Kenwood Serial Number
Record the serial number, found on the back of the unit, in the spaces designated on the warranty card, and in the space provided below. Refer to the model and serial numbers whenever you call upon your KENWOOD dealer for information or service on the product. Model DDX8905S/ DDX6905S/ DDX6705S/ DMX7705S Serial number.
- Ts-590s serial numbers HOME TS-590SG TS-590S COMMON OTHER SOFTWARE OTHER HARDWARE VIDEOS MISCELLANEOUS FEEDBACK MORE G3NRW SITES This page shows the serial number codes for each year and month of manufacture of the TS-590S, together with a number of issues to look out for when buying a used TS-590S.
- Kenwood serial numbers issued from 1999 come in 2 formats. The format used from 1999 until approximately August 2008 is numeric: First digit is the year code, add 1998 to get year. If first digit is 0 add 10 to 1998.
> 1996-70 mil
> 1997-80 mil
> 1998-90 mil
Kenwood Serial Number Search
> 1999-00 mil> 2000-10 mil
> 2001-20 mil
> 2002-30 mil
> 2003-40 mil
> 2004-50 mil
> Late 2004-early 2005 60 mil last production run. Early models 701XXXXX thru 806xxxxx had problems and any s/n after these runs have all the latest updates. There were some factory refurbs that failed final inspection at time of mfg. They had S/N of 90 mil and 00 mil sold by dealers in 2002 and 2003.
*** The easy way to remember is 6-7 , 7-8 , 8-9 , 9-0 , 0-1 , 1-2 , 2-3 , 3-4 and 4-5 , see how that works? (backwards 70 is 1996 , 80 is 1997 and so on) ***
This is where I’m keeping notes about my experiences running a TS-2000for well, everything it does.
Serial numbers
Kenwood serial numbers issued from 1999 come in 2 formats. The format used from 1999 until approximately August 2008 is numeric:
- First digit is the year code, add 1998 to get year. If first digitis 0 add 10 to 1998. Next 2 digits are the month code starting with01 which is April (beginning of Japanese tax year).Months 10,11 & 12 will be Jan, Feb, Mar of the next year so add 1 to the year.
The format adopted from approximately August 2008 is alphanumeric:
- The first character is the decade A=2000, B=2010, C=2020.The second character would be the year of the decade from 0 to 9.The third character is the month. 1-Jan, 2-Feb, 3-Mar, …., 9-Sep, A-Oct, B-Nov, C-Dec.
Some examples:
- 301xxxxx = April 2001
- 311xxxxx = February 2002
- 313xxxxx = April 2002
- 810xxxxx = January 2007 - Beginning of defective filters
- 909xxxxx = December 2007
- 910xxxxx = January 2008
- 001xxxxx = April 2008
- 005xxxxx = August 2008
- A88xxxx = August 2008
- A8Bxxxx = November 2008
- A91xxxx = January 2009
- A98xxxx = August 2009 - End of defective filters
- A9Cxxxx = December 2009 - Beginning of MOSFET finals
- B02xxxx = February 2010
HF - RX sensitivity issues
There’s been a lot of discussion around the TS-2000 RX sensitivity compared to other radios.Here’s at least one piece of research into what may be going on.
And a local copy of the above page:
There are other threads about S-meter calibration being not quite equivalentto other rigs and tweaking that; that’s less interesting/important.
VHF/UHF - RX sensitivity issues
There’s also been a lot of discussion around TS-2000 RX sensitivity on VHF/UHF.
And local copies of the above pages:
This was apparently fixed in later TS-2000 releases (TODO: which year?)
Filter board failure - attenuated signals, static crashes
Another fun one - failure in a filter board component causing multiple filterdiodes to be pulled down, causing noise.
Filter failures
There was also an issue with how some ceramic filters were fitted.Kenwood didn’t use a DC blocking capacitor on one side of the filterand they eventually fail.
Many TS-2000’s (Including the X model) in the serial number range 810xxxx - A98xxxx(dates January 2007 - August 2009) were produced with defective filters.
Finals replacements
There were issues with the TS-2000 finals.
They were initially BJT finals like previous HF rigs, but they were migratedto MOSFETS around 2008. Note that it’s not possible to retrofit MOSFET finalsto an older rig as other board changes have occured elsewhere.
PLL unlock
So, there are two PLL paths (at least) for VFO frequency synthesis.One for HF/6 and one for VHF/UHF. Although the chips can and do fail,someone noticed a fun mechanical issue that leads to PLL unlock.
Kenwood Serial Number Lookup
Problem solved, I removed the cover from I/11 on the C/11 board to check voltages on connector CN514
all voltages were present and correct and the radio came back to life :) Put the cover back on and it went back to unlock and 0 volts on TP505. Took the cover back off and it came back to life, tapped on components and it would not go into unlock. Put the cover back on and as I put the last screw in it quit and went into unlock, I pulled the cover back off and screwed the screw back in without the cover and found that the screw when screwed all the way down was going right into pin 1 of CN514 and shorting it out, That is why TP505 was at 0v.These were the original factory screws. So if you have a rig with 0 volts on TP505 check the cover screws on I/11 on board C/11.73MichelleWB8QGR
Another fun one - covered in http://pa3guo.com/pll_unlock.html:
- Intermittent trimmer cap
- VCOs need resoldering
- shield plate hitting the +8v line intermittently
- i2c bus near noisy / RF signal paths
- Overly long coax/filter leads, potentially intermittently shorting against the chassis/ground
A local mirror is here:
Rig control
You can’t control TX of the rig through CAT control if you want audio to comein through the ACC3 jack. There’s a specific PTT line that is “use this audioinput line and mute the MIC” which you have to use.
UT-20 / 1.2GHz calibration
When installing the UT-20 and calibrating it, beware that you need to doit with the shield on!
The values from another radio would be just ballpark, better to do a correct alignment once than try to plug in values and then have to change them.
On the shield if you ordered F10-2366-03 that is the outer shield. Listed in the Tx/Rx-3 parts list under #506 are the rest of the shields that are required. Operating or testing the tx without them can damage the preamp device and they are hard to find. I found out the hard way.
Kenwood Serial Number Chart
Clif Holland KA5IPF