Hello:
I received from Ten-Tec yesterday a new (demo) Argonaut V with TCXO, which
I got primarily for CW. Not surprisingly, the QSK is excellent and sooo
quiet. What came as a pleasant surprise is the quality of reception on CW
and SSB. On CW, the software filtering allows tremendous flexibility in
cruising the CW portion of a band--you can start at say 1000 kHz and then
when you find something, narrow down to 200 Hz if need be with just a twist
of the Multi knob. A Passband Tuning feature allows movement of the
passband up to nearly +/- 3 kHz with a flick of the same Multi knob. In
neither case does the fine CW tone become "ringy." Sensitivity is
excellent, and the receiver has a low noise floor to go along with it. On
SSB receive, audio quality is quite high.
I haven't had time to do much transmitting, so no comments there. (I'll be
very interested in the ARRL lab's report on the Argonaut's CW keying
envelope, etc., when it appears. I suspect Mike Tracy & Co. will go over
the new rig with a fine-tooth comb.)
The panel, display and knobs and buttons are all first rate, as is the manual.
If wishes were horses: Since the Argonaut serves triple-purposes as a
homebase/portable/mobile HF rig, I'd like to see Ten-Tec build on this
success by adding: (1) dual receive, (2) max 100 watts output (instead of
20), and (3) providing a somewhat larger desktop footprint. In other words,
a poor man's Orion, priced somewhere around the Mark V Field.
Next week's ARRL CW DX contest will provide an acid test for the Argonaut's
front end, and I fully expect that it will not hold up as well as say, my
FT-1000MP Mark V. But in terms of fun and all-around usefulness, I suspect
the Argonaut is going to be hard to beat.
73,
John, W3ULS
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