TS-480HX_review_2004.pdf

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1、Kenwood TS-480HX HF + 6m transceiver T he TS-480 is available in two ver- sions; the TS-480SAT gives 100W output power and has a built-in antenna tuner, while the TS- 480HX, the subject of this review, features 200 watts output power and has no tuner. These are separate models, the amplifi er and tu

2、ner are not interchangeable between versions or retrofi ttable options. Whereas a number of radios now feature detachable front panels, with the TS-480 the front panel incorporat- ing the loudspeaker is a completely separate unit, common to both models and connected to the main body of the radio via

3、 a cable. The radio is provided with a selection of different mounting brackets and stands with both long and short separation cables to adapt to different installation requirements. The panel can be mounted remotely such as in a vehicle or for tabletop use particularly where space is at a premi- um

4、 or it can be mounted adjacent to the main unit with the supplied frame and carrying handle. In this way the radio is well suited to the different needs for home, vehicle or trans- portable use. BASIC FUNCTIONS The TS-480 operates from a 13.8V supply drawing around 40A for the higher power TS-480HX

5、or 20A for the TS-480SAT. The higher-power model uses two combined power amplifi ers each with a separate power lead. The power leads can either be connected to a common power source or to two sep- arate supplies, providing the voltage difference between them is less than 1V. With only one power lea

6、d connect- ed the radio operates on receive only. The main unit measures 179W x 70H x 278Dmm and weighs 3.2kg and the control panel measures 183W x 78H x 68Dmm and weighs only 0.5kg. The receiver tunes continuously from 30kHz to 60MHz and the trans- mitter is enabled only within the exact amateur al

7、locations. There are variants covering the American and European band allocations but only the American version transmits in the 60m band as standard. The maxi- mum power output is nominally 200W on the HF bands and 100W on 50MHz, reducing to 5W minimum. Modes covered are USB, LSB, CW, FSK, AM and F

8、M. FSK requires a dig- ital RTTY input and the shifts and tone frequencies may be set via the menu. Reverse sidebands are selec- table on FSK and CW. All controls are mounted on the remote front panel which also con- tains the rear facing speaker and headphone jack. Apart from the 35mm rotary tuning

9、 knob and two other concentric rotary controls all other functions are selected by push buttons. These are multipurpose in most cases but fairly intuitive in their operation. The yellow backlit LCD panel is clear and bright and easy to read. A menu of some 60 items pro- vides user selection or tailo

10、ring of many of the functions of the radio. Setting the radio on frequency can be done in a variety of different ways. The rotary tuning control tunes in 10Hz steps on SSB, CW and FSK modes with a tuning rate of 2.5, 5 or 10kHz per knob revolution. On AM and FM the rate is 10 times faster with 100Hz

11、 step sizes. A fi ne tune button reduces all these by a factor of 10. For faster tuning across the bands a click- step rotary can tune in a variety of mode-dependant step sizes and also a 1MHz step for coarse navigation. Finally, the frequency can be entered directly via numeric buttons. Both receiv

12、e and transmit incremental tun- ing is provided (RIT / XIT) over a range of 10kHz. Up / down keys scroll through the bands. An automode facil- ity will automatically select the mode according to the frequency. A table of up to 32 frequency / mode relation- ships may be set which is suffi cient to al

13、locate CW, FSK and SSB sub-bands for all the bands with some for AM broadcast. This is very helpful and an alternative and possibly more fl exible arrangement to band stacking used on other radios. The usual A / B twin VFOs are pro- vided with split frequency capability and a means to check and set

14、the Tx frequency. Several button presses are needed, there is no quick split facili- ty. There are a total of 100 memories which can be tagged with alphanu- The TS-480HX control panel on its mounting bracket. Reviewed by Peter Hart, G3SJX, The Willows, Paice Lane, Medstead, Alton, Hants GU34 5PR. RE

15、VIEW 33March 2004 RadCom www.rsgb.org Kenwood does not often bring out new HF transceivers, but when it does it is usually something a little different. This is certainly true of the new TS-480, to which Peter Hart gives his unique full technical review treatment. meric names up to eight characters

16、long and a one press store and recall quick memory feature for saving 10 frequencies on a stack. The usual comprehensive scanning features are provided allowing scanning across a frequency range or across the memo- ries with various scanning parame- ters user selectable. The main unit is fi tted wit

17、h twin fans for the higher power model and mini-DIN accessory sockets to inter- face to external linears, data termi- nals, PC sound card etc. The menu allows several different linear amplifi er switching configurations including delayed transmission for slow changeover speeds. Twin antenna sockets

18、on fl ying leads are provided and either can be switched to any band. Separate jacks for the internal keyer paddle and for external keying arrangements are also included. A 9- pin D connector interfaces directly to a PC serial COM port without the need for level conversion and this also pro- vides d

19、irect connection to other Kenwood radios for PacketCluster tun- ing and other data transfers. The radio is provided with a hand microphone fi tted with a longer cable than normal for plugging into the main unit. The receiver is a double conversion superhet with IFs of 73.095MHz and 10.695MHz with a

