[TenTec] Power Mite Odyssey

[Winston F. Jones]

This story illustrates a simple fact: Inexpensive rigs will do more than
anything to get young people into ham radio.
As a 16-year-old novice back in 1960, my rig was a homebrew 1625 final,
built with the help of my elmer, and an old used Heath AR-3 receiver. Total
cost was about $50, including two  Texas Crystals 40-meter rocks and a
folded dipole I built from salvaged TV twin lead. It took me all summer, at
$1 per day, to earn the money.
That was ham radio at its best! Nothing can compare to the thrill of working
that first station. My Ten-Tec Jupiter is fun to operate today, but not
nearly as exciting as my old $50 novice setup. I'm sure there's lots of
stories like mine out there.
73, Winston  K4CWQ

----- Original Message -----
From: <johnwiseman at davidbowie.com>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 9:29 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Power Mite Odyssey


> Thought some of you Ten Tec QRP fans might enjoy this story -
>
> Back in '69 and '70, my dad used to go to the local radio store in
> Peoria to get crystals for his police radio. While there, I fell in
> love with a Midland 11-500 SW/AM table radio. That radio got me
> going into the hobby of radio, and later, electronics in general.
> After discovering "hams" on both of our radios, I started to
> investigate that hobby. "Too expensive", said Dad. "Too weird",
> said Mom. But I found an ad in the back of one of the ARRL
> publications that Dad bought me at the radio store for a Ten Tec
> Power Mite.
>
> Man, I loved the looks of that radio. Simple, elegant lines. It
> didn't do phone, but hey, I could live with that for a while. After
> all, the price was right. So I sent away for the catalog. Even
> today, I still have the booklet with the torn out coupon missing.
> But it never happened. Unfortunately, I had no Elmer. I had no idea
> what the theory questions were asking for, and I was unable to learn
> more than a few morse characters from the series of vinyl records
> that Dad had bought me during his latest trip to the radio store.
> Eventually, motorcycles and girls came on the scene, and the ham
> radio dream got put on hold for a while. About 15 years, actually.
>
> Fast forward to 2003. After being fairly inactive for several years,
> I started getting into QRP homebrewing. What a thrill it was to work
> stations with a radio of my own design and construction! Then the
> nostalgia bug hit. I still had my original Midland, but it hadn't
> worked in years. Changing all the electrolytics, realigning the
> tuned inputs, and changing the dial lights brought the old radio back
> to life, in full splendor.
>
> At the same time, I had been looking on Ebay for some parts for my
> son's minibike. Glancing around in the amateur radio section, I saw
> a new listing for a mint Ten Tec Power Mite 2. There were 6 days
> left in the auction, but I decided right then that this radio was
> meant to live in my shack. 6 days later, after a final flurry of
> last-second bidding, it was mine for $142.50.
>
> It was in better shape than I hoped for when it finally came, in it's
> original box, with the original manual and schematic. Like an
> episode from the Twilight Zone, I thought for a moment that I was 15
> years old again. Over the next few days, I cleaned it up, fixed a
> few crusted over switches and aligned the oscillator with my scope
> and frequency counter. Hey, this thing might just work after all. I
> even got it putting out a whole 1 watt peak power on 40 meters. Then
> reality hit me. I had never used a direct conversion receiver
> before! What's a "zero beat"? Receive on the upper sideband? Hey,
> I'm a superhet guy...
>
> So I practiced zeroing in on strong signals, and again tuned the
> oscillator so I could hear the receiver and transmitter oscillator on
> a close-by Icom rig. It seemed to me that this thing was alive. But
> I turned it on at night, and Whoaaaa, baby! Every SW station on 40
> meters came blaring through. I could hardly hear any CW. Obviously,
> this receiver is not of the quality of even my first homebrew. OK,
> daytime might be the ticket here.
>
> And of course on Saturday afternoon, things were much better. The
> band was fairly active with lots of east coast stations on, so I
> figured it's now or never. I started calling CQ. After the 2nd try,
> I was stunned to hear W2BVH return to me. I was so floored that this
> thing had actually worked, that my code copy speed instantly lost
> over 5wpm, and I barely got his call! He patiently explained to me
> that other than a 100 Hz. random frequency shift, all else was well.
> Thanks Lenny for putting up with my nervous fist on a straight key!
>
> After tuning around a bit I came across a very interesting sounding
> CW signal that had quite a bit of chirp in it. I got the call as
> NX2ND, and looked it up. Interesting - a WWII submarine now a
> permanent museum, and with all restored original radio equipment. I
> had to work this one on the little Power Mite, so I called him when
> he finished his current QSO. Again, success! He came right back to
> me and I found it quite appropriate that our two aging radios were
> managing to do quite well together.
>
> But what a thrill! So many years later, to actually get my Power
> Mite, and to successfully put it on the air has been one of the
> highlights of my radio days. But as I thought about it, I realized
> that there was NO WAY that I could have used this radio as a kid! I
> never would have figured out the nuances of direct conversion, or how
> to tune the oscillator. It's probably just as well that I never did
> mow enough lawns to afford it back in '70.
>
> But I finally have it, and now it resides in a place of honor in my
> shack, right next to my fully restored, original Midland radio. Life
> is good.
>
> Who says you can never go home again?
>
> john
> KE3QG
>
>
>
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