My Ten-Tec story follows;
First licensed 1973 with Novice call-sign WN9NEH, station equipment
consisting for the majority of two years was a Hammarlund HQ-180,
Hallicrafters HT-40, Heathkit HG-10 VFO, Ten-Tec 605 (KR5-A) Keyer, HyGain
14-AVQ and a 40 meter loop antenna. WAS, WAC, and a bunch of DX as a Novice.
In 1975, I upgraded to Advanced with WB9NEH, and traded for a Tempo-One
(FT-200), sold it after a couple years and bought a Yaesu FT-101-EE with
remote VFO, found an old HyGain TH-4 and put it up at 50 feet. Built a
Heathkit SB-200 and continued working DX.
Upgraded to Extra Class and accepted AB9M. Purchased a used Drake R4-B.
Continued working on DXCC and finally achieved 107 the summer of 1978.
In 1979, my XYL was offered a job in Bloomington, Ill. As I drove from
Knoxville, IL to Bloomington to look for a job, I talked with W9HB (then
Harry McCormick) who was the Peoria, IL DXer who had worked everything on
the DXCC list at that time. Harry ran the latest rigs from TenTec and said
"you can't work'em if you can't hear'em, so you need dual receive and QSK if
you are going to work DX!"
After we moved to Bloomington - Normal, and I got my station operational, a
nearby lightning strike about a block away, damaged the FT-101-EE. The
replacement radio: a Ten-Tec OMNI-D with all the extra filters, remote VFO,
and PS. I continued to chase DX.
November 1985 moved to current QTH, a rural subdivision, on a glacial
moraine, with one acre lot, and with underground electrical and telephone
service. Soil conditions are about 36 inches of black (glacial lake bottom /
prairie grass) soil over water bearing clay. With the Butternut HV-2 ,
umbrella top-loaded over two dozen 66 foot radials over our septic leach
field, working AH1A on 80m at sunrise or breaking the ZL9CI 40 meter SSB
pile-up with 30w CW using the HV-2 was easy. The beam is a TH-7 at 50 feet.
10/21/88 Purchased new TenTec 561 Corsair-II (all filters), 263-G VFO, 961
PS, 705 Mic and sold the OMNI-D station to my friend KB9BQU.
5/3/90 Purchased new Titan 425 (sn 516) export model from rf enterprises as
the result of a conversation with AD0S, VP5M, and other TenTec equipment
operators at our table at the DX Dinner. (Dayton Hamvention was in April)
6/28/90 Titan 425 s/n 516, 2 new 3CX800A7 tubes installed, minor updates
performed at Ten-Tec, all NO CHARGE !!!
8/25/92 Purchased new TT 585 Paragon so that I could run phone-patches for
Desert Storm soldiers. As I was the State Farm Insurance telephone network
manager at the time, General Telephone, Sprint, and AT&T, each provided free
access, no charge long distance calling for me to service MARS
phone-patches.
12/24/2000 Paragon failed (previously returned to TenTec for PLL lock and
grounding updates). Corsair-II put back in line to work VU7CVP and ask about
unanswered QSLs for previous QSO. Ordered new OMNI-VI Plus with Paragon in
trade.
12/30/2000 JT1CO, 14,190, 100W, at 0133 UTC, is first DX worked with new
OMNI-VI Plus.
7/23/09 Purchased new TT 715 - RF Clipper Speech Processor
5/14/10 Ordered new TT 588 with 500 & 300 Hz Collins filters, and 940 PS on
30 day trial, possible trade in of OMNI-VI Plus ($600). Bought it out about
28 days later.
June 2010, sold OMNI-VI Plus with all optional filters (5 total) and 961 PS
for $1600. I then bought a FLEX-1500 which is used as a panadapter and
second receiver for the OMNI-VII using the N4PY modification.
Currently my DXCC count is 347 Mixed, 338 Current, both verified....
The Corsair-II is used almost daily for automatically logging 20m PSK-31 DX
which is then turned into a report weekly for submission to N4AA for the 20
Meter Digital QSN Report in QRZ DX.
The OMNI-VII is used several nights a week for either SSB or CW DXing
usually at the 100w level unless I'm trying to work a station for an
all-time new DXCC entity. On SSB, I usually run the TT-715 clipper and find
that with the OMNI-VII running 100w, it appears to be competitive with other
stations running small (600 W) amplifiers like a SB-200. I've learned that
running without the 715, I'm seldom heard in the small pile-ups, but with
the 715 running, I usually get through. Just this past week I answered
S59N's CQ and when I reported that I was running just 100 watts, he remarked
my audio was great and sounded like more than 100 W! I receive similar
comments frequently.
I still operate the Titan 425 to get through the DX pile-ups in order to
fill all-time band-mode needs, but seldom use it otherwise preferring to
have quick band-change capabilities and less high VSWR failure worries with
100w! I have a Dow Key relay installed with both the RF and keying loop
common running to the Titan 425 so that either the OMNI-VII or CORSAIR-II
can drive the Titan 425, while disabling the other transceiver. Audio, PTT
and CW keying are all switched via a NCS Multi Switcher.
Thirty plus years using TenTec radios and almost forty years using TenTec
equipment (KR5-A in 1973) and I'm still excited by the brand. While I may
sell or trade the OMNI-VII if I find a better TenTec radio, I doubt the old
Corsair-II will ever be sold as long as I can repair it or find someone who
can. The Corsair-II has been used to work over 200 DXCC entities and is
still an excellent radio for DX-ing in my opinion.
Full disclosure: I am a TenTec Ambassador. In return for relating my
experiences with TenTec equipment to potential buyers of TenTec radios, I
receive monetary compensation (usually $30-$40) if a new radio is purchased.
The purchaser receives free shipping when a TenTec Ambassador is used.
73 ES DX,
Gary -- AB9M
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2012 3:49 PM
To: 'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment'
Subject: [TenTec] My First Ten-Tec
<trimmed by AB9M>
73
Rick, DJ0IP
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