[TenTec] Original Delta

[Peter V. Inskeep]

Scott,

I purchased my 580 Delta new in the early 80's.  It was my only/primary rig until
I purchased an Omni VI Plus a year ago.  I loved it, and still do.  I would not
dream of getting rid of it.  I have used it mobile, in the shack, on camping
trips, with the scouts, and on field day numerous times.  In my opinion, it has
the sweetest qsk going.  I have both the 500 and 250 hz. cw filters.  The 580 has
room for only one optional filter.  I made up a little board to hold both of them
together which fit into the slot where the one filter goes.  I switched between
them with diodes and the noise blanker switch on the front panel.

Sensitivity is good, if not great.  Resistance to nearby signals is excellent.  I
could wade into any cw contest and not be bothered by the big guns up or down the
band a couple hundred hz.  The outboard VFO was a must for me, so I bought it as
soon as I could afford it.  It enables one to listen to both the receive and
transmit frequencies of a dx station whichs is "up 2", or up 20 or 30, or
whatever.  It has provisions for the WARC bands, but mine had only the 30 meter
crystal installed.

I got good reports on ssb, but used it on cw 99.44% of the time.  My wish when I
bought it was to get whatever flavor Omni was available at the time, but I did
not have enough free cash.  I don't think I ever regretted my choice once I
figured out how to put both filters in and switch between them.

It is a very simple rig to operate without a profusion of controls.  I never
found the noise blanker effective as anything other than a switch to operate any
mods that I was tinkering with at the time.  It was hit by lightning at least
twice.  Once I was able to fix it, but the second time I sent it back to Ten-Tec
for the fix.  Pretty tough little radio in my book.

On the downside, it certainly does not hear as well as my Omni VI, but then it is
18 years old and never alligned or tuned or anything, while my Omni is hot as a
pistol in my view.  No pass band tuning, no IF shift or any of the more modern
crud fighters.  Ten-Tec gave me a simple mod for fast/slow QSK, which was nice,
say, on 80 meters.

I can't think of anything else at the moment.  These days I suspect that they may
go for around $400 or 500, or so, with the power supply.  I still use mine and
enjoy it when I do.

SFIKE@twa.com wrote:

> Hi all,
> I have been reading a lot about the Scout and Delta II lately on this
> reflector. I was just wondering what some of your opinions are on the original
> Delta ( I call it the Delta I ) were. Is this a very good rig? I have the
> oportunity of buying one and don't know if this would make a worthwhile rig.
> It seems to be somewhat of an orphan rig in that I don't ever hear or read
> anything about it in general. I don't even think QST ever did a review on it
> when it was originally released sometime back in the 1980's. It seems to be
> Ten Tecs "forgotten rig". Is it really that bad or are people just trying to
> keep it a secret because they know it is really that good?!
> Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!
> Thanks,
> 73
> Scott,kc0bus
>
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