[TenTec] ten tec transverters

[Duane - N9DG]

Ralph,

There was a posting on the VHF Contesting reflector about a
year ago that had some comparisons of different transverters.
The key figure that stands out in that list of transverter
reviews is the noise figure. That is a very important
parameter in the VHF world. Unfortunately the Ten Tec 2M
transverter was not very good. It came in at 7.6dB where the
Elecraft and SSB electronics units came in at ~1 dB, a big
difference that *does* matter. More info at:
  
http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/vhfcontesting/2004-September/004204.html

And this is a link to the comments I added to that thread
regarding the 6M Downeast Microwave transverter referenced in
the first posting. 

http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/vhfcontesting/2004-September/004207.html

Essentially the reviews that the ARRL has done for the DEMI
transverters in the 50-432 MHz range are pretty much
worthless for comparison purposes. They do not reflect the
performance of any of the currently offered DEMI
transverters. In the case of the 6M transverter it was done
on a version of the design that has not been sold since 1997.


Unfortunately DEMI used the exact same model number for the
some very different transverters so a "50-28CK" could either
be an excellent performing current version or a lousy pre
1998 vintage unit. So if you are shopping around for a used
DEMI transverter be sure to find out its true age. Knowing
when it was built is very important. As far as I know all
flavors built after 2001 or so do have all of the revisions
in them and should be fine.

One thing that can relieve the problem of the high NF of the
Ten Tec 1210 is an external preamp, even the ones found in a
typical solid state brick amplifier will help it
substantially. By comparison those same SS brick preamps do
nothing to improve the RX performance of the DEMI, SSB
Electronic, or Elecraft transverters; in fact they usually
degrade the performance of those systems.

Hope this helps.

Duane
N9DG 


--- ralph <rhowes at greenapple.com> wrote:

> Duane:
> Thanks for the comparitive. I thought it was well done for
> someone, like me,
> that has very little knowledge about transverters. Would
> you care to say
> something about the TenTec 2mtr converters? I was thinking
> of using one on
> my Omni-C and/or my Corsair II. Anyway I thought it was a
> well done
> comparitive and easy to understand.
> Thank you,
> Ralph Howes
> W8BVH


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