[TenTec] Rig in the Middle ...Scout?
Steve Ellington
n4lq@iglou.com
Sat, 21 Jun 1997 09:52:43 -0400 (EDT)
Hi Jack (frog)
I'de buy a Scout in a minute but listening to you jump around the band is
enough entertainment. You say you fixed one???? Last time I talked to you,
I was running my TenTec 1340 qrp rig and you were still jumping. Of
course, I had a bad chirp so qsoing you helped me cover it up! I called
the factory and got the anti-click/chirp mod which took of me. Now how
come they didn't just leave that cap out in the first place?
Manufacturing rigs with click, chirp, drift, and jump reminds me of the
ole days of Eico, Heath VF-1, Swan 350 etc. It sure is refreshing! And
then there is the Omni-VI. Here's a rig with the best receiver avaialble,
great qsk, easy to service, very expensive and the worst sounding cw note
on the band. Just last night I was able to pick out 3 Omni-VIs amoung the
crowd.
I see a pattern here. A lot of attention is being paid to receiving but
none to transmitting. I've got an Omni-5 and Paragon which have pretty
decent keying but the best keying was way back in the 70's from the Triton
IV series.
Yes, the Scout would be a great rig if it weren't for the jumping. And
why, why, why wont the factory do something? Surely it can't be that
difficult to make a transmitter key properly in 1997.
N4LQ Steve
On Sat, 21 Jun 1997, Jack W. Rucker wrote:
> To Chris & other Ten-Tec Fans:
>
> I followed with interest the Out-House Engineering (well .., it wasn't
> 'In-House') on
> a new rig from Tennessee. I was getting ready to place an early order,
> and thinking
> of giving up one of my 2 Scouts, when some of you mentioned updating the
> Scout.
>
> WOW!! Fix the Scout!! What a good idea!! I was responsibile for over 20
> other CW ops
> buying Scouts, and at least two of them sent them back after a few days.
> There are proably a few more who won't talk to me. Because of thousands
> of QSOs on my 2 Scouts - fixed, mobile, and two 7-week trips operating
> as 9N1SON - I inadvertently caused a lot more operators to never
> consider a Scout purchase, due to my drift, jumps, and/or a rough note.
> Several guys call me 'the Frog'. [Frog in the Middle - -
> Pond?]
>
> The Scouts are the most fun rigs I've owned in my 46+ years of hamming,
> and trekking
> in Nepal with solar panels and gel cells was frosting on the
> cake.
> After many dozens of hours repairing the rigs, & making minor 'no-holes'
> mods, I now
> have one Scout with a clean, almost stable, CW signal. I'll save the
> other one for a
> monsoon season.
>
> My vote is to test and stabilize ALL Scouts coming off of the assembly
> line, and
> then providing a factory FIX on bad ones in the field after the Omni VI+
> Gold-rush
> is over. With current prices, the Scout + all modules and accessories,
> including
> power supply, is around $1K. (Well worth it, when you have one that
> works
> right.)
> Another alternative that has been mentioned is to make all of the Scouts
> drift at
> the same rate. Then we could form Scout Clubs (Troops?), maybe a UFO*
> Club, call
> "CQ Scout", and have Scout awards and contests. QRM would only be a
> temporary problem.
> *Unstable Frequency
> Oscillator
> 73,
>
> Jasck
> W4SON/9N1SON
>
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>
Steve Ellington N4LQ@IGLOU.COM Louisville, Ky
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