20、third conversion on FM to 455kHz. DSP is used for audio fi ltering functions in both the receiver and transmitter circuitry. The main channel selectivity is achieved at 10.695MHz where a 2.4kHz bandwidth fi lter is fi tted as standard. Up to two optional extra fi l- ters (1.8kHz, 500Hz or 270Hz) can

21、 be fi tted for narrower bandwidths on SSB or CW / FSK. An optional TCXO (temperature compensated crystal oscillator) reference can also be fi tted which provides frequency stability to within 0.5ppm. ADDITIONAL FEATURES Receiver features include selectable RF preamplifier / attenuator, all- mode sq

22、uelch, fast / slow AGC, IF shift to move the receive passband away from interfering signals and an IF noise blanker for ignition or pulse noise. DSP is used at audio to provide additional noise pulse elimination as well as multiple beat cancellation (audio notch) and background noise reduction. Two

23、noise reduction modes are implemented as also used in pre- vious Kenwood radios. The Line Enhancer method is particularly suit- ed to SSB and is based on adaptive fi l- tering. The Speech Processing / Auto Correlation (SPAC) method uses a sta- tistical auto-correlation algorithm and is particularly

24、effective for CW. DSP is also used to provide audio filtering functions on receive and transmit. On receive, adjustable high cut and low cut fi lters are implement- ed on speech modes and narrow bandwidth bandpass fi lters on CW and FSK modes. Several bandwidth settings are selectable down to 50Hz o

25、n CW or 250Hz on FSK and these fi l- ters track the CW pitch setting. For data communication in SSB mode TS-480HX control unit and main unit. Close-up of rear of main unit showing cooling fan. Optional narrow IF fi lters installed. 34March 2004 RadCom www.rsgb.org REVIEW KENWOOD TS-480HX MEASURED PE

26、RFORMANCE RECEIVER MEASUREMENTS SENSITIVITY SSB 10dBs+n:nINPUT FOR S9 FREQUENCYPREAMP INPREAMP OUTPREAMP INPREAMP OUT 136kHz2.0V (-101dBm)3.2V (-97dBm)280V700V 1.8MHz0.16V (-123dBm)0.40V (-115dBm)22V110V 3.5MHz0.14V (-124dBm)0.35V (-116dBm)22V100V 7MHz0.11V (-126dBm)0.28V (-118dBm)16V80V 10MHz0.14V

27、(-124dBm)0.35V (-116dBm)20V100V 14MHz0.13V (-125dBm)0.35V (-116dBm)18V90V 18MHz0.13V (-125dBm)0.35V (-116dBm)18V90V 21MHz0.13V (-125dBm)0.32V (-117dBm)16V90V 24MHz0.10V (-127dBm)0.32V (-117dBm)20V90V 28MHz0.10V (-127dBm)0.32V (-117dBm)20V90V 50MHz0.10V (-127dBm)0.35V (-116dBm)11V90V AM sensitivity (

28、28MHz): 0.6V for 10dBs+n:n at 30% mod depth FM sensitivity (28MHz): 0.14V for 12dB SINAD 3kHz pk deviation AGC threshold: 0.6V 100dB above AGC threshold for +1.5dB audio output increase AGC attack time: 2 - 3ms AGC decay time: 100 - 300ms (fast), 2 - 5s (slow) Max audio at 10% distortion: 2.0W into

29、8 Inband intermodulation products: -30dB to -40dB S-READINGINPUT LEVEL SSB (7MHz)PREAMP INPREAMP OUT S10.8V4V S31.4V6.3V S52.8V14V S78.9V45V S916V80V S9+20130V630V S9+401.6mV8mV S9+6020mV100mV IF FILTERIF BANDWIDTH -6dB-60dB 2.4kHz SSB2490Hz4800Hz 1.8kHz SSB2010Hz4060Hz 270Hz CW300Hz840Hz 6kHz AM7.4

30、kHz22.9kHz FM10.3kHz21.2kHz such as PSK31 or RTTY via a sound card, additional DSP audio fi ltering for narrower bandwidths and higher tone frequencies can be selected. However, switching back and forth between voice and data involves switching this fi lter on and off via the menu system which is a

31、little cum- bersome. On voice modes, several preset audio frequency responses (equalisers) are available for both the receiver and transmitter to suit dif- ferent operators voices or ears. The transmit audio bandwidth is switch- able wide or narrow and DSP also provides a speech processor and automa

32、tic tuning / netting for CW signals. Transmit features include variable output power from a few watts to 200W, speech processor, VOX, a transmission monitor, full or semi break-in and a full message keyer on CW. The keyer accommodates vari- ous paddle arrangements and speed compensated weighting and

33、 operates over the range 10 to 60WPM. Three 50 character message stores allow for interruption to insert contest serial numbers, for example, and may be set to repeat automatically. An optional plug-in module for the TS-480 is the VGS-1 voice guide and storage unit. The voice guide pro- vides voice

34、readout of the frequency and several other settings for the front panel controls which are not announced as Morse characters. This includes the S-meter and can be a boon to those with impaired vision. The second use of this option is to provide an audio store. This can be used to record up to three

