Hi Rich.

It's about the same size as the other Kenwood full sized HF mobiles.  It
uses the MB430 mounting bracket for mobile use, if that gives you a rough
idea of the size.

As for complexity, you will definitely want to read the manual more than
once as there is a lot packed into this radio, but even with the numerous
features, I find the radio to be less formidable than the Icom IC706 MkII G.

There is some good material on www.icanworkthisthing.com for the TS2000S,
and I would heartily recommend downloading the MCP2000 control software
from Kenwood.  It is a free download, and it will allow you to load the
memories from the computer, as well as set all of the menus.  This software
works very well with JAWS, and I can see no reason why it shouldn't work
equally well with Window-Eyes.  You can connect the computer to the TS2000S
by connecting a cable that has a female DB9 connector on each end between
your serial port and the DB9 connector on the back of the radio.  The cable
should be a straight-through cable and can be gotten from Radio Shack, even
though the clerks will swear up and down they don't carry it.  No other
interface is required, and you can load the memories, complete with PL
tones.  That was the approach I took.  Since there are 300 memories, I
figured there were enough memories to put every conceivable repeater pair
in the area in, along with PL tones (I still have almost 200 memories left
over!), and when I want to work the repeaters, I just go to the
memories.  What could be simpler?

The PL can be set up even if you don't have a computer, as long as you have
a list of the PL frequencies and can count.  That is because the detented
knob that is used to set the PLs beeps at the lowest settings, so if you
know how many lines the PL that you want is down the chart, you can just
start counting clicks.  I've set my radio both ways, and while I like
programming from the computer better, I could do it either way.

As I commented to Anthony earlier this week, I think getting one of the
accessory microphones with the four PF keys is well worth the
expenditure.  These four PF keys (PF stands for programmable function) can
be programmed from the menu system with the computer, and I set mine so
that PF1 activates the voice synthesizer to read frequency and mode.  PF2
activates the voice synthesizer to read S meter readings.  PF3 momentarily
activates RX Monitor which opens the squelch.  PF4 activates the TF SET
function which allows you to listen on the input frequency of any repeater
that you have programmed in.  Of course there are many different functions
that you could assign to these keys, but these are the functions that I
deemed most important, and these were the ones that I didn't want to have
to reach back to the radio for.

All in all, I don't think the radio is that bad to operate, and it has a
lot of nice features.  I have no regrets about buying it.

73, de Lou K2LKK


At 05:59 PM 9/25/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi everyone;
>I was just looking at some ts2000 info and it said most everything except
>the size.  For example, how much larger is it than the ts570?  Some of the
>literature sounds rather formidable, how is the learning curve?  Does it
>provide audible pl tone info?
>Rich

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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