Many rigs can be brought into play for a variety of services and be a joy to own. This thread focus's on digital modes, so .....
I love my TS-480HX, and it is used on the base for 24/7 digital ALE operations. Its better performance due to NOT having two meters and four forty bands improves the HF side. It is my main mobile rig. The extra power of the HX allows running at lower power, such as 100 watts, at near full duty cycle that a normal 100 watt rig would not do well at. Same for operating in hot mobile situations .... running digital in a hot mobile can be handled by this rig. The HX version has two cooling fans along with the normal 480 heavy case fin cooling design. The IC-7000 runs hot just for the voice duty cycle ..... Down load the TS-480HX/SAT In Depth Manual at the link below, and read it right from Kenwood experts. Then you will understand why no two meters and four forty is desirable in the design of an HF receiver. An exception is the TS-2000 with separate modules for the other bands, but it is known to have a different HF design that doesnt have as good a performance on HF bands as the 480 design. http://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/software_download.html I miss the DSP auto notch of the MP when using the 480. That is the one feature that amazes me as to why it wasnt included. Yes, I plan on keeping the 480 for a long time, and maybe getting another .... but I would not part with my Ft-1000MP with the dual I.F. cascaded physical filter design though... hi Hi HI Another ALE operator has a radio of interest for digital, the Icom IC-718. She points out that a few minor mod's are useful and should be incorporated. Please check out Bonnie's email on the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hflink/ reflector for the details. 73 from Bill - WD8ARZ http://hflink.net/qso/
