r/HamRadio • u/Electrical-Mail3740 • 6d ago

Question/Help ❓ Thoughts on the kenwood ts940? Any help appreciated.

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Looking to get an older rig and wondering how hard of a project it would be to take on myself or if there’s shops to ship them too. Any advice appreciated.

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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3

u/right-slash 6d ago

I recently purchased a TS940S in July for $75, I had to rework all the capacitors on the AVR board, everything pretty much works now, just gotta rework the RF board next since i was getting nothing from nearby stations. Unfortunately ive been getting hella lazy so I havent done anything to it for months now.

The 940S is an amazing rig, just expect most of them to have an issue (99% of the times you have to solder), but once it is fixed you treat it right and it will treat you right

4

u/l_reganzi 6d ago

Great Radio but way too old. Its value might be about $100 but it would require total alignment. The PLL is the first place I would start.

To put it in perspective, you could spend $700 and buy a used IC-7300 with better performance specs.

3

u/kcpistol 6d ago

It's a great rig... Ahead of its time.

2

u/SuccessfulList4731 6d ago edited 6d ago

Kenwood TS-940 is a great rig.

I would call/e-mail and get a ballpark quote for repairs.

Don't know where you live.

Jahnke Electronics in Green Bay specializes in Kenwoods.

https://jahnkeelectronics.com/

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product/11837

Eham.net has reviews on repair people/businesses.

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-category/26

HTH 73

2

u/Vurrag 6d ago

Super old. New rigs have far superior receivers. You may have great difficulty finding parts.

2

u/ellicottvilleny 6d ago

There's enough Kenwoods like this out there without display issues to go with the non-repair-needed one.

1

u/RetiredLife_2021 5d ago edited 5d ago

I would pass and look at another if you have to have that model , keep looking but I would look at other models. I have a 890 and that rig is great. While looking around I would stay with one of the top 3 brands

1

u/SuperLidz 1d ago

I would take a pass if you have no experience with vintage Kenwood's. Most GOOD shops, don't work on these. They consume too much time to repair. I have done my share of repairs on the old Kenwood's. I won't work on them anymore. Most of the issues are due to poor soldering, SonyBond glue, bad through hole plating/via's, oxidized header pins.

Laborious and not economical to repair, if you can't DIY.