New Kenwood TS 990

Anybody know what a blivet is?

 

The blivet feature is a Balanced Linear Input Volume Electrostatic Tensioner. This allows the operator to push one button and his voice will be heard the same by all who hear him transmit. It prevents the endless asking of hows my highs, lows, and mids... over and over and over. A great feature!

 

Why the TS-990, copy the FT-990? Why the FT-950, copy the TS-950? Why the FT-450, copy the TS-450? It's all stupid copy cating like that. How hard is it to come up with a new number scheme?

 

That doesn't seem like a bad price at all. Performance wise, if it's like an IC7800 it will be a steal.

 

I have been searching for a pic of this. Looks awesome, big price! I wonder what they will actually sell for.

 

During the Vietnam "Conflict" the military would carry in by helicopter a huge rubber container with drinking water. I'm told that they were called blivets.

 

There's a great picture of it on the RigPix site by the way...

 

A blivet is a situation where eleven lbs. of poo comes out of a ten pound bag.......Lee

 

Yah, I agree... looks like an ICOM! And with all those buttons they dare to claim "operating ease"?? If it costs the $5k+ like the rumors say, one could buy 2 or 3 decent rigs for that!. Ugh... I was really hoping for a cool new Kenwood... like a 950SDX-II, but this ain't it! Even the number is wrong -- didn't Yaesu already do a 990?? Dang!

Dave-K9TY (an overly loyal Kenwood zombie)

 

Note that the date on the display is 01/APR/12.

 

I heard the price would be just a little over 5K.

 

I talked to the Kenwood Rep at the Orlando Hamcation and he said that Kenwood would do five things never done in amateur before with this radio! Wonder what could be in this radio for him to say that? I know I like the analog meter.

 

This is indeed the standard engineering terminology, although amount of poo can vary upwards, depending upon the current situation.

 

Oooh! I want one! Can't afford one but I want one!

 

That's already an improvement...

Sorry. Kenwood was due to release a new, "higher end" rig that was at the level of the TS-950SDX. Hopefully this radio will be a worthy successor to the TS-9xx series. (It certainly took long enough, but proves the pundits that said Kenwood had abandoned the HF market were quite wrong.) I want one, if only I could find that winning lottery ticket lying in the gutter...
I'm sure the price will be unobtainable for myself. I'd probably have to sell all my gear, refinance my house, sell a kidney or two, and sell my soul to afford such a new radio. (Then again, the price of souls seems to be quite low these days; maybe I could throw in half a liver instead. I don't know what the Devil requires these days. I assume he's active on ePay.)