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Matthew Stepaniak

ENG 1101-219

Dr. C

10/9/2018

Annotated Bibliography

Old or new, when it comes to HF rigs which is better? I am a new ham radio operator

and am looking to buy, or build, my first HF rig. I have decided to go with the Kenwood brand

and am now looking at the bands covered and features. I plan on buying used due to the greatly

reduced price, but if the final cost of a good used radio is near the price of a new one, I’ll just go

straight to new.

“A Ham Radio for Makers [Resourcespass:[_]Hands On].” IEEE Spectrum, Spectrum, IEEE,

IEEE Spectr, no. 3, 2016, p. 21. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1109/MSPEC.2016.7420390.

Talking to distant people has lost its wow factor due to rise of phones, so ham radio

operators now amuse themselves by experimenting with new digital modes. Digital modes are

easy to run on a computer but connecting a computer to a radio is often difficult. The $90 RS-

UV3 radio shield is built for makers, it features a 0.25 watt output on its UHF/VHF frequencies

and can be run by an Arduino, PC, Raspberry Pi. If simply booted on it will go into simplex

mode on 146.52 MHz. With a serial interface you can tune to multiple frequencies.

Serial communication can be done by FTDI or hardwiring an Arduino to the RS-UV3. The

built-in DB-9 connector gives you serial lines, audio in and out, as well as a PTT control line.

Raspberry Pi 2’s have enough power to run the needed software and the RS-UV3 at the same

time. A USB audio adapter is needed for use with a raspberry Pi. All together one can get a

fully functioning digital radio that can fit in a small box for less than $150
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Being from 2016 and published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),

this is a very relevant article for my topic. Playing around Arduinos also happen to be a passion

of mine, so this would be easy for me to work. This is only a UHF/VHF radios so a frequency

step-down board would be needed before it would work on HF, but I have used those before and

they are mostly plug and play. $150 is an amazing price for a HF setup, but I would want to look

into an amplifier to bring its 0.25watts up to at least 100watts which would not be cheap.

Hallas, Joel. “Kenwood TS-590SG HF and 6 Meter Transceiver.” QST, July 2015. pp. 47-53

The TS-590SG is a revised 2nd generation TS-590S. The main differences are rather small

but range from more backlight colors to better receive and a built in morse decoder. It also

allows independent control of the Digital Sound Processing (DSP) filters high and low ends.

Easy one button split frequency operation, both RS-232 and USB for computer connection which

grant you almost full control of the radio with a computer. On the back of the radio we find two

antenna inputs selected by the ant ½ button on the front panel, a socket for connecting an

external antenna tuner, and the 13.8 vDC power input. To keep the front panel compact most of

the buttons are dual purpose with a short press meaning one thing and a long press a different

thing. It also features an easy to use menu that allow you use the radio without constant need of

the instruction manual. The tuning knob can select from 2.5, 10, or 20kHz tuning rates and each

of those rates can be reduced by a factor of 10 with the Fine button. The band buttons also

double as a number pad for directly entering a frequency. It has 120 memory channels, although

five are dedicated to the sixty meter channels, and ten are meant to be used for scan limits. The

590SG offers seven different high and low boost modes for it transmit audio, full break-in mode

for morse code (CW), and a limited internal antenna tuner that works best for tuning to the edge

of a band.
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Healy, James. “Kenwood TS-850S 160- to 10-Meter Transceiver.” QST, Jun 1991. pp 42-46.

At first one might thing that the TS-850s would be the TS950s little brother, but it turns

out the 850 is quite different and, in certain areas, better than the 950. From the front the 850

ressembles the 950, but its guts are not the same. The 850 only has one receiver and runs off of

13.8volt DC, it is also smaller and lighter than the 950. It uses a ‘power on menu’ to change the

RIT/XIT width, turn the internal keyer weighting function off and on, the S meters peak-hold

mode, choose beep tones or turn beep-tones completely off, and a built in computer interface.

To use the power on function on holds the LSB/USB button while powering the radio on, which

pulls up the menu, then you can scroll through it 35 options and make changes as needed. The

LCD display shows incoming signal strength while receiving, and power output, ALC, SWR, or

speech-compression when transmitting. It also features 100 full memories and five quick

memories, It has the same CW pitch ability as the TS-940s as well as a six and a twelve dB

attenuators that can be used separately or together. The 850 has both full and semi break-in CW

and its built in keyer sounds great even at 40+ words a minute. Kenwood also made the

additional accessory's extremely easy to install, just open a small hatch and pop the new piece in.

