[TenTec] Pegasus , back to the question

[W4CHLTenTecEl]

Back to your original question, I am not a contester and the kids in the middle school club (PARC, see url below) were so interested in the one I bought a year ago that we got a used Pegasus for PARC. We are putting a front-end on a programmable PDA (Cybiko) as a programming project. The project's whiz programmer moved on, so it has slowed a bit, but is picking up steam again.  Once complete, actually once working at all, we'll post and let people try the code out themselves as KR1ST has with his APRS code (www.kr1st.org).

Interesting that the previous HF rig at this club, a venerable Icom IC-706, had very little use for the previous few years. But the fact that he Pegasus REQUIRES a computer to run actually got more interest from this generation of budding hams !  The Pegasus is far more versatile than the IC-706 due to the flexible PC control, and with Carl N4PY's GUI readily exposes the key functions for a modern day rig.  And if the kids really want to try implementing the GUI a different way, we can alter TenTec's source code and try it out ! 

Working digital modes with this rig is also very nice, and part of the reason for working on the PDA control. We use a laptop PC and to effectively run digital modes we elected to use a second serial port (using the VOX in digital mode wasn't as satisfactory with the RASCAL interface). The PDA will allow us to forego the USB to serial converter we were using to provide a serial port for rig control. One requirement is to program AT-11mp integration into the Cybiko as well. 

We could have purchased an LDG internal tuner, but went with an AT-11mp instead.  Fine decision, as the N4PY software also supports integration with his GUI with a simple cable mod.  The second Pegasus we acquired actually came with the mod to the cable supporting N4PY control of the AT-11mp.  Mulling over an upgrade to the AT-11mp as discussed earlier in this forum.

We have worked South America, Japan, Eastern Europe, Russia, and South Africa, usually at less than full 100W output using our fine antennae at the school site.  And the 1201 kit desktop mic from TT makes a fine match to the rig. We tried an old Astatic D104 w/ TUG amp, but it was finicky with that old mic. A TT 701 hand mic was our staple until I acquired the TT 1201 kit during hamfest season this spring. 

For the price, and I've seen Pegasus recently for $600 or so, it is a fine rig ! 

Cheers & 73 de Mark W4CHL 
http://rtpnet.org/parc

PS - all this chaff in respnose because of the "PhD" in the e-mail signature line ?  Guess someone here is going to call me "sneaky" for using "sneakemail" ?