[TenTec] Devo-ham

[Clark Savage Turner]

OK.  I've been planning to just buy the Orion whenever it comes out, 
even if the knob is the wrong color.  I just want to work one for a 
while.

I love my OMNI-VI.

But that OMNI-C came by a few weeks ago, pretty cheap, I snapped it up 
just to play with it.  My usual routine is to buy a fairly clean radio, 
get it into my shack, clean it up to make it look really nice, do the 
PTO till its just right, align it, play more, then when I think it is 
just right for me, I come up short for the monthly bills or something 
and I sell it off.

This OMNI-C is different.  The face has smudges and some numbers are 
rubbed off.  The plastic sheet on the case is coming off at the 
corners.  Other stuff is not quite right about its appearance.  The PTO 
really needs TLC, and the external VFO needs the same, plus a dialcord.  
Stuff like that.  No big deal, really.

But then I just plain operated the thing.  Got on SSB.  Got on CW.  Got 
on CW again.  It was fun.  I did it yet again.  I like this radio.  
<Steve Ellington filter ON>  I now find myself using the OMNI-C to the 
exclusion of my OMNI VI and even my K2.  It is just fun to operate, and 
under normal circumstances it works so well and sounds so "good" that I 
have no desire for the other rigs.  I see that I cannot possible fix 
this radio up, can't clean the faceplate or try to redo the numbers.  
I'm not sure I should rebuild the PTO either, it might become too much 
of  a "project".  I just like the "quiet" receiver, I like the 
filtering, I like the QSK.  I even lucked out that the PTO in the 
external VFO is really stable.  I mean really stable.  Never saw one 
that good.  I am afraid to touch it.  So the dialcord sags and the 
pointer drops out of the window.  What do I care?  I have had more QSO's 
in the last week than in the last year.  Here I am, wanting the RX-350 / 
Jupiter combo, I want to buy the Orion, and the OMNI-C stole my heart.  
<Steve Ellington filter OFF>

My wife thinks this is great.  She thinks I might save some money this 
way.  If I can just stop collecting SWR and wattmeters I should be able 
to buy a house someday.

Clark
WA3JPG