Kenwood TS-480HX HF/50 MHz Amateur Base Transceiver 200 Watts - Original Kenwood

Lately there has been a lot of ambient "noise" in the atmosphere, causing great difficulties in trying to connect with other ham radio operators. I took the TS-480HX out of the box, hooked it up to the power and my less than desirable antenna and managed to hear Italy and Barcelona. I have not yet fired up the 480's capability of transmitting with 200 watts. I expect that I will have a much better chance to get on board with competitive QSO parties and DX attempts. I am immensely pleased with this radio.

does everything I need

Use it daily for a long while now. Great product.

Very happy with this radio!

Excellent!

I've been using this radio for a couple of years. It's great! 200 Watts when I want power. People receive me further away than I can hear answering my call. I'm an NCS on several nets and the TS-480 performs flawlessly under challenging conditions. Several filter combinations to tweak for optimum performance. More Bells and Whistles than you can count. Basic operation is PPT on HF, but as you get comfortable with the rig you can explore the extra settings. Covers Entire HF band (160-6 meters). I haven't operated much on 6 meters, but it's there if you want it.Tunes outside the Amateur Bands to allow short wave radio reception including WWV to sync station clock with WWV.Also handy for reducing power to operate all the digital modes. (With the appropriate software and hardware) I use a SignalLink external sound card for interfacing my computer to the TS-480.My setup uses an MFJ 75 amp switching power supply. You need to supply power to two inputs and the transmit does draw a lot of current when using 200 Watts. Kenwood does not offer a power supply suitable for the TS-480HX. I use an external Antenna Tuner and a G5RV Antenna for 160, 75 and 40 Meters. For 30 on up I use a Titan DX. This combination works good for me.I guess the best endorsement I can give is I'd buy the TS-480HX again and recommend it when people ask me which rig to buy.

I've been licensed as an Extra for 30 years. I am no newbie to mobile operations. I've owned a lot of rigs over my time and mobile, I've run the Icom 706MKIIG, Yaesu 897D, the 817, 857D, Icom 7100, Icom 7000 etc. Out of all those radios, while some had some neat features; the TS-480HX is the most robust, rugged and powerful mobile HF rig on the market. It's been out for a very long time and is very stable and mature. With nearly a perfect review rating on popular ham review sites. I run this radio strictly mobile and with extra filters, if I can hear them I can work them. Very well built radio. I live on a mountain in the middle of no-where, this is the radio to have for DX, diaster communications or daily rag-chew.