I completed the receiver kit Friday and had the weekend to see how it
played. I am impressed! The assembly took about 18 hours here, with a
lot of time spent on the front-end, checking and organizing all those
itty-bitty parts. The manual is well written, easy to follow and makes
assembling what is definitely not a first-time kit project a pleasure.
Yes, there are 3 errors in the manual, one is pretty easy to correct,
even for a non-technical type like me. Another required a call to TT for
reassurance, and the third was pretty subtle. If you don't check the
schematic and the parts list, the instructions will leave you ready to
mount the last part on the board and it is not the right one. Otherwise,
it was a joy to build. If you don't have strong lighting on the work
area and some kind of magnification, you had better have the eyes of
Superman. This is not a knock on the kit, but a result of just how small
components have gotten in the past several years.
The "staging" and consequent checkout of each stage not only builds your
confidence but almost assures the thing will play first time. The only
test equipment required was a VOM and my ears. This impresses me even
further with the thought, planning and engineering that went into this
kit. And yes, it worked first time, more due to TT than my kit-building
skills.
How does it play? Really quite well. I can receive signals from 100 kHz
to 30 mHz with no difficulty. It appears that it is close in sensitivity
to the OMNI VI+ in the shack but, of course it suffers sadly in
comparison in selectivity. I was listening to the YS1X operation this
morning on 20m with it and they were speaker-rattling strong. I have not
owned a general coverage receiver since the HQ-145 in the late 60s, so I
am still rediscovering all that space between the ham bands.
Again, this is an impressive receiver for it's price with the added
bonus that you get to smell the rosin again. If you don't enjoy
soldering, cutting and fitting, don't buy this one... unless you want to
pay me to build it for you! A real fun project and a nice receiver that
will serve me well for years to come. And, no, I don't own any Ten-Tec
stock.
Jim, N4IR
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