Tag Archives: Hamvention

Hamvention Photos: Hendricks QRP Kits

Doug Hendricks holding a Ft. Tuthill transceiver

Another very active table at the Dayton Hamvention and Four Days in May is that of Hendricks QRP Kits.

Doug Hendricks (pictured right) and his team produce some amazing, affordable QRP kits that fill many a niche in the shack. Below, I have photos of a small selection of their offerings at the Hamvention.  Note that all of these kits are available on the Hendricks QRP Kits website.

Many of Hendrick’s kits are suitable for beginners. If you’re in doubt about your kit building skills, simply contact the folks at Hendricks and they’ll help guide you to the right kit.

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

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.

Video: Tuning the Ten-Tec Argonaut VI

As Ten-Tec was setting up at the Dayton Hamvention last Thursday, I was able to meet with their engineer (John Henry) briefly and had a little time to play with the new Model 539 Argonaut VI. As I tuned around the CW side of the 20 meter band, I recorded a short video. I’m sharing this with you here, but must ask your forgiveness for its quality and glitches; I want to make it clear that this material was recorded on my Android phone in some haste.

Moreover, this video does not do justice to the Argo VI’s audio, which is exceptional.  In fact, I can’t tell a difference between its audio and that of the Ten-Tec Eagle, both of which have very low noise floors and simply gorgeous audio fidelity.

Now, just a small taste of what this receiver can do…

Elecraft at the Hamvention

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Elecraft KX3 at the Dayton Hamvention

The Elecraft booth has been teeming with people. Of course, large crowds around the KX3–perhaps almost as many as last year, when they first introduced this hand held QRP magic.  I know I want one.

Photos of the Kenwood TS-990

The display model of the Kenwood TS-990 is covered under plexiglass in Hara Arena. Here are a few photos I took this morning. Note that they’ve covered the back panel of the radio with black cloth.

 

Photos of the Yaesu FT DX 3000

Here are a few first photos of the Yaesu FT DX 3000 at the 2012 Dayton Hamvention. I’ve also taken shots of the product sheet below. Better images will follow. Tagged: Yaesu

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