The Kenwood/Trio Ts-510
I ran one of those, years back. It was a little too long ago for me to remember too much about it. I was very young and working for a Vacuum tube salesman, converting tube circuits was about all we were really concerned about.
What I do rememeber about that radio, is that it was considered very desirable by my friends. We were a rather poor bunch, and that was a radio who's design was capable of being actually "stable".
Don't under rate it. It may not look all that complicated, but in it's simplicity, it's about as well designed as a SSB transmitter will ever be. I suppose now that we have computers that run simulations they may have become a ittle better, but that one was a textbook model of correctness.
Once it has been all restored to the original design, we can assume that it was tweaked out by experianced operators at the factory. Some things about that process aren't all that obvious to our modern college educated tecs. At that time, tuning a Sidebander involved a company that operated a reciever station several miles from the factory. If I remember what I was told correctly, that common practice was being phased out by the crowded living conditions of industrialised Japan.
What is GREAT about that radio is that the sunspots are up and you considering selling the only radio your likly to have that is designed to be retuned to deal with the problem. It also has a built in antena tuner that works well, on a variety of different antenna designs, its built into the amp "of any tube transmitter", it isknown as a Pi circuit. Some say that any tube amp has one, but that one is designed to run on an experimental antenna without any additional instruments, where our modern radios, with their built in tuners, are not.
What's it worth? Well, I'd love it, and that is about the real value of a SSB only rig. You may want to ask someone who has rebuilt that model recently what parts are usually necessary but are also are not possible to get. Just about the only part that I can think of that I couldnt find in the 1970's, was a varactor for the voltage regulation. It's a part that Kenwood probably still duplicates verbatum in their designs, but doesnt stock the personnel for the cross referance. We were fascinated with it, because it was such an inexpensive solution to the drifty radio. If you need one, you may want to look at the design of the Drakes version. Personally I wouldn't sell it, untill I found somone who I knew would appreciate it. It's one of the few radios that have ever made that require any redesign. I havn't ran one in forever but I'd assume that he redesigned HF bands really don't poze too much of a problem to it and all it really needs is an in line frequency counter. If it were adjusted and restord in itself it would't even need that, the fact is that our modern rigs are way too narrow banded for their own good. Everyone involved in the "new" regulations was assuming that with the higher efficancys and lower cost of transistors, the bands would become more crowded over time and that never happened.
It's a heavy rig, if you have the power supply you should be able to sell it in your own aea of the world without shipping. Just look for the operator who is always experimenting with noise blankers and antennas.
Kenwood TS-510 Transceiver - RigReference.com
