The Kenwood TS-990S: Some preliminary specs and features

02-IMG_1460 - Copy — The TS-990s under glass at the 2012 Dayton Hamvention

At Dayton, I had a chance to ask Kenwood reps about the TS-990S. They did have a few details, but many (such as price) are still rather vague. I made notes on these:

This rig will weigh in at 57 or so pounds. This is probably due to the fact that it has an internal power supply.
The main receiver is completely down-conversion.
The sub receiver is the TS-590’s receiver. They even told me that if you read the TS-590S spec, it will be identical to that of the TS-990S sub receiver. As with the TS-590, the TS-990S sub receiver is mainly down-conversion.
It has three, 32Bit DSP processors
It has five roofing filters at: 300Hz, 500Hz, 2.7 6kHz and 15kHz which run at 8MHz. The sub-receiver runs at 11MHz.
Connections include:

Optical In/Out
DVI
and “Multiple” USB connections

The TS-990S will be 200 Watts
Shipping: They expect to ship in November 2012
Price: Between $5-10K US, but will not exceed $10K US. Two different Kenwood reps told me that Kenwood understands that there aren’t many hams in this economy who could spend in excess of $10K.

These specs were rattled off as if they’d been said a thousand times (and I bet they had by the time I got around to the booth).

Not a lot to go one, but I can vouch that these features and specifications came directly from Kenwood.

4 thoughts on “The Kenwood TS-990S: Some preliminary specs and features”

This radio is too complicated, too many knobs, much too expensive. I like simple things. This transceiver is meant for a very big ego, I guess.

No. This radio is too simple! In fact, it is a radio for the true and serious ham operator thats is truely a DX and a contester. With a radio like this you never had to loose time entering in too very long menus and searching the item you need to change in radio. In fact, you simple in a blink of an eye choose the function or item you need. You really have not a clue of what are you talking about.