu to menu, to menu is out of the question. ;)
100% correct amlite. One can pick up a good working and nice looking TS-850, with the antenna tuner, for about half the price of this new Icom and the TS-850 will probably still outlast it. The 850 was close to $2000 in 1991, so that should give anyone an idea of the quality that went in to it.
Hi friend, I'm wondering how the TS850 would sound if you didn't have the Icom on the TS850 speaker? For a reception test, it would be advisable to use the same external speaker as well as changing the antenna, don't you think? In any case, the TS850SAT sounds quieter, has less noise and is a much better device, although I have both.
Without knowing what each radios filtering is set at we don’t know what we are hearing? If they are not set the same and both are on the same antenna and speaker then it’s not a fair comparison.👍🎙
They don't make durable radios like they use to. Yes, modern radios is much fancier and easy to search strong signals because of the scope on the wide screen, problem is, if the main mother board gives way then that is it. Just like modern Hifi stereos, when the board gets broken might as well buy a new one. Just an opinion....
I know but still, it works great especially once capacitors have been replaced. That said it has not the NR capacity of today's rig, but i can achieve nice audio while tweaking the notch as if it was a NR function.
Why are you comparing a portable radio to a base? I would never lug around that suit case portable, Kenwood is a great radio, but not in a go box. Comparing apples & oranges. I have an Icom 746 that's a great radio but weighs almost 3 times what the 7300 does...lol
@stan S i do know what i am talking about having owned owned an 850 for several years the are good but by no means the best my present radio is a yaesu ft 1000 mk5 but that is bettered by many other radios now, you obviously dont own an 850 so please dont take your opinions from others operators who will always say there radio is best have a nice day stan
You know, I am shopping for a new radio...........I hear this and that about the 7300... I for one want to run AM, and NO ONE has ever talked about it's durability on AM during LONG WINDED rag chews!! Any one know how it will stand up to this ???
the final section of ts-850 is comprised of two toshiba 2sc2879 transistors. CBers run these transistors at 200W+ each driving them hard at 15.5 volts at a 100W out ts850 is 100% duty cycle carrier, brick on the key and walk away indefinitely. try doing that with a 7300 you will need a fire extinguisher in no time ! 850 can be easily adjusted to put out 150W with ZERO DEGRADATION of spurious emissions and no heat related failures 850 Factory power out on AM is 40 watts carrier with 100watt peak compare to 25 w on icom you can also choose your AM tx bandwidth with the 850 !!!! go 6k or go wide at almost 12K or chose a custom filter for am tx and rx bandwidth add the dsp-100 for No carrier curlback on overmodulation - if desired and super broadcast quality ssb audio 7300 does not even come close to this like a toys R us radio for matel pink princess series