One final suggestion is to buy the optional 1.8MHz filter for SSB as it makes it easier to hear

when Dxing.

The TS-850 is another very viable option for me, its used price of 500 is well within my

budget. To me this seems like a 950 that went through a revision and then had the onboard

power supply removed. It does not have anything that makes it my first choice, but it is in the

top three.

Hutchinson, Chuck. “Trio-Kenwood Communication TS-940S HF Transceiver.” QST, Feb

1986. pp. 47-49.

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The TS-940S is a “solid-state, broadband transmitter; a sturdy power supply . . . with . . .

an optional all band, automatic antenna matching network.” It has individual buttons for each of

the bands it covers, these buttons can also be used to directly enter a frequency into the VFOs. A

pair of one MHz step buttons, an A/B button to select which of its two VFOs is in use, four

memory banks each with ten channels, those memory channels store both frequency and mode

used. It also features both RIT and XIT, and a multipurpose digital display.

The TS-940S receive features two blanker filters and a pitch shift for the tone of incoming CW.

The transmitter side has two heat controlled fans as well as full-break-in CW. All around the

TS-940S is an excellent transceiver.

This radio is sitting high on my list, its ease of use and features do cause it to have a pricy $750

tag attached to it. It does come with a built in power supply which is a huge bonus as power

supplies tend to run around $150. That aside, it’s a great radio I would love to have one. QST is

a very trusted source of mine as it has been doing radio reviews for a long time, since 1915 I

believe, and are always very thorough.

“Origin of the Name "HAM" for Amateur Radio Operators.”

http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical/origin-of-ham.htm. Accessed 31 October

2018

There are lots of stories on where amateur radio got the nickname ham, the most likely

story on that origin goes back to an amateur radio club started by three Harvard students, Albert

Hyman, Bob Almy, and Poogie Murray. The club’s identification name (call sign) started as

Hyman-Almy-Murray but was soon shortened to Hy-Al-Mu. In 1901 after some confusion in

between a ship name the Hyalmu and the radio club call sign, they changed their call again to

simply HAM. When Congress tried to put extreme regulations on amateur radio in 1911, Hyman
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took a stand and fought against it saying these new complex rules and associated licensing fees

would force the amateur station HAM to shut down. The little station HAM became well known

from the Congressional spotlight and soon the term was being associated with all amateur

stations.

I have personally heard this story a couple times so and think it is by and far the most

likely explanation to the nickname ham.

Wolfgang, Larry. “Kenwood TS-140S 160- to 10-Meter Transceiver.” QST, Jun 1988. pp 42-

46.

The Kenwood TS-140S is a full featured radio with a lower than average cost. It features

“two digital VFOs . . . 31 memory channels, two noise blankers, RIT, IF shift, a switchable 20-

dB attenuator and the ability to receive any frequency from 50 kHz to 35 MHz”. It also has

“full- or semi-break-in CW, PTT, VOX . . . and split frequency operation.” It can transmit and

receive on “USB, LSB, CW, AM, and FM.” It does require a 13.8volt, 20amp DC power supply

which run about $150, it can run off of a 12volt car battery at the cost of reduced power output.

The TS-140S uses combo button presses to reduce its overall button count.

Wolfgang does mention that sometimes stations would “suddenly fade and almost disappear”,

this problem showed up on two separate radios. It also makes a little pop every 50 or 100 kHz

depending how you have the radio set up. The transmit power is controlled by a slide that is

“very touchy”. In conclusion Wolfgang says “If you’re setting up a station to use primarily for

contesting, this may not be the rig you are looking for. For more casual operation, with an

occasional contest-operating stint, it’s a nice rig.”

A QST review is possibly the best info you can get on a radio, so if they find that it seems to be

dropping stations every so often, I trust them. That and the entire ‘hold one button while you
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press another’ to get to things are huge turn-offs to this radio, but not a complete deal breaker.

Although it would have to be priced far below its normal $350 for me to bite.