455 Khz IF Out

[KG4CGC]

The 455KHz IF Out was meant to be coupled to a scope to look at post-filter IF signals. Modulation envelopes, things like that.

Some of the rigs also have an 8.83MHz output which is several hundred kilohertz in bandwidth. There's where you connect an SDR if you want a panadapter.

Good Morning and thank you. I'll save my money then and use it for something that I will probably use more daily or use when I go on trips with the FT710.
The rig in question is Kenwood R-5000. It is in excellent shape and I've always wanted one but, it is a bit long in the tooth as they say. Part me wants to take it for a spin and see what it can do and then there's the part that says it's 30 years old and over the last 30 years I should have already learned my lesson with 30 year olds (lol).

Not forgetting my nostalgic bent, when I was a kid everything was old including the National NC-33 I had acquired from a friend's preacher that was into 2m ham radio and the local groups. I think it was gifted to me because I read an article in Boy's Life magazine about a scout that built a shortwave radio out of an old TV and people were like, yeah, you might not want to do that. Free shock therapy was apparently out of the question and old tube sets were everywhere to be found. Just like today, microwaves are everywhere to be found but please don't take them apart like that one couple did.
They were found dead in their garage after using a microwave oven to build a device that would burn lightning patterns into wood for a popular hobby 10 years ago. Apparently when they powered it up, it electrocuted both of them immediately.

OK, this says it's from 2022 but it's been going on for a while. It's much more common than I first thought.

At least 33 people have died as a result of fractal burning, according to the American Association of Woodturners, which has sought to educate people about the extraordinarily high risks of the practice. Those who’ve died include new hobbyists and experienced woodworkers alike, and even in one case “an electrician with many years of experience working with electricity,” according to the AAW’s website.
Phil McDonald, executive director of the AAW, said the organization adopted a strong recommendation against fractal burning beginning in 2017 after seeing a “proliferation” of social media tutorials instructing people on how to use “extremely high-voltage transformers to create their own home-based fractal burning systems.”

https://www.wpr.org/justice/fractal-...unty-wisconsin

[N8YX]

The rig in question is Kenwood R-5000. It is in excellent shape and I've always wanted one but, it is a bit long in the tooth as they say. Part me wants to take it for a spin and see what it can do and then there's the part that says it's 30 years old and over the last 30 years I should have already learned my lesson with 30 year olds (lol).

I have a couple of those. Your comments made me look up the manual, as I don't recall any IF Out connections on their rear panels. (There aren't from the factory.)

As far as pluses and minuses: The two things to watch out for are VCO unlocking (caused by the potting compound used on VCO5) and keyboard bounce. The former can be fixed. The latter often goes away with use, or with a judicial application of DeOxit spray. Have to disassemble the keypad to do it.

Operationally - both of mine have all optional filters, the VC-20 VHF converter, the DCK-2 DC kit and the IC-10 RS-232 interface chips. I often run them in conjunction with a TS-440S, which they closely resemble. Sensitivity and selectivity...at the time they were out, their main competition was the Icom IC-R71 and the JRC NRD-525. I'll give the edge in squelch operation to either of the latter two and the 525's VHF converter offers more coverage but the 5000 is no slouch. My main area of contention with them is lack of a hysteresis type squelch on FM, thus the rig is prone to picket fencing.

One trait the Kenwood shares with various JRC rigs is a compressed S meter range. If you follow Kenwood's service instructions it simply isn't accurate in terms of reading vs applied signal. A good test bench and a little time will fix this - same with the TS-440S.

A favorite getaway station is the TS-440S/AT, an R-5000, a PS-50 and a decent multiband antenna. Also possible to set them up for digital mode operate with a Digimode4 and a laptop. I've definitely gotten a lot of use from mine.