Online find: Good as new 40-year old Kenwood R1000 communication receiver
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2024
- A slightly different "unboxing". Picked up a second-hand Kenwood R1000 communications receiver recently, paid just $60 for this one. It is in almost perfect condition, everything works. Most of my DXing radios are portables, this is a full desk-top rig. This video is a first look at the receiver, one that I think will provide me hours of DXing fun. It is an original, good quality Japanese-made radio from the 1980s.
00:00 Introduction
00:50 Some background
01:34 The original manual
02:34 Everything works!
02:52 The back and antenna inputs
04:48 The dials and what they do
07:20 Quick SW scan
08:39 Final thoughts 
Развлечения
👍Thanks for posting. Had an R1000 back in the 80s. I used to use the timer as an alarm clock.
Thanks Steve, that's actually very clever use of the timer function! Never thought of that myself :-)
Wauw, André, dit is een echt koopje.
Ik bezit een Kenwood TS-440S, die jarenlang stilgelegen heeft.
Sedert de jaren '80 ben ik radio zendamateur, maar om beroepsredenen is de hobby wat op de achtergrond geraakt.
Ik heb nu geen zendantennes meer, maar luisteren doe ik nog graag.
De TS-440S, die ongeveer even oud moet zijn als jouw Kenwood R-1000, heeft ook een general coverage ontvanger, die ook na al die jaren nog prima werkt.
Ik wens je succes en ongetwijfeld veel plezier met deze mooie aanwinst.
Baie dankie vir jou boodskap! Ek hoop dat my Kenwood R1000 nog lank sal aanhou werk, dit lyk vir my na 'n goeie ontvanger. Ek is bly om te hoor dat jou Rs-440S steeds goed werk na al die jare, ek glo dit is 'n teken van Japannese vakmanskap en dat hierdie radios nog lank vir ons plesier sal verskaf! Ek het ook maar onlangs weer teruggekeer na my stokperdjie (hobby) om te DX, al ek was ek nooit 'n HAM nie. Ek is steeds elke dag verwonderd met alles wat ek kan hoor. Dit bly maar 'n wonderlike stokperdjie!
I've got one, it was given to me for free from a guy from a Shortwave Listening Group, all I did was cover the postage cost of the radio. Mine was purchased in Germany in 1983. It's a good radio, maybe one of the best Shortwave Radios out there, certainly good on sound.
I am prone to agree with you that this might be one of the best SW receivers ever made. I have read many good reviews and reports from users, and my own experience has been great so far. It is also not complicated to use, which makes it very user-friendly.
@@swlistening Yes it is very easy to use, some of the portable radios are more complicated to use than the R-1000. Everything is on the front panel, which is self explanatory. Before you do any SSB signals it is worth noting that the radio circuits need to warm up for 10 minutes before use, otherwise the BFO will drift a little. It is explained in the user manual, and through my own experience with the radio. I remember the guy I got the radio from, said those old valve communication receivers used to take up to 1 hour to warm up, before you could use the SSB. As was standard practice in those days. Lots of good memories with my R-1000, I hope you have lots of fun with yours too.
@@radioweebdx7680 Thanks for this, I did read about the warming up also, I think even more time is needed than 10 minutes to warm up properly.
@@swlistening I usually just tune to a broadcasting station prior to doing any SSB signals, it probably does need to warm up a little more I suppose. I always wondered why number stations always send test tones 10 minutes before sending the transmission, could it be for the supposed listener to give them a chance to warm up their radios. Maybe some sort of practice from the past, however I usually do the same and tuned to the frequency before receiving one myself as standard practice. I did notice the +1kHz frequency when tuning to the signal, mine does the same. Quirk of the radio.
I have wanted one of those things for years, still want one. It is in incredible condition. The R 1000 were built good and simple to operate, a good combination . You got a good deal .
Thank you very much! I also think I was quite lucky with this one, I think they are becoming harder to get. But I think if you keep looking, one might come up, you never know. Facebook Marketplace can be quite a good place to look for old radios.
