I used a TS850 at PJ9W in the 91 CQWW SSB. Since we didn't get on the air
until 2345z, I didn't have much chance to play with it. I decided not to buy
one, since the inconveniences outweighed the benefits - specifically, the vox
controls are way on the back of the rig, and there's no RIT Clear function.
The latter drove me nuts all weekend. I bought a late-model used 940 when I
got back. N6BV has a good receiver-testing setup, and compared my 930, 940,
his 830, and W1RR's 850. I was surprised at how bad the 930 was, pleasantly
surprised at how good the 940 was and amazed at how fantastic the 850 was. THe
receiver is completely free of spurs, and the phase noise is also better than
the older rigs. Too bad they screwed up the operating features (and make you
buy an external 12V supply to run it...).
Multi-2 in ARRL CW was a ball (6.4M with 2 ops); looks like m2 again on SSB,
but will have 3 ops and be on full-time.
73, Doug
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