A superb radio from Kenwood
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A superb radio from Kenwood |
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Jay's 850/Hi-Fi SSB story:- Nearly 30 years ago I met a very close friend named Curt Furtado, KI5AK. We are still friends to this day. Back then our interests were 10 speed bicycles, basketball and two-way radio. I can’t remember when or where we first met but I remember Curt's Uncle giving him a CB radio from his boat. I would try to talk to Curt using cheap Radio Shack walkie-talkies. This was not hard to do, because I lived up on a small hill while Curt lived in the valley below. Months passed and Curt’s parents bought a house on the same hill just above where I lived. This worked out great, because if I wasn’t at Curt’s house, he was down at mine. The next thing I remember is Curt and I attending several ham radio classes and finally we obtained our Novice ham radio license. Curt worked at his dad’s restaurant and managed to save enough money to purchase a Heathkit HW-101 Kit. Neither Curt nor I had ever attempted to build any type of kit before. While Curt would tend to the soldering duties, I tend to Curt’s old console radio/turntable listening to Rock and Roll groups like Grand Funk Railroad, Boston, and many others. This console setup was loud and had wonderful bass energy. Curt and I played the music so loud that the nails started to come out of the ceiling! His parents were not to thrill about this we they saw it. The old console had a wonderful sounding AM receiver that had shortwave bands that I still miss today.This is when I developed my interests in HiFi radio. Even in Ham Radio I tend to gravitate towards better receive and transmit audio no matter what the mode. In the 1980’s, the AM bug hit hard and along with elmering from the AM’ers like K4KYV, WA1HLR, and K7VZP, I started modifying transmitters and receivers for better audio. This combined my love for ham radio along with my HiFi Audio cravings. In the latter part of the 80’s economics along with housing prevented me from using the big AM iron. I really didn’t think I would ever get back into ham radio being apartment confined. Even in the apartment, I played with indoor antennas, and continued rebuilding old “boat anchor” gear. After nearly setting the apartment complex on fire (this is another story), my interest changed to QRP style operating. A few years later I was lucky enough to move into small home on nice city lot. I didn’t think I could ever do much with ham radio at this location, but once a ham, always a ham. I started chasing DX, QRP, and a little contesting to maintain a low profile in the neighborhood. One day I pulled out some of my old AM processing gear and hooked it up to my Kenwood TS950 SDX to do a little AM operation on 10 meters. However when there weren’t any AMers to be found at 29 MHz I would go down to the Novice/Technician sub band and work some SSB. One day, I bumped into this young teenager Tyler, KA0KA. He really made a big deal about my SSB audio. At this point I still didn’t think a SSB Rig could ever sound as good as an AM rig. I was just messing around, but soon I would find out differently. A few months later, I bumped into Tyler again on 10 meters, this time there was even more excitement in Tyler’s voice. Tyler told me there were some guys on 14.178 doing SSB audio like I was doing, but they were approaching AM-like quality. He kept insisting I must go down and listen for myself. I finally went down to 178 to have a listen for myself and from then to the present, HiFi SSB has been one of my passions. What is so neat about doing HiFi SSB is there is less RFI into the neighborhood, less heat in the shack, no carrier to deal with and can be duplicated by anyone with modern parts and amateur transceivers. I still have some of my old AM tube rigs, and if I ever get out into the country, I plan on firing them up. In the meantime, the gang on 14.178 satisfies my love for amateur radio and HiFi radio. There is one web site that is my reference for Broadcast Audio on SSB. This is John Anning’s “NU9N Hi-Fi SSB Audio”. There are many sites dealing with SSB Audio, but John’s is the most complete, but he also has links to all the others for you to surf to your hearts content. If you read what's on John’s site and implement what he says you will end up with a super sounding station. Even if you have only a mild or no interest in HiFi audio, there are things on John’s website that can help the CW operator by introducing you to programs such as Spectra. No matter what you do in ham radio it will enhance other facets such as CW, Dxing and Contesting. With hams like W3HD and W5GI started using the TS850 along with the DSP100 combo, the hams on 14.178 using Spectra started noticing high frequency response like they had not seen on any other rig. However, the transmitter suffered from poor bass response and distortion if you tried to pump more than the TS850/DSP100 was willing to accept (below 80 Hz). Also the receive frequency response would roll off at 200 Hz. AM response was even worse, it would roll off below 300 Hz. Enter Paul, W9AC, who came up with modifications to fix the lumpy base response of the TS-850/DSP-100 combo along with adding balanced audio to the system. Paul also came up with some very neat mods for the receiver, which fixed the low frequency roll off and also made the monitor useable in the TS 850. All of these mods can be found on Tyler’s KA0KA web site. There is not really anything else I can add that these two sites above can’t provide! I would like to thank Paul, John, and Tyler for making the TS850 the most bang for the HiFi buck. I forgot to mention the TS850 makes a wonderful AM transmitter and receiver and the mods are on Tyler’s web page along with the SSB Modifications. This may sound like I am not doing AM anymore, but I am gathering parts for a class E rig. For some very neat sites on building a state of the art AM transmitter look no further than Steve’s, WA1QIX and Bob K1KBW's web pages. I would also like to thank the rest of the gang on 14.178 for all their help to make me sound better and the knowledge to do so. 73 - de Jay |
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