Other than the fire and the fact that Ten-Tec washed its hands of that
model, oh and the lack of replacement finals, I thought the amplifier was
OK. My only complaint before the fire was that when the heatsinks got warm,
the fan sounded like a 747 in full reverse.
73, Mike N4NT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Speer, Doug" <Doug.Speer@FairbanksMorse.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 4:17 PM
Subject: [TenTec] Mike Hyder --N4NT--" Hercules 444
I guess we all have had our good luck / bad luck stories. I did not set
out on this path but I ended up with two Hercules 444 amps. I have run
them daily and run them hard in contest and find the units to be pretty
robust amplifiers. Of course if I loose the finals the unit will either
become land fill or as someone commented, a science project. Someday I
will update my amplifier's) with something modern and maintainable but
in the mean time I'll run the 444s. I might be smart to locate a fire
extinguisher within reach, hihi.
Very 73,
Doug, W9PN
------------------------------
Message: 14
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:21:25 -0400
From: "Mike Hyder --N4NT--" <mike_n4nt@embarqmail.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] hercules444 ?
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Message-ID: <B5C24A2F865C45B28B61B575EE6108C5@dell8300>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
I had one of the 444 amps with its supply. The amp runs on 48VDC. I
hadn't
had mine very long (bought it used) when it caught on fire.
Ten-Tec was nice enough to repair it -- they may have had to make one or
more circuit boards for it. When I got it back they warned me that they
would never work on that model again. I sold it to a fellow who wanted
to
replace its innards with some Motorola modules.
There are not many pieces of ham gear I wouldn't haul home but the 444
is
one.
73, Mike N4NT
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