Is there any way to get the mike cords back in the correct shape? My 2 meter Kenmore's mick cord is a rats nest on both ends. Carl

Is it a coiled cord that had a twist in it for too long and now it won't coil properly? Either a pic or better description may be needed.

If it's a coiled cord, I work the kink back to either end.
Time consuming, but it works.
YMMV...

It if had a good coil to start with it usually can be returned to shape using the method Tom pointed out. But some cords were just pretty pathetic from the start (like the MFJ copies of Icom's hand mic/speaker for the old HTs) and they lost their coiling ability within weeks and aren't going to recover. But the good ones held up and I have a Kenwood TR-7400A with its original mic still looking good. Some of the commercial rigs of the era had industrial cords not much lighter than RG-58 and I suspect those things will still be coiled a century from now if the insulation hasn't turned to powder by then.

I thought the TR-7400A was one of the nicest looking vintage 2 meter FM rigs although not quite up there with Icom's IC-21A/DV-21 combo. The Brimstone 144 deserves honorable mention due to its odd naming conventions.

Rodger WQ9E

Yes it is the coiled mike cord and a heavy thick one that is about 40 years old. It has about 10 or more coils on each end that want to lay about 90 degrees to the center of the cord. Then it will knot it self up. I don't think heating it will help. I have it a wooden dowel to hold the winding's where they should be. I know, replace it, just ain't got one at this time. Carl

Did anyone catch that I called a Kenwood, Kenmore? In the 1970's some ham friends of mine had Kenwood's and I couldn't afford one so I teased the guys calling them Kenmore's. Took 40 years for me to get 2 40 year old kenmore's. VHF is TM-201A and HF is TS-820S. Also have an Icom 290 all mode VHF. AND, Yes I am old. HI HI

Yep, this all sounds familiar! I'm now able to afford the stuff I couldn't 40 years ago as well!
Also have the 820S's... Currently going through them trying to fix nagging problems.
I like the look of the early 80's ICOM's: I have a couple of IC-255's.
The same period Kenwoods are nice lookers as well... Then there's the Clegg FM-28's!
You simply can't have enough vintage radios....
Let's not get into talking about ages.... I'm trying to figure out who the old man in the mirror is...

Hi tom and I have the same old man in my mirror.
All my radio's have good mike cords except the kenmore's. what'z up wid dat?
I bought my 820s last March knowing it had lots of problems. The seller told me everything about the radio and what didn't work correctly. I bought it from him because he was honest with me. This 820 didn't have a drift, it RAN away. Drift was over 5 KHz. I now have ZERO drift. I worked on this rig for 10 weeks and lost a lot of hair during that time. It has grown back waiting for the next project radio. If you want to know what I did to mine PM me and I'll compose a long list. It works BETTER then when it was new. 73 Carl

A long time ago a friend came over with a Kenwood hybrid that was drifting like crazy. He finally admitted to spraying copious amounts of some sort of cleaner/lubricant through the access hole in the top of the VFO compartment and that liquid created a constantly changing dielectric constant. Once cleaned out it worked well again.

The TS-820 is a great looking rig with its combination of a digital readout and a "magic numbers" knob reminiscent of a National HRO.

Rodger WQ9E

Tom I sent you a long PM and there seemed tobe a problem sending but seems to have gone through. Let me know if you got it. I copied the message just in case. Carl

Hi Carl!

Thank you! I got it...
I'm amazed at your patience..
Your experience with the 820 mirrors what I see with a lot of equipment:
Clean connections, anything with a contact, and the vast majority of your problems go away.
The 820 dissimilar contact material issue is endemic in things like the Motorola Micor and all of their Radius series mobiles.
I'm going to *carefully * go through one of the units, then the second one.
No, contact cleaners aren't a 100% cure all.
In certain cases like this, mechanical cleaning is necessary.
Many thanks!

-Tom

Kenwood had a large list of service info out for the TS-820, most of it is pretty generic but some of it does address specific failures. I think it is still available from their website-otherwise I have a PDF copy.

Outside of the digital display my TS-820S was pretty much trouble free but both of my R-820 receivers had loose mounting screws for several circuit boards creating some intermittent issues and the separate converter board had minor issues in both of them (the R-820 has a stock converter that converts the 16, 25, 31, and 49 meter bands up to 10 meters which seems like a needlessly complex addition just to add 4 shortwave bands). It is a great performing receiver but it was expensive and I don't think Kenwood sold that many. It was designed to run in full transceive mode with the TS-820 but the transceiver requires several modifications for this to work so the product planning wasn't very well integrated.

Rodger WQ9E