[TenTec] Jupiter

[jerome schatten]

Dear Mr.Fish...

I too am a CW only guy. The Jupe has been the best CW rig on TX I've ever 
owned in 53 years of hamming. The receive side IMHO, could have been done 
better. I strongly suggest you try one if  you can, before you buy.

That said, most of the receive difficulties can be overcome with the 
addition of an audio DSP box, something like the MFJ Super DSP.  The rig's 
RX doesn't develop enough AGC to make listening to strong and weak sigs on 
the higher bands very comfortable without adjusting the audio level. The 
MFJ's audio agc added to the Jupe's overcomes that problem very nicely.  The 
Jupe seems to be lacking a bit of gain on the higher bands -- 15, 17, 10, 
although in side by side A/B tests, the Jupe heard everything my FT-920 
heard and was a whole lot quieter about it. There is an IF gain pot on the 
Jupe that can be tweaked to bring up the gain, but. still, something seems 
missing. The Jupe's noise reduction scheme introduces quite a bit of 
distortion on weak CW sigs, but the MFJ's variable noise reduction does 
not -- it works far better.  The Jupe's IF noise blanker works reasonably 
but not nearly as well as the blanker in my FT-920. And finally, the 500 hz 
optional analog CW filter in the 920 provides better selectivity than the 
300 hz digital filter in the Jupe.  But, shifting the MFJ filter into the CW 
position and adjusting it along with the Jupe's PBT solves most of the 'near 
in' selectivity problems for me (I'm not a contester).

I've had my Jupe over two years and haven't sold it -- that says something. 
With the addition of the N4PY control software and a good DSP box, the Jupe 
seems a very respectable performer at a very good price. I had the DSP box 
hanging around, so I really didn't make an extra purchase.  Made in the USA 
wasn't an issue for me as it is for you; I hope you don't shop at Wal-Mart.

With respect,
jerome -- VA7VV

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "fish" <naturalreef at triad.rr.com>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 7:03 PM
Subject: [TenTec] Jupiter


I am in the market for a new HF rig. I was hoping to get more feed-back on 
the Ten-Tec Jupiter. I have heard good and bad about this radio, but more 
good than bad. A couple reasons I am interested in the Jupiter: 1) Its made 
in the USA and 2) I have heard that is a great CW rig as I am a CW only op. 
I know that there are no longer any software updates for the radio but can 
anyone that has a Jupiter give me more info on this radio? Thanks
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