A big thanks to everyone who responded. It's been two weeks now, and I
have not heard a peep from Ten-Tec. Not even a "sorry, we're swamped"
acknowledgement. Which in itself is a partial answer, I'm sorry to
say. I love the radio. But if Ten-Tec is unwilling or unable to answer
a clearly-written request within two weeks, and won't take phone calls,
then one of the reasons why I bought Ten-Tec in the first place
apparently doesn't exist any more. Add to that the prohibitive and
ever-increasing cost of even UPS Ground shipping, and Ten-Tec not
suggesting a permanent fix when the had the radio in their shop for the
same problem two and a half years ago.
I am not impressed. Yes, I sympathize with Ten-Tec's problems, and the
general problem of supporting complex technical products. I spend over
30 years in network administration and computer support. I know all
about overly needy and clueless customers, maddeningly complex problems,
and fire-breathing businessmen who think that anything beyond token
service is a waste of the bottom line. But I also know that I want my
radio fixed, or at least be told how likely it is that it can be fixed
satisfactorily.
I own a decent Tektronix DVM and a consumer-grade Radio Shack frequency
counter (resolutio 100 Hz), but no scope, and my space is limited. I
don't want to have to constantly fix my primary HF rig. Unless I hear
from Ten-Tec, I will probably do the connector deoxidation, and tweak
the 40m coil a bit in the same direction that fixed the problem before.
We'll see how that goes.
But I must say, the Icom 7300 is looking more attractive all the time.
Icom service is right here in the Seattle area, so I could just drop an
Icom radio off there if I needed service. Apologies for the heresy :-)
--Peter, KD7MW
On 7/4/2016 5:14 PM, Peter Klein wrote:
I queried service@tentec.com by email about the following issue last
Tuesday. I have heard nothing so far, so I thought I'd get some advice
here.
Background: I live in the Seattle area. I have modest wire and
vertical antennas. I'm not a contester or hard-core competitive DXer.
I do try to work DX when I can, and I might jump into a contest to
snag a new country. But mostly I do HF digital (PSK, Olivia, MFSK),
casual CW, or occasionally SSB.
I've owned my Omni VI for 20 years. It has the Option 1 DSP upgrade.
Over the years, the radio has several times developed a frequency
instability issue. Over a time ranging between less than a second to a
few seconds, the transceiver moves a few 10s of Hz off frequency, then
"snaps" back. It's mostly done this on 30m, occasionally on 20m, and
now on 40m. Lately, it happens on 40m, with a short "period," so if I
am listening to a good, pure CW signal, it sounds like it has
old-fashioned "chirp."
The frequency shift occurs on both transmit and receive. When it
happens, if I switch to another band, it does not happen there. It is
intermittent. Sometimes it appears random, and sometimes appears
temperature-related (for example after transmitting for a while, or if
the radio has been just turned on in the last half-hour or so).
When it first happened (1997), Ten Tec Service advised me to tweak the
trimmer coil to the 30m mixer crystal 1/8 to 1/4 turn in either
direction until the "drift and snap" stopped, and just live with the
slight display error. I did, and later did the same thing to the 40m
coil when that band acted up. It worked in both cases.
When it started to do the frequency dance on 20m, I sent back to the
factory for a tune-up. This was in October 2013. Now, it's doing it
again on 40m.
I spoke to TenTec's service manager a few months ago. He said that the
problem might be solved by installing a temperature compensated
crystal oscillator (the TCXO was never suggested before). He said
that I could install this myself if I could solder a couple of wires.
He quoted me a price of $200 to send me the necessary circuit board
and instructions. He said it was up to me whether I wanted to spend
$200 on "an older radio." He was also dead-set against my tweaking
the trimmer coils to the individual band crystals.
I decided to wait and see if leaving the power supply on 24/7 would
solve the issue. Nope. And while I was waiting, Ten-Tec was sold and
has new service policies.
I would like to install the TCXO, *IF* it is very likely that it will
solve the problem, and I can get at least another couple of years of
good service out of the radio. On the other hand, the radio is 20
years old. So if it's just as likely that I will continue to have the
problem, then maybe the TCXO isn't worth it, and I should think about
a new radio.
So, what would you do if you were me?
Thanks and 73,
--Peter, KD7MW
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