John,
I am a long-time Omni user, having owned the very first Omni (ever) in
Europe, and then later the V, VI, and V+.
At the same time I am an active member of the Bavarian Contest Club which
has standardized on the TS-850 (though they are now considering a
replacement).
The V is not quite as good as the VI's (see
http://www.sherweng.com/table.html ), but that doesn't mean it is bad.
Unfortunately there are no specs for the TS-850 on Rob's page.
One point in favour of the TS-850 which hasn't been mentioned yet, is that
the 850's antenna tuner is one of the best ever built into a transceiver.
It is one of the very few rigs where you can just add an external balun and
load all bands into a full-size 80m dipole fed with open wire. We have used
this extensively for Field Day. But if you don't need this feature, that's
about the end of the points to the 850's advantage (IMHO).
Although Kenwood did pay attention to the front-end, it still was pretty
useless here in EU on 40m with a good antenna, unless you use a lot of
attenuation or an external preselector. Most of the boys modified the rig
to enable inserting the preselector directly in the RX antenna line,
eliminating the need to switch it in and out between T/R. Without this mod,
I simply would not use one in a contest (here in EU).
The Omni V was indeed very usable under these same conditions, even without
the preselector - though I always used one anyway - even with the Orion.
And its (standard Ten-Tec) 100w TX does not fold back, even with SWR up to
3:1 so many people do not even need a tuner with this rig - especially if
used driving a linear.
A few years back I sold my Omni VI+ in early January and ordered an Orion.
Then I found myself in the awkward position of not having a transceiver the
weekend of CQWW 160 CW. I borrowed a TS-850 which had several extra
filters, but did not yet have the mod for the preselector. I listened on
the 160m band for just one evening, then compared it to my K2 (10w) and it
was a world of difference. I gave the TS-850 back to its owner and used my
K2 driving a linear (2x 3-500z), giving me about 80w out. I found this much
better than the un-modified TS-850.
But that is Europe - you guys don't have as bad of conditions stateside as
we have here.
>From an operational standpoint, I'll take the Omni V any day over the
TS-850.
- bigger knobs
- bigger display
- much nicer QSK
- better sound
On the other hand, we have broken a lot of European and world (contesting)
records using the TS-850's (but modified). And the 100w class in the field
day contest is won almost every year here in Germany using the 850 with the
antenna I described above.
73
Rick
DJ0IP (DJ2T in contests)
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of John Geiger
Sent: Mittwoch, 21. Februar 2007 03:30
To: tentec@contesting.com; cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Omni V vs. TS850
I may be in the market soon for an older (1990s)
contest quality rig, and wonder how the Kenwood TS850
compares to the Ten Tec Omni V overall. Anyone have a
chance to compare these 2?
The QST review for the Omni V put it, the TS850, the
Yaesu FT990, and the Icom 765 at the same level. I
hear that the FT990 has a crucial part no longer
supported by Yaesu, and the Icom 765 seems to go for
more than these others, which is why I am looking at
either the Kenwood or Ten Tec.
I had a TS850 briefly in the past and loved it. I
really like the fact that it has a built in memory
keyer, and voice keyer option, and is smaller than the
Onmi 5, but how do the 2 really compare
performancewise?
73s John W5TD
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