[TenTec] W4SON and Scouts

[W5UXH, Chuck]

It seems there is perhaps some controversy over "what did Jack R. & Jack B.
know and when did they know it".

Here is a quote taken from my 3x5 card file, for a QSO 1-19-94 with good ole
Jack  R. (W4SON):

     "Jack has done a lot of work on the Scout to try & fix;  TenTec is
coming up with a price
      for the demo unit so he will keep it."

This was long before the 1997 quote from the archive.   I deduce from this
that Jack R.  indeed knew of the problem early on, since he had "done a lot
of work on it".  It sounds like he definately bought his first one (the
demo) with knowledge of the problem, and I strongly suspect he bought the
second one knowing of the problem because he loved the rig anyway.  Of
course some of the work he did on the rig made it (at times)  the worst
behaving Scout I ever heard.  But that didn't keep me from enjoying qsos
with him.

I ordered my first Scout from the first production run, full well knowing of
the problem, having qso'd Jack  and others about it.  So the problem was
fairly well known before the first production run started shipping.

Additionally, Jack Burchfield (not Burchill) very kindly reviewed a
description of a wiring mod I did to "fix" the problem (as long as you did
not use RIT or the internal keyer).  I will not quote any of the
correspondence (from early 1994), but will state that I believe Jack B. was
fully aware of, and understood the exact nature of, the problem.   I was
very appreciative of Jack B.'s taking the time to communicate with me about
the problem.

Chuck, W5UXH

----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Kayser" <kayser@sympatico.ca>

> Steve:
> I was speaking of the Scouts during the prototype evaluation period, this
> was before the production runs and the problem became seriously
> rampant.  They were probably hand made and tweaked - what ever.  This
email
> that you are quoting came much later at the peak of the first run at the
> problem.
>
> If Jack (SON) had smelled the problem he would never have bought the first
> one let alone the second one.
>
> If Jack Burchill of TT had been on the air with a prototype with a problem
> signal I doubt the rig would ever have gone into production either.
>
> Larry
> VA3LK