No, Kenwood never made a TS611.  The radio that was made in that time 
period was the TS670S, and it was the follow up to the TS660 and the 
predecessor to the TS680S.

A blind friend of mine had the TS670S, and it was quite a nice radio, 
especially if you ran it into a Mirage A1015 amplifier.  You could get a 
good solid 150 watts on 6 meters that way.

Kenwood actually took a big step backwards when they made the 
TS680S.  While the TS680S had full HF coverage, and it had 31 memories 
(that was a lot in 1988), Kenwood fumbled the ball on both receiver design 
and accessibility.  The TS680S had no provision for speech whatsoever, and 
the pots for power, RF Gain, and NB level used really cheesy slide controls 
that were okay when the radio was new, but quickly degraded as the radio 
aged.  The HF receiver was a double conversion receiver and suffered from 
insufficient rejection of signals from the FM broadcast band which was a 
real problem around 17 meters and the 16 meter broadcast band.  As you can 
tell, I owned a couple of them before I lost the rest of my vision, so I'm 
well acquainted with their strengths and their foibles.

In my opinion, Kenwood really redeemed itself when they replaced the TS680S 
with the TS690S.  The '690S is a TS450S with 6 meters added (50 watts on 6 
meters).  If you are lucky enough to find one with the AT450 auto tuner 
installed, and the VS2 voice synthesizer, they are a pretty accessible 
radio and the receiver sounds much better than the receiver in the TS680S 
did.  I still have my TS690S, which is a testament to how well I think 
Kenwood did with that radio.  The TS690S was introduced in 1992, by the way.

If you find a TS690S, but it doesn't have the AT450S, don't sweat it.  Both 
MFJ and LDG make tuners with Kenwood interfaces that can be controlled from 
that radio, and will do nearly as well as the original AT450 auto 
tuner.  They will do better, if you want to operate 160 meters as the AT450 
did not cover 160 meters.

I don't think Kenwood sold very many of the TS670S radios.  6 meters wasn't 
nearly as popular in the 1980s as it is today, mostly because of the 
prevalence of TVI issues before a large number of people switched over to 
cable TV.  In fact, there was about a 4 year period in the early 1980s, 
when Kenwood didn't offer a radio at all that would operate on 6 
meters--that was the time between when they discontinued the TS600S and 
when they introduced the TS660.  For a while, it was the Icom IC551D, or 
nothing!

There, that should give you about a 30 year history on Kenwood radios on 6 
meters.

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 06:24 PM 10/4/2007 -0400, you wrote:
>I don't know about the 71 series but the 75 series had speech. I think the 6
>meter Kenwood we're thinking of was the TS-611. I saw the TS-600 for sale
>the other day, 6 meter version of the TS700,  wow!! can that thing bring a
>price!!  but it's the first one I've ever seen for sale so that's probably
>why.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Brett Winches" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 6:21 PM
>Subject: Re: Antenna switches.
>
>
> > You are right but I too forget the model number.  Wish I had a pair or
> > better yet the Icom of that era.  The receivers were reputedly  (by
> > those in my area working weak signal satellite or moonbounce)better on
> > the Icom but I forget if the 271 471 had speech.  I do think that they
> > had a GasFet preamp option which explains the receiver difference. =20
> >
> >
> > ###
> > BRETT WINCHESTER
> > [log in to unmask]
> > 208-639-8386
> > ###
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: For blind ham radio operators
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Miller
> > Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 2:39 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Antenna switches.
> >
> > I think there was a 6 meter version of that too but good luck finding
> > one.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Dave Marthouse" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 4:18 PM
> > Subject: Re: Antenna switches.
> >
> >
> >> The 711 is a two meter all mode rig.  Make sure the radio has the
> > speech
> >> board and the pl board.  I had one and its companion the 811 for 432.
> > The
> >> radios worked very well and were real workhorses.
> >>
> >> Dave Marthouse N2AAM
> >> [log in to unmask]
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----=20
> >> From: "Chris Schulte" <[log in to unmask]>
> >> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 4:12 PM
>
>
>
>--
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.1/1050 - Release Date: 10/4/2007 
>5:03 PM

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
Home e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Work e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5740