The AM Forum

Does any one know about the Harvey Wells TS 60?   I have had one for many years.  Use it on the morning MOKAN group and works beautifully.   I am puzzled about the TS 60.  Looks just like the TS 90 with 5 bands that cover 2 mHz through 10 mHz consecutively.   I only can use it on 75 and 40 meters.

Anyone know the history of the Harvey Wells TS 60?

BOB HEIL, K9EID
bob@helsound.com

hi Bob ....welcome to the forum .... I have a 50D and 50C .... nice transmitters ...have never seen a 60 .... a photo would be very fb .... thanks for your products and service to ham radio ...John

Hi Bob

I don't know about the TS-60, but I did want to say that I use a PR-20 microphone for my homebrew AM station.  Sounds great!  Thanks!

Jon
KA1TDQ

There are T-60 and T-50 Knight kit transmitters. I owned a T-60 years ago. No 'TS' Kenwood slopbucket prefix.

Al VE3AJM

Hey Bob; Welcome Aboard

All this is speculation but I would suspect the TS-60 and TS-90 models are one and the same. The TS-90 I believe was designed for the commercial and/or marine markets (frequency coverage was 2 to 12 MHz in 6 bands) and used the T-90 transmitter as the basic footprint. I would also guess to differentiate the new model from the TBS50 series, the managers initially just chose to use “60” and front panels were made to reflect this. It could also be that “60” represented close to what the AM power output was or it was just to add model number space between their commercial and amateur radio markets. Many times managers like to use model numbers that reflected maximum power output (in this case 90W CW – better selling point) so TS-90 would have been a better choice if that was the case. TS-60 panels might have been made and just stored away or they may have made some product with the TS-60 front panel and then went in favor of TS-90 front panels. After two floods and other financial issues, Harvey Wells in the late 50’s ran ½ price ads for their R-9/9A, T-90, and other equipment to keep the cash flow going. I would also suspect at this time they wanted to use as much in-house inventory as they could (Just-In-Time wasn’t in anyone’s mind at this time) to keeps costs down to build more product, so if they ran out of TS-90 front panels, it would make more sense to use what you still had on hand in storage, i.e. the TS-60 panels.

Now, to add to the confusion, the original T-90 transmitter came with 6 bands including 11 meters. With the amateurs losing 11 meters in 1957, Harvey Wells cobbled together a modified T-90 to add 6 meters in place of 11 meters. One would think it would have been called a T-90A but the few that appeared on the market were called TS-90. Probably the commercial and marine market for the original TS-90 dried up, so with extra TS-90 panels in stock, they put them to use on the modified T-90 rig.

TS-90 with 6 meters:

(http://amfone.net/Amforum/gallery/25_25_08_15_7_36_11.jpg)


TS-90 2 to 12 MHz:

Go here: https://microphoneprojects.shutterfly.com/pictures/328

I did some service work on an APS-50 (p/s for the TBS-50) that had FLOOD DAMAGE stamped on the chassis. It was the last version of the p/s, there are three.
Had a T-90 yrs ago and have seen the TS-90 pop up on epay every now and again.

Terry N3GTE