And, then you have to find someone fix it if you can't do it yourself. Parts for these rigs, especially some of the more specialized IC chips are sometimes almost next to impossible to find. If you go the old route, you really have no idea how well it was maintained over the years. Rigs like the TS-850, 930, 940, IC-730 are 20 to 30 years old or older. The other important thing to consider is maintenance. If you have a local club they may be able to provide some leads on xcvrs in your area for sale too. If you can find something local and go see it in action all the better. Yaesu and Icom probably have some good offerings in that price range too but I've never owned one so I can't offer any advice there. Never had one but I've heard they are good performers and can be had at a reasonable price. You could take a step further back in time and look at a 440. For that matter you need to be educated on any xcvr you are looking at purchasing. You need to do your homework when looking to buy an 850 - Google is your friend here. I really can't comment on the TX audio of any since I mostly operate CW unless there is a country I need on phone or a contest going on.Ĩ50's are good radios, you just need to make sure you buy above a certain serial number otherwise some have leaky capacitor issues that damage the circuit boards. Don't get me wrong, I worked a lot of DX with the 850 but once I got the 870 I used that more. I think the 870 has better receive audio plus it has better rx filtering then the 850 - DSP vs plug in filters. Many people will tell you that the 850 is a better performer then the 870 but the more I used the 870 the less I used the 850. Ran a TS-830 for years - solid performer back then but I sold it to get the 850. I also have the TS-870 a TS-790 and a TS-990, plus the TL-922 amp - pretty much the full line up. I still own the TS-850 I bought new and it works very well.

Kenwood ts 830s serial numbers