As a kid I already owned a Ten Tec radio. I had the PM3A. Got it for $40
from a friend and had some fun with it. I was a QRP club member as I
recall, but the qualification for QRP was "under 100 watts input." (On my
certificate, 3526) But this little 5 watt rig got me interested in what
was then termed QRPp... under 5 watts. It was a toy, but it was useful
and fun. Ran it from a lantern battery, used the AC 5 tuner and a little
SWR meter Ten Tec sold. Used long wire antennas fed with coax and worked
close to WAS.
I met Al at Dayton in 1972 (with a year or so tolerance on the date!)
because he was demonstrating full QSK at his booth. I was 17 or 18 at the
time, advanced class licensee, mostly CW op. I was interested in the new
rig he had there, never saw or heard of a "no tune" final amplifier before
(though I had operated nearly full QSK with my receiver operating on a
separate antenna and I would just go ahead and transmit while receiving,
sometimes cutting the RF gain back a little.....)
I think it was the Triton I. He offered me the key and I sent out a
string of characters. I remember I was so impressed at how nicely it
worked. I think we did a vulcan mind meld because I don't think we had to
talk after that, he and I knew I was now going to find a way to get one of
these radios. He was proud of his radio and I was impressed with how well
he accomplished this one.
I was just graduating from high school and had no way to buy the radio
right then. Upon graduation, I got a job at a printing press and earned
some bucks. I got some brochures from Ten Tec and saw the Argonaut 505,
that one grabbed me. I was a backpacker, used to go out for a week or so
to be alone. Of course, I wanted to take a radio, this looked like the
one. Lantern battery, AC5, 505, wire, mike and key. Not light, but
workable if I didn't want to cover more than 20 or 30 miles in a few days.
I bought it from Ten Tec directly. I lived far from dealers, was too
young to realize I could get a discount. Ten Tec advised me to try
dealers but I just wanted the rig. I sent them a check and they sent me
my new 505, very early serial number.
I had a lot of fun with my 505 next to my HW-101 (then the Kenwood 520),
the receiver always compared just fine. I had a passive CW audio filter
with headphone output from Ten Tec, never saw one since I bought it from
Ten Tec (I think it was meant to go with the power mites).
I just found a photo of me at 18 in front of my 505. Amazing.
Fun memories.
Clark
WA3JPG
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