When you remove the kenwood radio from the car without using the extraction keys, do not rush to remove it. You could break the outer plastic or even damage the car stereo wiring.

You must use the extraction keys simultaneously and push them in both sides of the kenwood radio to extract it. This is a simple process and you can easily remove the external cover. Be careful not to damage you.

Now that the external cover of your kenwood radio is removed, you can see the plastic inside. You can easily remove the inner plastic with your hands. Now, you just have to push up and down, then remove the inner plastic. Normally, it comes out easily, you have to be careful and slow to avoid breaking frames.

You can still use two extraction keys and put them at the corners of the radio frames and pull the frame by exerting pressure on the extraction keys. If it still does not work, you will have to remove the metal that holds it inside.

Kenwood Serial Number Decoder

To remove the metal clamps that keep your kenwood radio from getting stuck in one position, you will need two clamps. Hold the corners of the frames with these pliers and pull them out slowly.

Very carefully, remove it by holding the two forceps firmly with your hands. You will need to remove it using both forceps simultaneously. When pulling it, make sure it is straight, otherwise it could break or get stuck. I always recommend following the instructions in the instruction manual supplied with your kenwood radio.

You can find thousands of guides in how to remove kenwood radio using Youtube or google if you want to take care of this task yourself.

2- How to find Kenwood radio serial number ?

Then you will need the serial number kenwood to retrieve your car radio code.

You can find this serial number on the anti-theft identification card that is usually placed in the glove box at the time of purchase. you can also find the serial number of the radio on the screen of your kenwood radio itself.

There are different types of kenwood serial numbers, or as called sometimes the 'security code'. These are located on the top or side of the car stereo box or printed on the label. As the example shows, this is the information needed to generate the correct car radio unlocking code for you. An example of this would be 'KE1145T0200586', Please see the images below for reference.

The serial number is sometimes printed in the metal case, as indicated by the serial number of this kenwood radio.
It is essential to ensure that all numbers and letters are correct in order to get the correct unlock code for your kenwood radio.

Once you have the information you need, get your kenwood unlock code by filling out the form above with serial number and email address.

This is where I’m keeping notes about my experiences running a TS-2000for well, everything it does.

Serial numbers

Kenwood serial numbers issued from 1999 come in 2 formats. The format used from 1999 until approximately August 2008 is numeric:

• First digit is the year code, add 1998 to get year. If first digitis 0 add 10 to 1998. Next 2 digits are the month code starting with01 which is April (beginning of Japanese tax year).Months 10,11 & 12 will be Jan, Feb, Mar of the next year so add 1 to the year.

The format adopted from approximately August 2008 is alphanumeric:

• The first character is the decade A=2000, B=2010, C=2020.The second character would be the year of the decade from 0 to 9.The third character is the month. 1-Jan, 2-Feb, 3-Mar, …., 9-Sep, A-Oct, B-Nov, C-Dec.

Some examples:

• 301xxxxx = April 2001
• 311xxxxx = February 2002
• 313xxxxx = April 2002
• 810xxxxx = January 2007 - Beginning of defective filters
• 909xxxxx = December 2007
• 910xxxxx = January 2008
• 001xxxxx = April 2008
• 005xxxxx = August 2008
• A88xxxx = August 2008
• A8Bxxxx = November 2008
• A91xxxx = January 2009
• A98xxxx = August 2009 - End of defective filters
• A9Cxxxx = December 2009 - Beginning of MOSFET finals
• B02xxxx = February 2010

HF - RX sensitivity issues

There’s been a lot of discussion around the TS-2000 RX sensitivity compared to other radios.Here’s at least one piece of research into what may be going on.

And a local copy of the above page:

There are other threads about S-meter calibration being not quite equivalentto other rigs and tweaking that; that’s less interesting/important.

VHF/UHF - RX sensitivity issues

Kenwood Serial Numbers Ts 2000

There’s also been a lot of discussion around TS-2000 RX sensitivity on VHF/UHF.

And local copies of the above pages:

This was apparently fixed in later TS-2000 releases (TODO: which year?)

Filter board failure - attenuated signals, static crashes

Another fun one - failure in a filter board component causing multiple filterdiodes to be pulled down, causing noise.

Filter failures

There was also an issue with how some ceramic filters were fitted.Kenwood didn’t use a DC blocking capacitor on one side of the filterand they eventually fail.

Many TS-2000’s (Including the X model) in the serial number range 810xxxx - A98xxxx(dates January 2007 - August 2009) were produced with defective filters.

Finals replacements

There were issues with the TS-2000 finals.

They were initially BJT finals like previous HF rigs, but they were migratedto MOSFETS around 2008. Note that it’s not possible to retrofit MOSFET finalsto an older rig as other board changes have occured elsewhere.

PLL unlock

So, there are two PLL paths (at least) for VFO frequency synthesis.One for HF/6 and one for VHF/UHF. Although the chips can and do fail,someone noticed a fun mechanical issue that leads to PLL unlock.

Problem solved, I removed the cover from I/11 on the C/11 board to check voltages on connector CN514

all voltages were present and correct and the radio came back to life :) Put the cover back on and it went back to unlock and 0 volts on TP505. Took the cover back off and it came back to life, tapped on components and it would not go into unlock. Put the cover back on and as I put the last screw in it quit and went into unlock, I pulled the cover back off and screwed the screw back in without the cover and found that the screw when screwed all the way down was going right into pin 1 of CN514 and shorting it out, That is why TP505 was at 0v.These were the original factory screws. So if you have a rig with 0 volts on TP505 check the cover screws on I/11 on board C/11.73MichelleWB8QGR

Another fun one - covered in http://pa3guo.com/pll_unlock.html:

• Intermittent trimmer cap
• VCOs need resoldering
• shield plate hitting the +8v line intermittently
• i2c bus near noisy / RF signal paths
• Overly long coax/filter leads, potentially intermittently shorting against the chassis/ground

A local mirror is here:

Rig control

You can’t control TX of the rig through CAT control if you want audio to comein through the ACC3 jack. There’s a specific PTT line that is “use this audioinput line and mute the MIC” which you have to use.

UT-20 / 1.2GHz calibration

When installing the UT-20 and calibrating it, beware that you need to doit with the shield on!

Kenwood Serial Numbers Database

The values from another radio would be just ballpark, better to do a correct alignment once than try to plug in values and then have to change them.

On the shield if you ordered F10-2366-03 that is the outer shield. Listed in the Tx/Rx-3 parts list under #506 are the rest of the shields that are required. Operating or testing the tx without them can damage the preamp device and they are hard to find. I found out the hard way.

Clif Holland KA5IPF

Kenwood Serial Number Decode

Documentation