Kenwood R-820 receiver

Per Steve's request on the "need some input on amps" thread, I will share some thoughts about the Kenwood R-820 receiver.

It is the receiver that was designed to pair with the TS-820S transceiver. I really liked the way the TS-820S looked when they came out years ago since it has a "magical mechanical" dial like the National HRO receivers. Several years ago I picked up a nice one and starting looking for a R-820 to match and I came across a one with all of the optional filters at a reasonable BIN price on ebay, I think it was around $400 with the SP-820 speaker.

The R-820 is triple conversion (adds a third low IF with notch filter to the TS-820 style receiving circuitry) and has both IF shift and variable bandwidth tuning. Unlike the TS-820 it does have an AM position along with a 6 Khz. filter. It also covers 4 international SW bands (49, 31, 25, and 16 meters) in addition to 160 through 10 plus WWV. It was produced prior to WARC so those bands are not covered. It also has slots for two CW bandwidths. On AM, the audio through the 6 Khz. filter is to my liking, it isn't as broad as some of the vintage receivers but it is far from space shuttle audio and sounds smooth. The VBT is functional on AM and allows reducing the bandwidth to around 4 Khz., IF shift does not function on AM.

It makes a great companion to the TS-820 and sounds better on all modes compared to the built in receiver. I really like the tuning display on these radios. My only major complaint is even though this is sold as the companion receiver and it will operate in transceive mode with the TS-820S it requires fairly extensive modification to operate in this manner. I made the modifications to mine but one would expect it to be closer to plug and play as sold.

The bottom line is I really like the R-820 receiver, it is wonderful in both looks and function. I have thought about writing an ER article looking at "cousins" instead of twins comparing my Drake TR-7A/R-7 and the Kenwood TS-820S/R-820 setup. The Drake line definitely outperforms the Kenwood setup but the 820 gear is no slouch. A few years ago I picked up a second non-working R-820 very inexpensively and it required replacement of one transistor to make the PLL system functional again. It is now paired with a TS-520 (no transceive possible with this pairing).

Below are photos of the Kenwood area, obviously I need to use the R-820 more since radio room cat Siam Sam has added fur to the finish. The final photo is of an unusual early Trio CW/SSB pair; the JR-310 and TX-310 which is like the Drake T-4 reciter in that it uses the receiver VFO for operation. The Trio does include a clarifier offset for use with either crystal or receiver control.