Steve that was an interesting Ten-Tec story, but please tell us, how many
days did the Gotham v-80 last before it toppled to the ground?
As I recall, most Gotham antennas broke while putting them up!
73
Rick, DJ0IP
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of Steve Berg
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 3:52 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] My First Ten-Tec
I got my novice ticket in 1963, and got on the air with a Knight T-60
transmitter, a command set 40 meter receiver, and a Gotham v-80 vertical
antenna. I failed my general test in Chicago, but recouped by passing my
tech test at 12 wpm with a keyer. I discovered the joys of 6 meters, and
was having so much fun that I forgot about HF for several decades.
Eventually, techs were given some HF CW privileges, and despite being a
starving college student, I managed to buy a Hallicrafters HT-37 from a
local ham, and used it with a dipole with my HRO-50T1 receiver. I really
liked National equipment, and after passing my advanced ticket in the early
80s, bought a NCX-5 and power supply. I also was given a Heath HW-7, which
I still have, and I got the QRP bug badly. In the 1990s, I decided to sell
the worst motorcycle I had ever owned, a Triumph Trident, and since I had
spent many years fixing and very little time riding it, I decided I would
treat myself to something that actually worked, and after considering a
Delta II, figured that 5 watts would tear up fewer televisions in this
fringe area, and bought an Argonaut II from AES in Milwaukee. I still have
it. It has made some trips back to the factory, but has generally been a
great little rig, and it has many thousands of hours of use on it. I have
read the test of these radios in QST,and I suspect that the testers did not
read the manual, and were too incompetent to learn how to really use the
rig. I bought one of the 6 meter transverters for it, and while writing my
doctoral dissertation in 2000 or thereabouts, I kept it on most of the time
during the F2 openings then. With a whopping 8 watts out, and a 4 element
beam up about 55 feet, I managed to work all continents on 6 meters. One of
my buddies gave me a Hy-Gain trap vertical, for HF, and I put that in the
back yard for HF. I have worked a fair amount of DX with the Argo II, and
also with the Omni V.9 and the Corsair II. The display on the Omni started
getting increasingly intermittent, and was no longer fixable, so I sent it
down to the factory so Paul and the Techs can use it as a donor to keep
others alive. I bought another Argo II, and I screwed that one up, so it is
headed to the factory this week for work. I admit that the Omni and the
Corsair II have much better receivers, and a lot more power, but for some
strange reason, the Argo keeps pushing them off the desk, and onto the
shelf. I wanted to buy an Argonaut 509 years ago when I lived in
Massachusetts, but never got one.
I am waiting for the 539 to come out, and want to try it with my
transverter for 6 meters. In the meantime, the Argonauts are going to get
more use. The service from Ten Tec has always been first rate, and I really
enjoyed touring the sales area when I passed through the area on the way to
a meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. I do have a few Japanese radios,
and they are very nice, if overly complex. It is hard to beat Ten Tec for
reliable radios, of excellent performance, and that are easy to use.
73,
Steve WA9JML
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