So only $60 someone told me they worth $250
@@gglee1720 I was really lucky with the price I paid. And mine is in perfect working order, everything works, even all the little lights for the different buttons.
Ah sweet memories. You were darn lucky to get a good one at that price, 😀 I had an R-1000 in the early 80's when SW was really humming. I had it connected to an inverted V half wave end fed on 80M (132 feet) The centre was 60feet up! I fed it through my home brew antenna tuner so it was 50 ohm o/p. Boy, that thing picked up DX. I also had a Kenwood TS-120 HF transceiver and the R1000 was almost as good as the receiver in the TS-120.
As a side note referring to your comment about the 'good old receivers' I still have a Realistic DX-160 coms Rx in top working condition. It's from around 1975 and resided in my shed for years. Except for it's lack of frequency readout, xtal locked stability and poorer image rejection at the higher bands (single conversion . it holds it's head high alongside my Tecsun S2000. Just as sensitive and reckon that all analog cct. has less noise than the Tecsun. 😁
Your antenna setup on the R1000 sounds incredible. I can just imagine what I will be able to pick up at my location with something like that. I am already at altitude, 1700 metres, 5600 feet, and there are still many SW signals here in Africa... I picked up some nice signals on the R1000 with just a long wire, when there is nothing on any of my portables. It certain is very sensitive!
@@swlistening . If you havent in the mean time then you should mount 10 meter of wire some meters from your house ( pref. more than 4 meters) and feed it in with cheap coax cable. Doesnt matter if it is cheap TV cable, it will work just fine. Push an old piece of water pipe into the soil and connect it to the screen of the coax. It works wonders. A simpel wire antenna like this is easy to setup but will receive best on its sides, not much from its ends so if you can choose the direction just do that. 90% of your noise that you always have on your small radios will be gone also.
@@migsvensurfing6310 I do use a 10 metre wire, but I feed it directly into the house. I don't seem to get too much noise from that. I actually get better results on the wire than on the MLA30+, with some exceptions in the lower frequency range that are better on the MLA30+.
My house is in a housing estate and the little bit of private space I have is just enough to stretch out a 10 metre wire directly from the window, right up to the garden wall. Adding another 4 metre coax to that would push the wire into the communal space, which is not allowed ... But someone else also suggested using a coax cable, so I will see what I can do. Anything to get better reception 🙂
How lucky you were to pick up this gem for such a low price, André. I envy you.
Here on eBay I've just checked and they go for 190-390 euros plus shipping...
Thanks Alain, it was, indeed, a great stroke of luck!
I had one years ago. Its a very good receiver.
Very good communication radio sir. I think these are best SW radio. They pick up lots of signals .
Thank you! Yes, I think these older radios are very good!
Almost mint condition for it’s age! Good job finding that Kenwood gem. They sure don’t make them like that anymore.
I feel very lucky that I found this one, enjoying every minute with it!
It's not entirely correct that if you want to use long wire then you should use the spring clip connector. Unshielded antenna wire can pick up noise indoors when EMI can be the highest. The best practice if you can have local noise, is to use a coaxial cable to extend the feed to the long wire that is only exposed outside, hopefully as far away as from the building if possible.
So the way you put it there is a bit of a reservation in that statement.
This is true. My radio is right next to the window though, so I find that I don't seem to pick up much indoor noise when using a long wire with the spring clip connector.
Fantastic radio! I still miss mine. Also had the R-600. I think the 1000 is better. Put this in your mental filing cabinet... get yourself an Icom IC-R75.
Thank you and thank you for the suggestion about the ICOM ICR-75! I will keep my eyes open for one. Some interesting radios pop up in classified ads sometimes...
Good buy Andre the R-1000 is a hot SW receiver
I have a Kenwood R-600 much the same circuitry and it is very good on MW on a 68ft endfed antenna connected to the SO239 socket via an atu.
