[TenTec] 2 minor comments: Speakers and Centurion

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

Hello everyone:

two quick comments:

A.  Centurion.  I reread the original QST Centurion review recently and this 
time around, noticed the reviewer mentioned that on 17 meters he found an 
input swr of 1.9:1 on the amp's tuned RF input.  This jumped out at me this 
time; I don't know why I didn't notice it before.  Since I didn't know if 
this was a design problem or unique to the reviewer's unit, I tuned mine up 
in the middle of 17 to a 50 ohm dummy load, put a swr analyzer on the RF 
input to it and keyed the amp.  Moving through the 17 meter band the input 
swr on mine was a constant 1.5:1 which I think all rigs can live with.  I 
concluded the problem was either unique to the reviewer's amp, or a design 
problem that had been corrected.  However, the rapidly increasing input swr 
on 75 while approaching the top edge of the band which the reviewer also 
mentioned is still there on mine.

B.  Speakers.  Still having a hard time getting myself to spend almost $100 
ea. on Ten Tec's 4 inch, 5 watt 4 ohm speakers (in spite of the nice looking 
cabinets), I picked up three 8 inch 10 watt 8 ohm speakers at a hamfest.  
These were intended to be used in a PA system and came in woodgrain particle 
board enclosures with brown grill cloth, designed to be hung on walls.  
Using a Y jack I connected two of them in parallel to the rear panel audio 
output of my Omni VI to get a 4 ohm load.  I thought the Omni would have a 
hard time driving the larger 10 watt speakers but I was rewarded with a very 
nice rich sound (I'm also using the 2.8 KHz inrad filters).  An outboard 
speaker arrangement is certainly an improvement on the power supply and rig 
speakers but the power supply speaker does an impressive job given its size.

Rob Atkinson
K5UJ

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