[TenTec] #253 Tuner

[H. M. 'Puck' Motley W4PM]

I have a 253 Tuner.  I got it a few years ago for $600 at a ham fest.
I use it daily and with only one antenna for all bands it gets a lot of 
use.  My station consists of a Paragon and Centurion amp.  I've had the 
following problems :
1.The memory chip filled up and had to be replaced
2.On two ocassions one or two capacitors in the capacitor bank blew up
3.The rotaty inductor bearings wore out and it had to be replaced

I would suggest you open up the box from time to time, clean out the dust 
and lubricate that rotary inductor!

Although, I get a lot of use from it and find it quite convienient there 
are some small things about it I don't like:
1. While the rig controls the tuner when it changes bands, there is no 
signal to tell it you have gone from 40 to 30, or 17 to 15, or 12 to 10 
so you must push the retune in those circumstances and let it crank away.
2. It's very slow on 160 and 80 where it uses most or all of the 
inductance.
3. It's a noisy beast with the clicking of the relays and cranking of the 
stepper motor.
4. It's a very high price to pay for the convience it provides.  You will 
notice Ten Tec no longer sells it!  I think most folks would be better 
off getting a manual tuner and attaching a chart of the settings to the 
front panel.  When you change bands it doesn't take long to go to the 
predetermined settings and then touch it up a bit.
5. It's not really automatic in that it does not retune by itself if you 
QSY from one end of the band to the other.

All that being said, I'll still keep mine as it does do what I need and 
I've got too much money in it to let it go!

These are just my observances about the tuner and my opinions about it.  
I will not get into a discussion about it further.  Take this info for 
what it's worth.  Toss it if you like!

73 & Happy Holidays,
Puck, W4PM


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/tentecfaq.htm
Submissions:              tentec@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  tentec-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-tentec@contesting.com
Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm