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Re: [TenTec] Omni VI+ the best and other great radios

To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Omni VI+ the best and other great radios
From: Stuart Rohre <rohre@arlut.utexas.edu>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:00:23 -0600
List-post: <tentec@contesting.com">mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
John and Carter touch upon one of my pet peeves about modern circuitry.  
Things like logic boards often get discontinued through no fault of the 
board manufacturer.
Instead, the logic chips, especially if they are ROM programmed, or 
special logic functions; often become obsolete because some other vendor 
comes along with a chip that does the job of the special chip and 
several more.  The process may have changed to more profitable thin 
trace high density or surface mount circuits, or even the logic families 
preferred by designers might shift from 5 volt parts to 3 volt parts or 
less.  Anything with "logic" in the board name might well be unobtanium 
shortly after a model goes out of production.

If you truly love your rig and want to keep it working for the rest of 
your life, you do shop the net for the chips, and hope that you can get 
them programmed by the rig manufacturer.  Some riceboxes like the ICOM 
751 suffer from one of a kind logic chips that are no longer available.  
Or, you take the plunge and buy a second working rig for the parts it 
might donate to keeping your favorite model going indefinitely.  Also, 
with the change over to ROHS parts, (lead free in Europe and the rest of 
the world), it is already getting hard to get leaded parts rather than 
surface mount, and conventional parts that will solder well with 
traditional tin lead solders.

By all means baby your favorite rigs by not leaving them plugged into an 
antenna panel or antenna nor into the power line when you are not using 
your station.  You don't want to lose a classic rig to a power surge or 
lightning hit.

-Stuart Rohre
K5KVH


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