Hello Michel,
I'm not going to go into a lot of technical numbers, someone else has
sent you a good comparison of the Delta II, OMNI VI, and ICOM IC-765. I
will, instead, give you my opinion of the DELTA II in use both mobile and
fixed.
I bought mine used/reconditioned from TEN-TEC in 1993, I believe. It had
an intermittant problem that eluded Gary and the guys a couple of trips
back to Twin-Peaks Parkway (Dolly Parton Parkway, TEN-TECS home). It was
intermittant hangup of the unit and occasional reset of the
microprocessor. Turned out to be two problems, both bizarre. The first
was an intermittant fuse! When it got hot it would occasionally open up.
Of course when you brought it in to work on it, (it was mobile at the
time) it would work fine. After finding that gem, it still would
occasionally reset for no apparent reason occasionally, finally getting
more and more frequent until it became apparent that it would usually
occur when I would hit a bump or jar the unit. It finally locked up hard
and would not reset at all. I put it on the work bench and it would
still repeat the symptoms, so this one looked easy! When I would fold
the top switch and speaker panel back to get at the circuit boards
(microprocessor reset bit) it would suddenly start working FB. Must be a
loose connection or broken wire, I thought. Wrong! Turned out to be a
flaky membrane switch under the hole that is used to insert a paper clip
or wire to reset the microprocessor! Gary shipped me a new one and it
has been fine ever since.
The rig is a delight to use mobile except for one big (but certainly not
unique) drawback. The LCD display is extremely hard to read in the
daytime. That is not as big a drawback as you might think, however,
because the memories allow you to program your favorite frequencies
(nets, ragchew, etc) and a spin of the knob lets you scan through them.
I work SSB and CW mobile and the CW is GREAT. It has a wonderful feature
that allows you to zero-beat the other station by pressing the "REV"
button giving you a 750 Hz tone that allows you to get exactly zero with
the other station! The controls are well laid out and convenient when
mobile. The noise blanker is one of the best you'll find (along with the
SCOUT) and the variable bandwidth Jones filter is a joy to use. You can
tighten it up to suit the QRM. It is probably not as steep as the fixed
filters in my PARAGON, but very user-friendly and much more than
adequate, even in extreme QRM. Notch filter is very effective and easy to
set.
It is a little large by today's standards for mobile use and this fact
alone is what made me replace it with an ICOM IC-706 with the removable
front panel. The ICOM does not compare in receiver performance (except
greater coverage) or ease of use. It has the same LCD visibility problem
and since there are few controls and you must scroll through several
menus to make adjustments, it is not as functional (my opinion). Why is
everytrhing in life a compromise? I guess it's best that it is,
otherwise we would want to marry the same girl and drive the same car!
Using the DELTA II as a fixed station is a joy! It compares favorably
with my Paragon in many respects. I have used it on an emergency
communications trip (Georgia floods in 1994) and it was reliable and I
kept getting reports on how it punched through and put out an outstanding
signal. It is quite tolerant of fairly high SWR, unlike most of the
"Rice Boxes."
I don't think you can go wrong with a good DELTA II. And you can't beat
Garry Green, Paul Clinton and the other service guys at T-T. They will
walk you right through any troubleshooting (or operator error) problem
you might have and do it without making you feel foolish!
Welcome to the TEN-TEC ADMIRATION SOCIETY!
73,
Pat Haynes-K4BEH
3024 Wendlock Drive
Marietta, GA 30062-1405
(770)971-1493
EMail k4beh@juno.com
The unwanted sideband on receive is not as good as the PARAGON but is no
problem except on VERY strong adjacent signals.
The audio quality on SSB is excellent and the processor (non-adjustable)
is factory set at a very good level. Punches through without sounding
"trashy."
On Wed, 17 Sep 1997 07:26:58 -0400 morinm@csgoeland.qc.ca (Morin Michel)
writes:
>Hi there
> I am a new Tentec user and have a couple of questions about
>the Delta II.
>Is the noise floor of the receiver as good as Jap rigs or better? When
>compared to the Omni VI, how does the Delta II rate as a receiver? How
>would you rate the Delta II in general? Thanks for any info.
>
>73 de VE2CJW, Michel Morin.
>
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