[TenTec] #253 Tuner

[RICHARD ANDREN]

How does the memory chip fill up?  Can't it be erased?  I haven't had any 
trouble with mine yet, but it's only 4 years old.

73, de Rick N9THC


On Saturday, December 20, 1997 at 4:48:11 pm CST,
"H. M. 'Puck' Motley W4PM" <hmmjr@erols.com> wrote:
>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
>
>
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