Kenwood Speech Processor

A real speech processor for the TS-520

Preface

This article describes the installation of a kick-ass speech processor into Kenwood hybrid models. Accompanying the article are a number of audio recordings demonstrating this speech processor under different receiving conditions. For example, in this recording we hear what it sounds like longpath in Tasmania. In this recording we hear it in a TS-520, and in this clip in a TS-830s.

Introduction

There are no “speech processors” in early Kenwood hybrids. In the TS-520 series, the “DX PULL” on the mic gain knob merely reduces the decay time of the microphone amplifier’s automatic level control. Kenwood replaced this in the TS-820 and TS-830 models with RF speech processing—one of the last times this complex and beautifully sounding technique was ever used.¹