I absolutely agree.
Thanks John. I might try you antenna idea one day, as I really do enjoy MW DXing.
@@swlistening an excellent antenna for MW DX is an amplified magnetic loop.
Im lookinv for the optional speaker to complete the radio
Yeh, I have an R1000 and an R820 - I think the R820 is the better of the two, but the R1000 is still great. I am a radio ham and find these older Rx's are fantastic and better than the modern SDR's...
I have never been a fan of SDR's, for me a good old radio receiver is still the way to go. I have already had many good catches with this one! I will read up a bit about the R820, don't know it.
It’s worth using switch cleaner on the attenuator switch if the radio is deaf on Medium and Long wave.
They’re really good, but the attenuator switches are a bit flakey.
I’ve had trouble on two with it.
Thank you for the tip. I know the guy I bought the radio from cleaned it thoroughly, but maybe this attenuator switch needs a second look. Because my MW reception on this one is not great. I works, and picks up some distant signals, but not nearly as well as SW.
If you want to hear the one I just bought I have posted a couple of videos showing it operating. They aren't long though. Mine came with the manual and service manual and has the 13.8v input in the back. But no handle
Thank you for your comment and the videos, I had a listen. Your Kenwood sounds really great! The New Zealand one is remarkably clear. Where is your receiving location? Which country?
@@swlistening I'm in Australia on the east coast about 300 kilometers north of Brisbane Queensland's capital. I was very surprised by the clarity of it to. As I have been using a pl-330 tescun for a few weeks. I find it is on par with the signal strength as the Kenwood believe it or not.
I am using a MLA-30+ loop and a random length long wire and I have found that the loop is a little bit noisier than the wire on certain bands. Am local radio is very noisy, so much qrm due to a lot of electrical appliances in my apartment complex. My yaesu frg-7000 should be arriving today or Monday. Will be surprising to hear how it sounds
@@w.w77 Thank you for your reply! I often find that my portables easily match the Kenwood R1000 in terms of signal strength on many signals. But the Kenwood certainly sounds better than all of them, and it is much more sensitive for SSB listening than my XHDATA D-808.
@@w.w77 It will be interesting to compare the Yaesu and the Kenwood! My MLA is not noisy, but I think there is little RFI in my area. The wire is also generally not noisy. I did experiment a bit with the MLA to find the best position for it.
I just bought one. Waiting to take delivery of it
Hi Walter, thanks for your comment. This is very interesting, is it a speaker that was made specifically as an add-on for this radio? I don't think I've actually heard about it before. The radio has quite good sound already, but I am sure a dedicated Kenwood speaker would really add top-quality sound!
@@swlistening yes it was an optional extra TRIO SP-100 But they are not very common and when you do find them, people are asking a lot for them. Lafayette radios also had external speakers also for their Sw radios. They to are also hard to find. And I think Realistic had similar speakers for their radios.
@@walter9724 Thanks Walter, it looks like a very nice speaker. I looked for it online now, just to check, they seem to be very hard to find. On eBay I see mostly SP-230 speakers, and they are quite expensive. I will be very interested to hear your views on the SP-100 once it arrives!
@@swlistening oh I'm buying the radio not the speaker, I didn't find one for sale. Sorry for the confusion
@@walter9724 Ah, OK! It is a great radio, I think one of the best you can get, hope you will enjoy it!
Great find for $60, Pity you did not take off the lid and show the beautiful old school Japanese workmanship inside.
I will be a bit nervous to do that, but give me some time :-)
No pity needed.... always makes room for a part 2 video. Until that video I'm sure Google images can ease your pity. *wink*
@@twohandsandaradio 😀
Nice radio! I hope that it DXes well. I finally got my QSL which I sent from February.
Edit: I tried commenting on this video multiple times. The video must have been processing.
Edit 2: USB is Upper Side Band, LSB is Lower Side Band, in case you are wondering. I am sure you know though, as you also DX as a hobby.
