Early release of Dayton eye candy!!


Dayton with many more surprises
My issue of QST came in yesterday and the back page made the new Kenwood rig official !!  There is a great pic there of the new TS 990S but with little to no spec's. The available spec's brag of a top RF output of 200 watts, HF and 50mhz, built in antenna tuner,built in power supply and really thats about all the info Kenwood released in the full page release. Viewing the picture one can see two USB ports which are nicely placed on the front of the rig. A very impressive color TTF display along with a band scope, not if the rig houses two independent receivers but it would seem so as there are independent controls for each receiver on the right hand side of the radio. Not sure as of yet what the optional components of the TS 990S are.  So what are your impressions of the new kid on the block??
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

10 Responses to “Early release of Dayton eye candy!!”

  • Alex g7kse:

    All I can say is it looks expensive

  • Mike Ve3wdm:

    Good morning Alex, it sure does and the word on the airwaves is the price falls in around 4,000 to 6,000. Now having said that not sure if that includes all options of if you will have the opurtunity to drop more money on the rig to pickup some other add on goodies.
    Alex thanks for stopping by the blog and taking the time to comment.
    Mike
    VE3WDM

  • Chris Meisenzahl (@speedmaster) / K9ROC:

    Wow, that thing looks slick! 🙂

  • Mike VE3WDM:

    Good afternoon Chris, yes to look at it the rig is impressive. I am wanting to see the spec on it. There was not much said about the rig in the QST add.
    Thanks for stopping by Chris and taking the time to comment.
    Mike

  • Scott W9VHE:

    As others have said, looks expensive and loaded for bear. Apparently has an analog meter with all the other digital displays. Nice!

  • Marty AG3EK:

    It sounds like the only USB ports are on the front of the radio. It would be nice to have at least one on the back. It says Comm and LAN ports, and I don’t see them so they must be around back.

    There aren’t that many connectors that really should be out front. Mic, headphones, maybe a keyer. Maybe. If you have to run a cable from the back to the front by going alongside or under the rig, that’s not really any worse than just having it come out of the front. But, if you don’t actually need to have the cable right out front (because you are using a wireless headset or don’t use the keyer much so it can just sit out of the way when not being used or whatever) it would be so much better to have it out back where it’s out of the way.

    Look at laptop computers. Do they put USB ports or headphone jacks on the front of it? No, they’re on the sides, out of the way. Typically, toward the back of the device.

    Not that my opinion matters much since I won’t be able to afford one any time soon. 🙂

    Marty

  • Mike VE3WDM:

    Good evening Scott, yes the analog meter looks great and I believe the Icom rigs did the same. Your right it sure does look loaded but without further info from Kenwood we just won’t be sure what it has and what you can get on top of what you see in the picture Kenwood has released.
    Thanks for stopping by Scott.
    Mike

  • Mike VE3WDM:

    Good evening Marty, it’s a great idea to have some ports on the side or the rig. Not sure if any rig does that at this time…..well the Elecraft KX3 do I believe. It would be nice to get a pic of the back of the TS 990S and some more details as to what it can do….BUT as you said Marty I too am not going to have the funds anytime soon either.
    Thanks for taking the time to contribute Marty have a good week.
    Mike

  • Roland K7MCK:

    Looks very expensive. I will have to make do with my Icom 706 and 735
    for now. Roland k7mck

  • Mike VE3WDM:

    Good afternoon Roland, the price comes in around 4,000 to 6,000. That’s big coin for a radio. A wise man once told me ” the more bells and whistles you have the more that can go wrong”. Roland thanks for taking the time to put your two cents worth in.
    Mike

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