Hi Tom.

I pretty much concur with the guys that are saying that $500 is pretty much
the top end that I would pay for a TS-440S.

In addition to the comments that Bob made about the VCO board, let me add
that the keypads tended to get flaky on these radios, and if you have the
misfortune of getting a flaky one, you can't replace it.  Some of the early
radios in that series had a lot of problems with intermittent connectors in
the wiring harnesses that ran between the various boards, and band
switching relay problems were common in that series of radios, so those are
all things you may wish to look out for.

If you should happen across a Kenwood TS-450S or a Kenwood TS-690S that you
are potentially interested in, but the radio doesn't have a voice board, I
have one of the VS-2 voice boards sitting on the shelf not being used.  I
plan to take it to the Rochester hamfest with me, if no one takes it off my
hands before then.

Don't necessarily be discouraged by my comments on the Kenwood TS-440S.  My
sister bought one with the voice board, auto tuner, and the matching
Kenwood Power Supply for $500 two years ago, and it is working fine for
her.  I am just pointing out the things that I would be watching out for if
I were buying one.

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 01:28 AM 5/4/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>What is a reasonable price for the Kenwood ts440 with antena tuner and speech
>chip installed?  I'm looking at a couple of them but being new to this thought
>I'd get some input from the group.
>
>Tom
>
>
>Tom Brennan KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP R/D - AU
>web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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