[Kenwood] TS-930 serial numbers (more)

Thu Apr 28 09:20:03 EDT 2005

 The serial number of my rig is 5020195. In my 930, the two fans both have
stickers giving the date of manufacture as 29 May, 1984. The highest
production code date that I can find on any of the ICs or transistors is
8421, meaning the 21st week of 1984, which is in May. Therefore, the rig
could not possibly have been assembled before the middle of 1984.
 On the Yahoo TS-930/940 reflector, message number 452, PA9KB gives the
serial number of his 930 as 518xxxx. The '18' cannot, obviously, be the
month. It must be the week of the year. I.e, his rig was produced in the
18th week of 1985 ( in April).
 I know that this flies against (someone's) dogma, but here's my
interpretation of a TS-930 serial number (it may well be quite different for
other models): Add 1980 to the leftmost digit to get the year of production;
the next two digits represent the week of production ( in the range of 01 to
52); the remaining digits are a sequential series ( for that year?).
The published Kenwood service bulletins are all dated and most have
reference to applicable serial numbers. I haven't found any contradictions
in these bulletins to my interpretation.
 Comments are welcome. 73.
 Ken, VE3FIT