rjr@mgweed.UUCP (Bob Roehrig) (10/16/85)
My own observations on newer ham gear and reliability are that ICOM seems to have more problems than Kenwood. In our area, there are a LOT of Kenwood users (430, 830, 930, 2500, and R-1000). One Kenwood problem I recall locally is the early 2500's had a problem with the LCD display "washing out". Other than that, one owner of a R-1000 receiver had to have a small transformer replaced in the DC-DC converter that powers the display and develops the negative AGC bias. That was in one of about a dozen R-1000's that are around here. I have not heard of any problems with any of the Kenwood H-F gear, and there is plenty of it in our area. I heard that early 930's had some problems but later ones were OK. I have a 2500, two R-1000's, the last 450MHz xtal controlled transciever Kenwood made, and a 8 month old 930S. So far the only problem I had was a cold solder in the 450 rig (located with the naked eye). I have heard of quite a few people having to send their NEW ICOM rigs back. Bob K9EUI
Karz.Wbst@Xerox.ARPA (10/19/85)
Listening to everyone knocking the quality of ICOM gear, I would like to add a few comments about Kenwood equipment, particularly since the discussion so far gives the impression that Kenwood quality control is much better than ICOM. I would start by stating that I like Kenwood HF gear. I own both a 930 and an 820 and I feel they both give excellent value. Nevertheless, the problems I've had are due entirely to carelessness on the Kenwood assembly line. My 820 developed a problem with its digital display when it was five years old that turned out to be unsoldered (not poorly soldered) connections on a PC board. Similarly, when the meter on my 930 ceased functioning, the problem was an unsoldered connection. In this case, however, there was solder on the meter lug only it was not where the wire was attached. A good friend of mine, W2AZX, has a 530 which failed to work properly out of the box (apparently they didn't even bother to try it out at the factory). Here the problem was the failure to insert one of the leads on a resistor into its hole in the PC board. All three of these problems could have been eliminated with a little more care during manufacturing. ICOM certainly does not have a monoply on poor quality. Furthermore, Kenwood problems would appear from my limited experience to be not with their parts suppliers but rather with themselves. Bob K2OID