{"id":472,"date":"2014-03-05T23:02:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T03:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/?p=472"},"modified":"2014-03-13T11:08:23","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T15:08:23","slug":"transmit-audio-settings-on-the-kenwood-ts-990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/transmit-audio-settings-on-the-kenwood-ts-990\/","title":{"rendered":"Transmit Audio Settings on the Kenwood TS-990"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been using the Kenwood TS-990 HF transceiver for almost a year.\u00a0 I’ve loved every minute of learning about the features of Kenwood’s great new flagship radio.\u00a0 In addition to having a superb receiver, this rig has the ability to produce some of the best sounding “Kenwood audio” available on any HF rig without using any outboard processor.\u00a0 However, as with any feature rich HF radio, there is a learning curve, and it takes a while to arrive at the best transmit audio settings for the operator’s voice and microphone.<\/p>\n

\"Electro<\/a>
Electro Voice RE-27<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After quite a bit of experimenting with my Electro Voice RE-27 interfaced to the TS-990 (and after quite a few local hams giving me advice about the settings), I came to the conclusion that I had arrived at the best set up.\u00a0\u00a0 There’s not just one setting to be concerned about,\u00a0but after adjusting them all\u00a0I arrived at the best settings for everyday use of the radio.\u00a0 I use different settings when working DX in noisy conditions, but the settings I am about to describe are what I use for\u00a0“normal operations”.<\/p>\n

As I stated above, and as I also mentioned when I described my settings for my old FT-2000<\/a>, these settings work for me, but your mileage may vary.\u00a0 Also keep in mind that you can\u00a0only get so far listening to your own transmitted audio through headphones, so I would encourage everyone to get a few helpful hams on the air with you to give you advice as you experiment.<\/p>\n

First things first.\u00a0 I always start with the Mic Gain control and make sure my transmitted audio stays within the ALC\u00a0zone on the meter.\u00a0 On the TS-990, you will need to set your meter to show your ALC\u00a0when you transmit.\u00a0 You will find your meter selection on the\u00a0right hand\u00a0column of your main screen.\u00a0 It is the second soft button from the bottom.\u00a0 I like my ALC to be right at the top edge on peaks.\u00a0 I was able to achieve this with the Mic Gain control set at the center (50% or 12 o’clock)<\/strong>.\u00a0 The Mic Gain control is the center control of the far left knob on the bottom row.\u00a0 I also have the speech processor activated and set at 60%<\/strong>.\u00a0 The speech processor control is directly below the F3 key, with the adjustment knob below and to the left.<\/p>\n

\"2014-03-05<\/a><\/p>\n

After getting the Mic Gain set, I moved on to the Transmit Filter settings.\u00a0 Next to adjusting your Mic Gain, I believe that your transmitted bandwidth is the most important setting to achieving good sounding audio.\u00a0 The sky’s the limit here, but I was looking for good conversational audio – not too high and not too low.\u00a0 On the TS-990, you will select your bandwidth adjustment screen by pressing and holding the “TX-FIL” soft button, located at the bottom of the right hand column of soft keys.\u00a0 After a bit of tinkering, I settled on a low cut setting of 200 and a high cut setting of 2800<\/strong>.\u00a0 The TS-990 has three programmable transmit filters, so I would encourage you to set up one for everyday use, one for DX and one just to play with.<\/p>\n

\"TS-990<\/a>
TS-990 Transmit Filter Display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, this is where the REAL fun began with the TS-990.\u00a0 Not only does this radio have an internal graphic equalizer for transmit and receive, it has 18 bands<\/span> of adjustment ranging from .3 kHz to 5.1 kHz.\u00a0 This provides the user the opportunity to really tailor how their transmit audio sounds.\u00a0 It also presents the opportunity to make things sound very bad!\u00a0 The good news is that Kenwood has provided six pre-programmed equalizer settings, along with three user definable selections.\u00a0 I would encourage you to experiment with these settings until you find one you like; however, I found that after much tweaking and adjusting, the pre-set that Kenwood has labeled “Conventional” worked best for me<\/strong>.\u00a0 I use “High Boost 1” for DX and some nets.<\/p>\n

\"TS-990<\/a>
TS-990 18 Band EQ Pre-Sets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Again, your mileage may vary, so use the User 1 through 3 pre-sets to create your own settings.\u00a0 To activate your transmit equalizer, press the “TX EQ\/SEL” button.\u00a0 In the center right of the main screen you will see a box labeled “TXEQ” with an arrow pointing to your selection.\u00a0 If “Conventional” is selected, your will see a “C” displayed there.\u00a0 If the EQ is out of line you will see “OFF” after the arrow.\u00a0 Press and hold the “TX EQ\/SEL” button and a list of available pre-sets will be displayed.\u00a0 Use the arrow keys to select the present you want.\u00a0 If you want to adjust any of the selections, move the arrow keys until your selection is highlighted, and then press the “ADJ” soft key (F4).\u00a0 You can then adjust each of the 18 bands with the sliders.<\/p>\n

\"TS-990<\/a>
TS-990 18 Band EQ Adjustments<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the way, another cool feature of the TS-990 is the built in\u00a0Audio Scope.\u00a0 You can use this to view the characteristics of received audio, but it will also show you your transmitted audio characteristics as well.\u00a0 With the bandscope\u00a0active (“SCP” key) , press RF\/AF (F2) to display the audio scope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"TS-990<\/a><\/dt>\n
TS-990 Audio Scope<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, there you have it.\u00a0 After completing these settings, everyone I have spoken with has given my great audio reports.\u00a0 I see no need to use any outboard audio equipment with this radio, and believe that with the broad customization that it provides, most users will be able to find a setting or settings that fits all of their operating needs.<\/p>\n

In summary, here are my settings I use with the TS-990 for transmit audio with my Electro Voice RE-27:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Mic Gain at the center (50%)<\/li>\n
  2. Speech Processor Activated and set at 60%<\/li>\n
  3. Transmit Filter Bandwidth low at 200 Hz\u00a0and high at 2800 Hz<\/li>\n
  4. The 18 Band Equalizer for Transmit is set to the “Conventional” pre-set.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Have fun playing with the transmit audio settings on your Kenwood TS-990!<\/p>\n

    73,<\/p>\n

    Bill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve been using the Kenwood TS-990 HF transceiver for almost a year.\u00a0 I’ve loved every minute of learning about the features of Kenwood’s great new flagship radio.\u00a0 In addition to having a superb receiver, this rig has the ability to produce some of the best sounding “Kenwood audio” available on any HF rig without using … Continue reading Transmit Audio Settings on the Kenwood TS-990<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"powered_cache_disable_cache":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,47],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-audio-settings","tag-ts-990"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pDldz-7C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}