35、30-second messages for playback on air as CQ calls or contest exchanges for exam- ple. Store 3 will also record the receiver output continuously and retain the last 30 seconds. This can be stored and played back as desired or can be played on air to show a sta- tion what his signal sounds like. Othe

36、r features include a transmis- sion timeout timer and automatic power off and interfacing for trans- verters with 5W drive. The transvert- ed frequency is displayed on the LCD but only three digits for the MHz are available. FM operation covers both wide and narrow deviations and has facilities for

37、repeater access includ- ing CTCSS tones. PC AND DIGITAL CONTROL Kenwood provides a software control program, ARCP-480, which is down- loadable free of charge from the Kenwood website (see Websearch below). The download size is about 6MB. Full control of all the radio fea- tures may be made from a PC

38、 run- ning Windows 98 or later and I had this working satisfactorily with a 200MHz machine running Windows 98. Dual control from the radio panel or the PC is allowed and both displays track together. It is a different way of operating the radio but VFO tuning is faster and more responsive when imple

39、mented from the radio panel. There are few extra features on the PC software, a bargraph spectrum 35March 2004 RadCom www.rsgb.org Close-up of TS-480HX with top cover removed. TS-480HX main unit. Close-up of TS-480HX with bottom cover removed. Detail of PA board. INTERMODULATION (50KHZ TONE SPACING)

40、 PREAMP INPREAMP OUT 3rd order2 tone3rd order2 tone Frequencyinterceptdynamic rangeinterceptdynamic range 1.8MHz+10dBm95dB+24dBm99dB 3.5MHz+10dBm96dB+18dBm96dB 7MHz+9dBm97dB+22dBm100dB 14MHz+9dBm96dB+21dBm98dB 21MHz+8.5dBm96dB+23dBm100dB 28MHz+3dBm93dB+18dBm97dB 50MHz-5dBm88dB+15dBm94dB CLOSE-IN INT

41、ERMODULATION ON 7MHz BAND PREAMP INPREAMP OUT 3rd order2 tone3rd order2 tone Spacinginterceptdynamic rangeinterceptdynamic range 3kHz-36dBm67dB-21dBm71dB 5kHz-29dBm71dB-15dBm75dB 7kHz-22dBm76dB-7dBm81dB 10kHz-10dBm84dB+4dBm88dB 15kHz+7dBm95dB+16dBm96dB 20kHz+7.5dBm96dB+18dBm97dB 30kHz+8dBm96dB+19dBm

42、98dB 40kHz+8dBm96dB+21dBm99dB 50kHz+9dBm97dB+22dBm100dB RECIPROCAL FREQUENCYMIXING FORBLOCKINGBLOCKING OFFSET3dB NOISEPREAMP INPREAMP OUT 3kHz78dB-38dBm-24dBm 5kHz82dB-38dBm-24dBm 10kHz89dB-36dBm-22dBm 15kHz93dB-24dBm-10dBm 20kHz95dB-13dBm+1dBm 30kHz98dB-4dBm+8dBm 50kHz103dB-4dBm+8dBm 100kHz110dB-4d

43、Bm+8dBm 200kHz116dB-4dBm+8dBm display in scan mode is one bonus but advantage could have been taken to provide a comprehensive memory access system. However, it is free of charge so I cannot be too critical. A second software control program available free of charge from the Kenwood website is the A

44、RHP-10 Host program for the Kenwood Network Command System. This 5MB download enables the radio to be controlled remotely over a network such as a LAN or the Internet. In addition to the serial port connection, the transmit and receive audio lines from the radio are interfaced to the PC sound card a

45、nd VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is used to transfer the audio data across the link. The ARHP-10 is used at the radio end of the link with the ARCP-480 at the controlling end both running under Windows 2000 or XP. It remains to be seen what changes would be needed to current licensing conditio

46、ns to make such operation acceptable. A further feature addressed by the serial COM port is to provide a direct connection to the Kenwood TM- D700E 2m / 70cm radio. This enables incoming DX PacketCluster spots to be used to tune the TS-480 automati- cally on frequency. This set-up can also be confi

47、gured to provide a cross- band repeater. MEASUREMENTS Measurements shown in the table were made with the review radio pow- ered from twin 13.5V supplies. The review radio was fi tted with 1.8kHz and 270Hz IF filter options. The receiver is very sensitive and overall gain high with an AGC threshold a

48、t 0.6V. The sensitivity is lower at LF but adequate at 136kHz and lower frequencies. Rejection of images, IFs and spurii was better than 90dB, a very good result. The third order intercept and dynamic range is excel- lent at wide spacings, on a par with the very best radios, but rather poor close in

49、. Reciprocal mixing fi gures are fairly reasonable, rather better than some recent radio introductions but not as good as some Kenwood radios from the past. Fig 1 shows the over- all selectivity plot. The transmitter performance was well up to scratch. SSB intermodula- tion products were generally quite reasonable and not significantly degraded by the speech processor with low levels of harmonics and spu- rious outputs. CW keying was very clean with low distortion and optimal rise and fall times although the fi rst attack edge was noticeably sharper. Full and semi break-in gave identica