Kenwood R-1000

mbott · Sep 12, 2017

My "new" R-1000 arrived this morning. Now I have to wait until evening to check this out fully. However, what I've found out so far is very positive. Currently listening to Radio Exterior España in Spanish from Noblejas targeted towards Asia. Great signal and the stock speaker has decent sound. REE currently going s9+20 off the Wellbrook.

Looking forward to this evening and hopefully better conditions. Rain forecast, but no lightning is expected.

--
Mike

ka3jjz · Sep 12, 2017

That radio is justly famous for having a very hot front end - meaning it's a very sensitive receiver. One ding on that is that the 'RF Gain' control is really just a switch with a few values - and sometimes those values are either too little or too much. You can put an inline attenuator to alleviate the problem - one way to do this is below (be sure to read the whole thread)...

https://forums.radioreference.com/receive-antennas-below-30mhz/295299-great-first-timer-project.html

GL with the radio - if it doesn't develop display issues you have a keeper for sure...Mike

ridgescan · Sep 12, 2017

Can you put up some pics and maybe a video of it in action? Kenwoods are cool and kind of scarce-would like to see it!

mbott · Sep 13, 2017

Ridgescan, there is a pic in the https://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/358760-anticipation.html thread. I'll get some more up as time permits. Video is def not my strong point.

--
Mike

ridgescan · Sep 13, 2017

mbott said:
Ridgescan, there is a pic in the https://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/358760-anticipation.html thread. I'll get some more up as time permits. Video is def not my strong point.

--
Mike

Mine neither but I do them anyway

Seriously though, pics have become my weak point since Photobucket screwed all of us out of web hosting. I have to find a new site for that now for pics. I saw your shack photos-nice Rx station! I had no idea you had such a diverse setup between old-school and latest SDR receivers. Everything here is old-school but I like it that way.
The KW looks great-you probably had a blast on its first run!

mbott · Sep 13, 2017

ridgescan said:
Mine neither but I do them anyway Seriously though, pics have become my weak point since Photobucket screwed all of us out of web hosting. I have to find a new site for that now for pics. I saw your shack photos-nice Rx station! I had no idea you had such a diverse setup between old-school and latest SDR receivers. Everything here is old-school but I like it that way.
The KW looks great-you probably had a blast on its first run!

Have you looked at imgur? I use it to share pics with people but not for storage. Storage is my hard drive.

--
Mike

majoco · Sep 14, 2017

Don't use "Post quick reply" - click on "Post reply" - then when you have typed in your text, drop down below the first "Submit Reply" and you will see "Manage attachments" - click on that - then you can load your own jpeg pix from your hard disk - then click on "Submit Reply" and it will show in your post.

ridgescan · Sep 14, 2017

Thanks for the good suggestions. Martin I didn't know about the option you posted. I think I have a Flikr account floating around somewhere too.

majoco · Sep 14, 2017

Yes, it's a good system that works well, it's a pity that it won't accept sound bites.

It also keeps track of your pic posts and if you try to load the same pic again, it refers you to your previous post and gives you the URL which you can just cut'n'paste - very clever.

mbott · Sep 14, 2017

ridgescan said:
Can you put up some pics and maybe a video of it in action? Kenwoods are cool and kind of scarce-would like to see it!

My first and quite possibly my last video: https://youtu.be/t9dtf404FmE

--
Mike

w8prr · Sep 14, 2017

Very nice radio! I have had a R 2000 since they came out and love it also.
Please consider making more videos, you did a great job and I'd love to see one on your Knight Kit Star Roamers!

ridgescan · Sep 14, 2017

Shoot Mike, I agree with W8PPR. Excellent video and you seem to be a natural doing it! Thanks for the clip, that KW is very neat like I figured it would be. Never saw that one before. I almost got my hands on a very nice KW receiver about 10 years ago but passed on it-wish I had it after seeing yours. I have a nice collection of rigs but I think that a KW would be a nice addition. Happy DXing!

majoco · Sep 14, 2017

I have had a R 2000 since they came out and love it also.

Me too - great receiver - my attenuator packed up a few years ago so I bridged it out then fitted the RF gain pot mod - much better, works very well, never used the tone control so that's the RF gain!

mbott · Oct 13, 2017

Less the time I was on vacay, I've had this R-1000 for a month now. I am still impressed with it as I was upon receipt. Even without a keypad, this seems to be the radio I turn on first. Even though I did not "need" another tabletop, I'm glad I picked this up when I found it on ebay. A major plus for me.

--
Mike

jaymot · Oct 18, 2017

Without a direct-entry keypad (which, personally, I rarely use anyway) and having to manually tune across a band you may discover other stations that you otherwise might have missed, with that nice big tuning knob with its flywheel and comfortable finger indent it's trivial to go to particular known frequencies, only taking moments to do so.

The lack of all the bells, whistles and fancy features means you spend less time fiddling with knobs and buttons and spend more time listening to your radio and logging stations. It teaches you tricks like switching to sideband mode and zero-beating the sideband of an AM station if you need a narrower filter. The R-1000 doesn't do nearly as much as the R-5000 and other higher-end receivers do, but it does all that's needed and does it extremely well. It's one of the best general-coverage HF receivers ever made. I wish I still had mine.

w8prr · Nov 9, 2017

Older thread but one more thing. When I got mine in early 80's, Universal Radio had a mod they did in house. Took out the tone control and added an RIT. Is a great mod! I used the rig a lot in those days to monitor marine TTY traffic and it helped a lot.

w8prr · Nov 9, 2017

Follow up on last, that mod was on an R2000. As I remember Kenwood brought out the R600, R1000 and R2000 around the same time. The R600 may be a basic radio, but it has one thing going for it. A separate control with detents for every 1 MHZ change. While not a fancy receiver, would be wonderful for a person with sight issues.

RFI-EMI-GUY · Nov 9, 2017

I had one of those as my first "serious" shortwave radio. It is a fine radio, the only complaint was that the tuning resolution was a bit course when tuning SSB signals. Subsequently I bought an ICR-71 and then an ICR-9000 to replace it.

There were some mods for the AGC speed and to narrow the SSB filter selection. They were merely changing some wires. I recommend those two mods.

If I came across another it would be a keeper. I probably have too many radios, so it would go directly to my son!

Kenwood R-1000

mbott

Member

ka3jjz

Wiki Admin Emeritus

ridgescan

Member

mbott

Member

ridgescan

Member

mbott

Member

majoco

Stirrer

ridgescan

Member

majoco

Stirrer

mbott

Member

w8prr

Member

ridgescan

Member

majoco

Stirrer

Attachments

mbott

Member

jaymot

Member

w8prr

Member

w8prr

Member

RFI-EMI-GUY

Member