So far, have received 16 responses. They can be sorted
into about 5 bins:
1. "Jim, you are doing a fine thing; hope you find a
deserving young recipient, but why not try to find
a school, VA hospital, etc. where the rigs might
produce more good" and similar remarks. These make
no request on behalf of the respondent. 8 of the 16 are of
this sort.
2. "I am an old user of CW, don't even own a mike, hi.
I also know how to use split, do like DX piles..." and
similar comments. 4 or the 16 of this type, but one of
these also mentions a thought that could place him in the
"find a school, etc." bin; sort of apologizes for wanting to
be considered, but "why not ask!".
3. "Trying out lots of rigs; would like to try some of these
older ones. Would you like to trade?" 1 of this sort.
4. "Disabled here, no HF rig at present, sure would like
to have one, but too expensive for my limited means.." 1 of these.
5. "Just licensed/young, now a tech; working to upgrade and
like CW" 2 of these.
My thoughts at this point, subject to changing, of course.
Will take no action/make no decisions until next week,
but my leanings at this moment follow --
First impressions: the Corsair II clearly has a good CW reputation,
each one of the 4 "old/know/love CW" types ask specifically for
the Corsair II, and one of the bin 1 types also mentions that
along with the comment, "how will you know the school/hospital
will really use it for QSK CW?". Obvious use in such places would
be SSB. The Corsair was also requested by one of the just
licensed a few months ago types, young with wife, child, limited
income, and really enjoying CW using present QRP kit CW rig;
this fellow is also a physics teacher, so he knows his technical
stuff! The CW QSK within the Corsair can be adjusted fast/slow.
In the Triton, the QSK is just a part of the CW mode when
that mode is selected; you cannot turn it off, nor modify the
timing.
I did not mention before, but I had TT rebuild the PTO's in
both rigs plus do other fixes as necessary. The Corsair
work was done just last August; however, when I got it
back from the factory service folks, the rig didn't work!!
Turns out, after I sent it back again, they had to go over
it and locate some bad connection which came "loose"
during the shipping; factory note says they resoldered the
"low level driver board connections; reset the ALC, and
tested all bands to be ok." I will include the factory notes
with both rigs when they are shipped to wherever they may
go. I need to alert the recipient that these rigs are not new,
and the shipping experience for them may again "open"
some older solder connections, so one of them may yet
again need attention after the shipping experience. However,
both sitting here on the shelf beside me are operating
perfectly now.
My present leaning, then. Rigs to the two in bin 5. One is
a 13 year old; other, young married physics teacher. However,
neither of these responses were from them; one from an Elmer,
other from a friend/fellow teacher. So, are they going to be
able to pay the couple hundred dollars or so each for the
needed boxes from Ten Tec and the shipping.
Obviously, I need assurance of that before a firm decision is
made. I belive these choices would also satisfy the 8 folks
up in bin 1. Now believe the digital Triton 544 would go to
the teenager; the Corsair II station to the young teacher.
One caveat: the 544 is a "first generation" all solid state/
digital rig. It must be used with care, else the output transistors
can draw way too much current! The young user must be
carefully taught how to tune this rig up and this means some
knowledge about antenna matching, etc. You can see a photo
of the Triton, next to my hat brim in the photo shown at the
QRZ site, just enter my call.
I have tried the gift to school approach before; did not work
out. No "really interested" teacher could be found even though
the school "officials" seemed interested. Without a licensed
amateur/teacher at the school, this would not work, in my
opinion. Maybe accomplish that via the rig to the physics
teacher? Don't know enough to know.
So, this is the present status.
73, Jim KH7M
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/tentec
Submissions: tentec@contesting.com
Administrative requests: tentec-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-tentec@contesting.com
|