[TenTec] Ten Tec Junk ??!!

[Mike Hyder -N4NT-]

Hi, Tim--

We had lots of noise fron a big power substation, too.  We found the
trouble.  You can read about it at http://www.qsl.net/n4tn/noise.html
Perhaps some information in there will help you.

73, Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim English" <te@usol.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2002 10:45 PM
Subject: [TenTec] Ten Tec Junk ??!!


Hello all. Having just recently been "turned on" to Ten Tec gear and reading
other folks comments, I felt compelled to write my short story on how I made
the switch from YaeComWoods to TT. I've been a ham and die hard CW fanatic
for over 30 years now. Over the years I have owned umpteen different
YaeComWoods and always sluffed off TT as being total junk mainly because of
the rig's cosmetics. Too me TT rigs always looked like something someone had
homebrewed in their basement and threw it into a MFJ cabinet. The only
fairly good Jap rig I have ever owned was a TS-130S. Some such as the
TS-690S and IC-745 were the absolute worst rigs I have ever owned for CW. I
bid and won an Argonaut 509 about a year ago on eBay. I mainly bought it
because it was at a good price and came with the external CW filter, rig and
power supply and intended to break the items up and resell for a profit. As
I was sitting in the shack cleaning the rig up getting it ready to resell I
figured I had better hook it up and check it's operation out. Once I fired
the rig I just couldn't believe how low the noise level was. I live just 1
block from a 250,000 power sub-station and almost always have had to contend
with hash noise levels approaching S9 at times. I had to check to make sure
there was an antenna connected. I peaked the resonate knob and started
tuning around 20 meters. Signals just jumped out of nowhere at me. To me
this was an absolute jaw dropping experience because I had always had this
high noise level. I then thought well maybe this was a night when the noise
was reduced so I flipped on my IC-745 and sure enough the hash was there,
strong as ever but yet was non-existent on the Argo. I hooked a 6BTV
vertical to the Argo and a CF zepp to the 745 and started comparing signals.
I was picking and copying dx signals on the Argo Q5 that were not even
audible on the 745. At this point I was hooked. I made similar comparisons
between the Argo and my IC-706 and although the 706 was better than the 745
neither held a candle to the Argo. I decided to keep the Argo and had a ball
working a lot of QRP DX but having never been a great fan of QRP I did some
intense research on finding a QRO TT rig. After asking many questions and
taking alot of poles from TT users as well as reading reviews online I
settled on finding a Corsair. I found one, bought it and have never looked
back at the YaeComWoods since. The Corsair exhibited the same
charecteristics as the Argo in the way of low S/N only better ! And the
filters... whew, let's not even go there. All I can say is AWESOME !
Although it needs a PTO rebuild it is with a doubt the best rig I have ever
owned. I immediately sold the IC-745 on eBay but held onto the 706 to use in
my motorhome and on 6 meters. Although I still feel TT rigs will never win a
beauty contest, I just can't believe it took me 30 years to discover these
fabulous rigs. 2 years ago while doing some travelling I had the chance to
go by and see the TT factory. I was totally unimpressed. The place looked
run down, unkept, and there were people sitting around outside leaning back
in chairs smoking. The showroom was empty except for a glass showcase with a
few rigs in it. There was basically nothing to see. This of course was
before I discovered TT. Looks can very, very deceiving I have discovered !

That's my 2 1/4 cent's worth !
--
Tim, K8TJ