[TenTec] Scout Questions

[Edward Crawford]

Once again I would like to thank every one who has been very helpful in trying to answer my questions concerning the Scout. I would like to share something I found concerning the tune control issue.

The rig would put out full power in tune which did not seem normal to me even though several different people told me it was normal for the early Scout rigs and others said it should be 15 watts. It defeats the purpose of having a tune control. Anyway, after having several people tell me, and also reading several previous posts, that said they would run the rig at slightly reduced power (about 45 watts) to avoid possible rf on the audio output and to also avoid over-current draw, I decided that was a good idea and was going to make an adjustment on the power.

When I stuck the adjustment tool in there, the pot acted like it was not going to turn either way. I applied just slightly more pressure and it broke loose and turned freely. Apparently the pot was adjusted in such a way that it was at rest between the stops. I guess it was shorting some how and this is what was causing the full output in the tune position; otherwise it seemed to put out normal power levels during actual transmit. So now I have about 15 watts on tune and 45 on TX. I think maybe the previous owner got carried away with the screwdriver and turned the pot too far because it will turn past the stops going clockwise but stops normally going CCW. At least I assume it is supposed to be a one turn pot. Anyway it adjusts normally as long as it stays away from the end stops. This one would probably make a good candidate for the external power control mod. This also solved problems I was having trying to match the antennas (hamsticks for now) as I think it was giving a false SWR reading trying to make adjustments with full output. 1.2:1 now!

As far as the mobile mount, I was more interested in knowing how the mount fastened to the radio as I am not able to use an under-dash mount anyway. My pickup has a 6 speed manual transmission and it takes up all the room in there where radios are supposed to be mounted HI. I have a 2M rig under there now and there's barely room for it and it's only about 1" thick. That's why I needed a small rig like the Scout due to limited space and to still be able to see the radio while driving. I had one of the knuckle joint mounts like you see for sale at most hamfests bolted to the floor right down in front of the seat on the transmission hump where I have had a 10M rig previously. I attached a piece of 3/4" plywood to that mount about the same size as the Scout and about 3" longer so the wood is resting on the floor and angled down in front of the seat. I notched the corners of the front edge of the wood so it fits snugly between the plastic feet that the bail is attached to. With the bail folded down below the wood, and a couple extra rubber feet near the front of the rig, it just sits there and don't go anywhere. I am going to make a couple "L" brackets to attach to one case screw on each side and under the bottom of the plywood.

I do have 12 gauge wire coming into the cab from the battery that was used to power the 2m and 10M rigs. I have never understood why Ten-Tec uses such small wire on the power cords they supply with their radios, even the 100 watt rigs. I know some of them are user assembled, but even the factory cables seem to be on the light side. Does it create a choke when you connect this 16 or 14 GA wire to something heavier? That raises another question, don't it.

This turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. I hope I didn't put anyone to sleep besides myself. Thanks again for your help.
Two more days to the weekend. We got it made now.
Later. 73.  
Ed/w4WVw 

   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Stuart Rohre 
  To: tentec at contesting.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 6:54 PM
  Subject: Re: [TenTec] Scout Questions


  To clarify one of the answers, My Scout manual had a yellow page insert that
  clearly stated the 3 dots on the SWR portion of the meter are 1:1, 2:1, and
  3:1.  The last dot is of course not full scale on the meter, which is where
  infinity would be.

  >From others descriptions, it appears there were various versions of the
  mobile mount.  The one I got from the factory was a pan with places for the
  feet to insert to hold the Scout when the mount is attached hanging from the
  dash.  It appears very sturdy.

  It does not make sense that Tune would ever have been full power; the whole
  idea of a tune position is to tune up with reduced power in case of a
  mismatched antenna. Mine is 15 watts in tune.

  Not asked but important:   You should insure your power wire to battery is
  no. 12  (or better) gauge for lowest voltage drop.   Operating off some
  cigar lighters pulls too many amps from them.    You could of course, drop
  power some, but even at five watts there is more than five watts of power
  being drawn.

  The mods for power control replace the under chassis pot with an external
  pot or a switch and resistor to select lower power range.  Another version
  sacrifices adjustable mike vol. control, and makes it the power control,
  while placing a screwdriver adjust pot inside for mic amplitude control.
  There is room on back for leading out pot leads and mounting a small power
  pot.  The on board control is probably less than a 1/2 watt pot.
  -Stuart K5KVH


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