The AM Forum

Anyone ever seen one of these. Apparently it was a kit sold by Kenwood back in the 70s.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111512966454328879960/KencraftQS500?authkey=Gv1sRgCNvpk-XG5p740AE

From the top it kinda looks like an HW100/101!
Bottom view is totally diferent tho.

Kenwood (actually Trio at the time) was OEM'ing kits for Lafayette (receivers KT-200, KT-320, KT-340, and other stuff) and other manufacturers back in the 60's so they were not new to kits. The name "Ken" "wood" didn't appear as the corporate brand until August 1981. This particular kit probably never was sold in the U. S. Seem to recall hearing about other Kencraft stuff but don't remember what they were.

That front panel design sure is attractive, even 30-40 years later.

100VAC input rating tag matches standard Japan utility service.
They use our kind of two-prongs too.

Around Fukushima it may vary.

Same guy has a lot of interesting gear including photos of a Capehart R390A with the front panel pin jack, not common.

And it has AM!

Interesting that it breaks the 6 meter band into eight segments.

Looks very similar to a HW101 interior except for chain drive to Pi net caps instead of rubber belts.  ;D   Concentric controls via brass tubes common at that time, I guess.

Also I like the built in power supply.  A very nice looking unit overall, I must say.

Bears a striking resemblance to the 599 series, albeit more of a home stereo look. There are a number of other odd and interesting japanese sets out there from the time before they invaded the US markets.

I think our Canadian neighbors had access to some of the earlier JA gear, probably due to some of the major distributors in the U.S. not wanting to upset the remaining U.S. manufacturers.

I picked up a Trio JR-310 and speaker at a hamfest and later acquired the matching TX-310 via a JA friend.  Both cover 6 meters and have AM capability.  The transmitter is low power, the final is a single JA equivalent to the 6146, and can operate from a built in fixed crystal oscillator or from the receiver VFO but it does not have its own internal VFO.   The large knob on the TX panel allows slight shifting of the fixed crystal frequency and the meter is above this knob.

Yaesu had a similar pair with their F 50 line.  The pair I have was branded Sommerkamp and was probably originally sold in Europe.  They are sitting on the NCX-5 in the photo awaiting their turn on the bench and the later FR-100B is next to them.  These also have AM but do not cover 6 meters.  The FL-50B is also dependent upon the receiver VFO. 

The Trio receiver is definitely more advanced than the Yaesu FR-50.  The Yaesu uses a multi-range VFO as the first oscillator while the Trio receiver uses a crystal controlled first oscillator.  The Trio receiver has good quality separate wide and narrow mechanical filters while the Yaesu is equipped with a pair of simple 4 Khz. filters at two stages in the second IF.

The FR-100B was next in the Yaesu line and it was much improved with a crystal controlled first oscillator and good quality mechanical filters with SSB and AM bandwidths.  For CW, the SSB filter is selected followed by a single crystal with adjustable phasing to further narrow the bandwidth on the nose.