To continue in the vein of reviewing older radios I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to another welcome addition to the ‘056 shack’ ….. this time some small information (only my opinion of course!) regarding the Trio TS930S or Trio TS930S/AT as its sometimes known.

This lovely old radio falls into the “classic” category, as its production commenced in 1982 however it doesn’t quite yet fall into the “pensioner category of the 60’s valve rigs.

Now some folks get a tad mixed up regarding the Trio & Kenwood labelling but truth is there isn’t really an awful lot, simply put way back a few years past Kenwood & Trio were in fact the same company only difference being that radios bearing the Trio label were destined for the EU market and those that carried the Kenwood label were suitable for the slight differences found in the US – in essence any rig you find labelled as Trio is simply a European Kenwood.

My 930S, this particular model manufactured in late 1984, is a solid-state HF transceiver operating from 150 kHz – 30MHz, including (as it states in the original handbook!!) the new WARC bands!

This mains operated radio is big (a definite boat-anchor) coming in at 374 x 141 x 350mm and weighing a whopping 41lbs fully-loaded with the PSU & ATU, so not one you’d want to lug around on a /P expedition to say the least.
My minted example weighs just over 42lbs having had the addition of the 4 optional filters YK-88A-1, YK-88C-1, YG-455C-1 & YG-455CN-1 so I keep my fingers well clear, and in fact it’s so heavy it’s done in the wheels on my modern (although solid built) Ikea computer desk!!

Optional extras for this model included the SM-220 station monitor, the SP-930 external speaker and, if you wanted to be real posh, the HC-10 Digital World Clock.

It’s modes of operation are SSB, AM, FSK & CW …. (note the lack of FM!) and delivers 250w pep input from it’s built-in AC PSU.

It has many features built-in which, at the time of course, could only be gained as optional extras on most other available radios although granted in comparison to many modern rigs its slightly lacking but they include;

* Twin VFO’s
* 8 memory channels (yes 8 not 800!!!)
* AGC
* ALC
* ATT (giving 3 positions of -10, -20 & -30dB to knock back those strong signals)
* RIT tuning
* RF Speech-processor
* VOX
* Notch filter
* 2 x Noise Blankers (NB2 was designed to knock-out the Russian ‘woodpecker’)
* Full & semi break-in CW with side tone
* SSB Slope tuning
* Split operation

Operating this old set is an absolute pleasure, having nice big buttons & knobs which are easy to see and adjust even for the fattest of fingers – no fiddly wee. In the case of my 23 year old example (see picture) the writing on the front facia is still as clear as the day it was put on and hasn’t faded at all despite the years of use, unlike some of the more modern radios I’ve had through here, and once adjusted remain adjusted to your requirements.

When I first set up this radio on the desk I was quite taken aback by the ‘warm’ audio emitting from the internal 8ohm speaker being pleasantly easy to listen to in the case of prolonged use such as contests or waiting for 11m prop to arrive!

Four microphones have been tested on the set; 1st was a Heil Pro-set with the HC5 element, 2nd was a Kenwood MC60A, 3rd was an Adonis AM-808G and lastly was a simple 600ohm dynamic hand-held Kenwood mic. Again much to my surprise the standard Kenwood mic knocked spots off the rest simply due to the fantastic speech-processing of the radio and negated the requirement for any fancy add-on audio equipment. The outgoing audio quality can be monitored at the press of a button, via head-phones, which is a great bonus and one which is not often found on some more expensive modern day rigs.
The large backlit meter on the radio monitors 7 functions including SWR, the output audio level, output power level, compression level, power transistor collector current and power collector voltage current so you can keep a wary eye on all aspects of its performance & will even let you see what the incoming signal strength is.

Quoting from the manual “the six-digit fluorescent tube digital display has an analogue type sub-scale with 20Khz increment markers”

The in-built ATU easily tuned both a full-size G5RV and a 9-band vertical antenna on all bands with ease albeit ever so slightly noisy (a low whirring) in operation but for a 24 year old radio it’s not too much of a concern. The rear panel houses connections for one transmitting antenna and one receive-only antenna such as a long-wire etc. This radio is also equipped with 2 cooling fans, one for the final-amplifier and the other for the AC PSU and I’d like to tell you what they sound like but so far neither have clicked in! (Yes, they are fully working it seems that the radio can take a fair bit of use before the fans kick in!)

Reports from stations I’ve contacted have been nothing but superbly favourable with the most common received comments regarding the ‘crispness’ of the audio especially from a hand-held microphone!

If I were being critical about the radio for a moment I would definitely have to say the weight would be a concern to some; maybe the lack of FM would discourage certain operators from a potential purchase; I would have preferred to see a 7-digit frequency read-out

If you haven’t much space for a radio (external ATU’s, PSU’s speakers etc all take a wee bit of room!) but have somewhere to take the weight of this beast you won’t go far wrong. If you can get your hands on a good second-hand set which can be picked up for around £350-400 ($600/700) fully-loaded ….. simply plug-in, tune up and off you go!
Please don’t make the mistake of discounting these older radios just because they are a bit older and may not have the bell & whistles of the modern day ‘super-rigs’ as they’ll quite easily hold their own against any modern black-box!

If you remember from my review of the FT990 I said I use the Eham.net review section to help me to make up my mind when purchasing a new radio (have a look at the score & the comments on your own set). Once again I’ve been lucky enough to locate a radio with a fairly high score, 4.9 out of 5, which compares very favourably to a lot of modern day rigs, in some cases outshining them completely. Of course radios are like a lot of things, a matter of personal preference, however taking into consideration it’s age it seems that this is one ‘classic’ old radio which easily stands up to the test of time!

73 de Admin
Martin