Excellent advice, Mike, and what a great story about your first journey into 
the wonderful world of speakers!

Who knows what I'll come back from Dayton with!!  (big smile)

And, I'll certainly keep the list posted on my speaker scavenger hunt!

Isn't that part of the fun of this great hobby of ours??

Tom Behler: KB8TYJ


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Duke, K5XU" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 7:00 PM
Subject: Re: External speaker recommendations


> Speakers have been a great weakness of mine ever since the weekend I
> came home from school at around age 7, and discovered that my brother
> had put several salvaged television speakers in the corners of our
> shared bedroom, and one under each of our beds, then tied the whole
> pile to our AM radio. Despite the phasing and matching issues that
> neither of us had ever heard of at the time, that conglomeration
> impressed all the kids in the neighborhood. It also caused a run on
> discarded speakers of any description, and on rolls of single strand
> "door bell" wire at our local Western Auto store.
>
> All that to say that my speaker of choice for my TS570S is an oval
> shaped speaker that is approximately 3 by 7 inches. I bought it from a
> local guy at a hamfest in 1980 for a whole fifty cents. That price
> included a very dirty metal cabinet, which housed the speaker, along
> with several switches and test pin type connectors. The fellow told me
> it came in a bunch of surplus stuff he had gotten in a trade. I
> removed the other components out of the cabinet, cleaned it up, and
> added four rubber feet.
>
> I have a Kenwood SP120, which is basically the same speaker that is in
> any of the Kenwood external speaker boxes, but the sound isn't worth
> the price one pays just to get a matching cabinet that looks pretty.
>
> I have two of the Motorola speakers that Tom described. He is right
> about those speakers not being very easy on the ears for SSB. After
> all, they were built to project narrow band FM audio in a noisy mobile
> environment.
>
> A local friend uses the MFJ speaker that Tom mentioned with his TS480.
> I have not heard it, but he says he likes it. I forget the model
> number, but MFJ sells it for about $40.
>
> The short summary of this ramble is, try cheap yard sale or hamfest
> bargain speakers first. If they sound good or terrible, you will know
> immediately, and will either be very pleased, or only a little
> disappointed without breaking the bank in the process.
>
> Mike Duke, K5XU
>