• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

Restoring a Kenwood TS-430S

Radio Tech

Radio Operator
Sep 9, 2008
858
309
173
62
North Carolina
www.gokarters.com
A while backed I picked up another HF Radio in on trade. A Kenwood TS-430S.
I sat the rig aside thinking the PLL was bad. Radio had no display, receive or transmit.
After going through a pair of Swan 500CX’s I decided I needed to start another project.

So pulled the 430 apart and started trouble shooting the display first. When I went to pull the display board I noticed that connector #3 on the display unit seemed very loose. As I unplugged the connector the whole socket came off the board. Wow I thought to myself. So after removal of the board I found more solder joints that were cracked. About a dozen and remember this board is only 3.5 by 1.75 inch.

Feeling I was sure this would solve the display problem I reinstalled the board and powered the rig up. Still no display….After checking voltages I found I was missing the 5 volt rail. Also found there was no 8 volt rail.

After reference to the schematic I found IC 8(5v) and IC 9(8v).
Removal of the IF board was fairly easy. This is the board that contains the voltage regulators. Turning the board over revealed the culprit. More cracked solder joints. Both IC’s were completely isolated from their pads.
index.php


I soldered them up and temporary installed the harness to check power. The 5 volt rail was at 3.2 volts. The 8 volt rail was around 6 volts. There are 2 electrolytic on the input and outputs of both regulators. What I found that all 4 caps had high ESR. Replaced these and reinstalled board. I now had a display and the mode buttons light up.

index.php


So made a great deal of progress on the old rig. Still have lots of other issues to address.
Receiver is way down.
No S-meter deflection until about 20k on the generator.
No transmit. But does produce a signal out.


Another issue is a broken diode I have to track down on the schematic. Should not be hard to do.
index.php


Sorry I did not get more pics while working on the boards. But the camara I had sux. So went o the local Trade it store and bought another one. I will be able now to take more pics as I move along with this repair.
 

So what the hell did the previous owner use it for? A football?

ROFLM*O!!!!!
It appears that way.
To be honest....I have to say this.
By doing a bit of research from the era my thoughts are this.
Looks like Kenwood was having a bit of quality control issues during this time. This radio is early 80's vintage. I think they were trying to compete with other manufacturers out there and they lacked quality. Now we know that the 520 and 830s were rock solid! Were well built radios.

I also know they had used some strange solder in their wave flow operation. Man this stuff is hard and even todays rosin core will not stick to it. I have to remove the old solder and apply new. The two will not mix together. Perhaps it has a very high tin content. Beats me.

I just removed the IF board again for further inspection. And what I am finding is terrible.
Everywhere I look there are cracked solder joints. With some leads not even making contact with the board pads.

index.php


Another thing that leads me to think of Quality issues is the amount of “jumpers and bodged circuits. Everywhere you look on the board is these added circuits to the foil side of the boards. It is like the design engineers had no idea what they were trying to accomplish. Now dont get me wrong. I love these old radios.........
But just look at the back of the IF board.


index.php


Looks like I am going to invest in another camera with a macro lens. And maybe a good quality USB cam.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shadetree Mechanic
I have a Kenwood TS-430S, and the only real issues I've had with it was with the mode switch and memory switch needing a little DeOxit. I have heard the same issues you are having with yours, but I've never really opened mine up to inspect all that stuff. The rig works, and works well. Good luck in getting yours back on the air, I'm sure you'll really like it once it is "proper".

73,
Brett
 
I have a Kenwood TS-430S, and the only real issues I've had with it was with the mode switch and memory switch needing a little DeOxit. I have heard the same issues you are having with yours, but I've never really opened mine up to inspect all that stuff. The rig works, and works well. Good luck in getting yours back on the air, I'm sure you'll really like it once it is "proper".

73,
Brett

Nice. I think these are great rigs. I could kick myself everytime I think that I sold my TS-140. I really miss that one. But the 430S should replace that desire on a rig that I miss. Not only are they great little rigs but they come in handy as a repair tool for other radios.

I do want to re phrase what I said above about the design engineers. Was thinking as a consumer instead of an electronic repair tech. The designers probably had it right. It was most likely the CEO’s that said NO, we got to do it cheaper, we don’t need that feature. And in the end you end up with little extra circuits added to the boards to fix the CEO’s knee jerk decisions….
 
I had TS-430S a few years ago with the solder joint problems and intermittent receive and transmit on certain bands. I burned the crud off the relays and got the receive back. I had to get to the PA board and re-solder every single connection to get transmit back to 100%. Lots of bad joints around the finals.

I have a place in my heart for the 430 ad 440's for some reason. I think they had one of the better receivers Knwd ever made.
 
I recently fired up the 430, and it has low receive on all bands now. Supposed to be a relay fix as RatsoW8 mentions. I have the service bulletin for it, but does it mean I'm going to need to replace the relays soon even once they are cleaned?

73,
Brett
 
TS-430

Anyone needing parts, knobs, boards chassis parts

PM me, I will send you a name and e-mail address where you

can get these items reasonably, I do not think anything is

available from Kenwood anymore for these classic units............Mac
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Tucker442 has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    LIVE 10:00 AM EST :cool:
  • @ Charles Edwards:
    I'm looking for factory settings 1 through 59 for a AT 5555 n2 or AT500 M2 I only wrote down half the values feel like a idiot I need help will be appreciated