[TenTec] The new Titan III

[John]

I have had my Titan III for nearly two weeks ( serial # 32) This is my first new legal limit amp.  After I opened it up for the 10/12 meter mods some things became readily apparent.  1)The quality and fit of the sheet metal, brackets, screw holes, and the fab work in the rf deck is superb.  2)Printed circuit boards have quality solder joints (nice and shiny with good wetting). All aluminum screw holes are backed up with pem nuts to prevent stripped threads. The control circuit wiring is neatly routed and the miniature connectors ( looks like they are molex but may not be) provide for easy removal and reinstallation without requiring excessive extraction force. 3)The fan can be heard slightly when you first turn on the amp,  but then seems to totally disappear the minute you turn on your transceiver. It is as if the small fan noise is completely covered up by the sounds coming out of your tranceiver speaker.  Its almost as if the transceiver acts as white noise to cover up the fan in the amp. 4)Now to the subject of harmonic suppression.  My previous amps some of which were legal limit sent RFI into the tv set in the house at any power level above 350 watts on the higher frequencies using a low pass filter. I can now run legal limit on 17 meters with no RFI, 1200 watts on 20 meters with no complaints from the family without the low pass filter, which I will reinstall on the new setup.  5) The Titan III has very quiet relays.  This along with low fan noise of the Titan III allows me to run QRO cw qsk  without wearing earphones.  6) This is the last and in my opinion greatest feature of this amp. The absolute repeatability of the Tune and load (plate and load on my other rigs) is fantastic.  I am a band hopper.  Once I set up my chart for each of the bands, I am able to repeat on a consistent basis tuning for full output using the same tune and load settings (warm or cold) on the Titan III. I hated messing with the back and forth action for plate and load knobs as I had to do with my other amps.  I guess by this posting you can tell I am a happy camper. 

Best 73's

John kd6wd