[TenTec] ARRL Proposal

[Joseph T. Price-O'Brien]

After reading several earlier "posts" to the Ten-Tec reflector about the
subject of this e-mail, I risked eternal damnation by posting something
that didn't include a discussion of Ten-Tec equipment, problems, etc.

So here goes -- in addition to owning a Scout which I only operate on
40 CW mobile (over 1200 QSOs in 12 months), I have also built a Ten-Tec
40 meter QRP kit which is a jewel of a rig to operate -- nice QSK,
plenty of XTAL filtering and enough power to be heard among the QRO
stations.

After building the QRP kit, I decided the regenerative receiver would
be a nice project and it went together with only one hitch.  The IC that
controls the band-switching, a 74HC4017, appeared defective and I cursed
myself for not using an IC socket when I assembled the kit.  A phone
call to Ten-Tec didn't help much (they suggested a by-pass capacitor be
added to the bandswitch LED board), so I ordered a couple from Jameco,
along with sockets to install the "defective" IC.  The second IC proved
to be just as "iffy" as the original, hence another call to Ten-Tec
inquiring about using a plain-brown-wrapper CD4017, the less capable
predecessor to the 74HC4017.  They told me the reason they used the
74HC4017 was that it had a lower "on" resistance, i.e. could "sink" more
current, enabling the regenerative oscillator to function in a more
stable fashion.  A third 74HC4017 still acted weird so I sent in another
order to Jameco, this time for the CD4017, just to see if it would work.
A week later, I replaced the 74HC4017 with a CD4017 and it's been
working perfectly ever since.  The receiver is stable enough to copy CW
on all bands without significant drift.

Next, I decided to try their microprocessor-based general coverage
receiver kit and that was a piece of cake although a problem cropped up
with it as soon as I installed the microprocessor back-up battery
following the final assembly.  Prior to installing the battery, I was
very impressed with how sensitive the receiver was with just a piece of
wire attached to the antenna connector.  When I installed the battery,
the display went blank and never came back to life.  A phone call to
Ten-Tec for help was answered a couple of days later with a new
microprocessor.  I installed it and the receiver has worked fine ever
since.  I have never tried to reinstall the back-up battery and, even
though I know all of the connections are correct (as I checked them the
first time this problem occurred), I just don't want to risk blowing
another chip and having to ask for a replacement.

Now on to the *real* subject of this e-mail:

Steve, N4LQ, recently wrote:

> No skill is required to plug in a radio and speak into a microphone
> therefore, this doesn't qualify them as an "Amateur Radio Operator"
> since part of the qualification states that a demonstration of skills
> is necessary.

I think that, by itself, says it all.  Nice job, Steve.

Well, there you go.  You can't complain that I didn't follow the list
moderator's plea to make the substance of my post directly related to
the purpose of this list: to discuss Ten-Tec equipment among the forum
of Ten-Tec aficionados.  Well, at least 99% related  :-)

73 -- OBIE, WA4DOX...
--
mailto:wa4dox@vt.edu

--
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