Edit 3: I am not sure where to get a shortwave aerial, but let's see if we can get one easily. We might have to get one from an international seller.
Great that you got the QSL! It is a nice feeling to get those, when I was younger I always sent reception reports. I got some QSL cards from Radio Moscow, Radio Prague, Radio Netherlands. Loads of fun.
There are a few places in South Africa that do sell shortwave aerials, one is Radiowinkel, here: radiowinkel.co.za/
I do know about LSB and USB, yes :-) About the commenting, I think it is as some others have explained before, when the video is still processing to HD the comments don't show up.
@@swlistening OK. I will look at Radio Winkel. Thanks! Where do you store your QSLs?
Edit: I would have loved to pick up more shortwave stations. Unfortunately, I wasn't around during the peak of Shortwave. There are very few broadcasters now.
Edit 2: I see Radio Winkel is wonderful! I will definitely purchase something from them. Thanks!
@@FamtechVideos Sure!
Was this in Australia you paid $60? I thought they worth more than that as I saw one for $250 last month but it sold
No, I bought mine in Johannesburg, South Africa, where I live. The guy I bought it from restores radios and he also serviced this before delivering it to me. I was really lucky :-) They do sell for more, also here. I just saw another one for sale today, the price was $150.
I just bought same model, I got the wrong anatenna connrctor so waiting for another to arrive, so for now using a long wire but 2 places at the rear to connect I'm still experimenting which is best as I never got a maunel with mine. What antenna are you using and how is it connected?
Hi Colin, congratulations on your purchase! This is a wonderful radio. I use the MLA30+ loop antenna, connected to the coaxial input at the back, with a connecting cable that I bought from a radio shop. But a long wire will work well, connected to the wire input at the back. Before I got my MLA30+ I used a 10 metre (about 30 feet) long wire, I just used speaker wire, and it worked very well. It is quite easy to find the manual for this receiver online, the manual is actually very good. Here is one place where you can download it: rigreference.com/documents/9a6d90b6-b63b-102d-87c9-1e27922bfe8d
@@swlistening Thank you for the quick reply, I purchased a ready made long wire with the crocodile clip attached and a BNC on the other end which I conneceted a moonraker antenna, I connected the lire using the croc clip to the rear of the radio.
Thanks I did download the manual and funny enough I was reading when your message popped up.
I found though I clipped the croc clip to the telescopic on a cheap SW radio and it perfeormed better than the Kenwood and that bothered me a bit.
@@colinreece3452 I had the same experience when I used the wire with a crocodile clip. Mine worked better when I inserted a bit of exposed wire into the wire connecter itself.
@@swlistening I just changed the AM 12khz over to 6khz like the manual said just to see if it makes any difference, but when I opened it up the inside had a brownish tint I was wondering if at some stage it had water ingress and left to dry out or was it just age? When I got the radio I it had a bent paper clip inserted on both the antenna holes as well so who ever had it before used it that way.
@@colinreece3452 It might be worthwhile to ask someone who knows radios well to just clean it up for you. The guy I bought mine from, said the radio just needed a good clean inside, everything was still working, but cleaning was necessary.
i was offered one of these today. for 100€ today. seems to be in good condition on the outside and original on the inside. Do you know of anything i look out for before buying?
The only thing I know of, as with most of these old radios, is that the capacitors might need replacing at some point. That's what the guy who I bought mine from told me. Otherwise this radio, from what I have heard, does not really have any issues. If everything works when you test it, it should be fine. These were solidly made.
@@swlistening did you already had to replace the caps on yours?
@@VintageOils No, still the original ones.
@@swlistening sounds promiding. ive read good things about the caps lasting pretty long on forums. ill probsbly buy that thing :D
@@VintageOils I'd love to hear later what you think of the Kenwood R1000. I really enjoy mine. I don't know if you have an external antenna, but the R1000 works fine with a long wire also, very easy to attach. For other antennas, like the MLA30+, you would need a coaxial adaptor.