[TenTec] Upcoming Field Day Planning questions and thoughts

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Fri, 2006-04-28 at 23:06 -0700, Jerry Volpe wrote:
> So I have been invited to substitute for the long standing CW station
> captain in this year's Field Day (W6CUS, EB Section) which I consider an
> honor..... and a challenge!
>  I doubt I will get anywhere near his typical 3000+ scores so I will
> have 24 hours of fun and see where the chips fall. I don't mind the 24+
> hours as I typically do that but in digital/RTTY modes instead of CW or
> SSB,..... but I do want my level of success due more to my operating
> skill (or lack of) rather than a bad choice of equipment.
> 
> Now to what is of interest to this reflector....
> 
> Of the rigs that I currently own (please let's NOT discuss other rigs in
> this thread), I am looking for your personal contesting/Field Day
> experiences.... good or bad.
> 
> INFO: There will be three HF stations operating simultaneously within
> the 1000 feet circle.... usually on the same band.... The SSB station
> will be running 100+ watts to a tri-bander/wire combination. I will be
> running the same. The tribanders are at max distance from one another
> and fixed in direction so that their sides are to one another. The
> digital station runs on dipoles and centered off the back of the other
> two stations.
> 
> Although I have about nine different Ten-Tec HF rigs to choose from I am
> really only considering three:
> 
> My first choice is my Corsair II station (with remote PTO). It has all
> optional filters and in prime condition. I am very comfortable using it.
> The lack of computer control doesn't seem much of an issue for this
> particular contest as I won't be using packet spots. The Corsair II
> doesn't really have a 'roofing filter' per se but it does have a 2.4 kHz
> first IF filter and the ability to totally bypass the front end RF
> stage. Easy to use. Optional heat sink fan in place.
> 
> My second choice is my Omni-VI+. Also full filters including the
> optional 1.8 and 500 Hz N-1, and N-2 filters, and fan on heat sink. I
> use this for general DXing and my modest contest efforts. I am very
> comfortable using it although I am NOT too comfortable taking my best
> rig out into a secluded park.
> 
> My last choice I guess would be my Paragon. Also full complement of
> filters, fan, etc. I suspect that it would be a poorer performer
> compared to the Corsair II in this strong RF environment. Thinking....
> 
> For the fun of it I'll probably take along one of my Argosies as a
> spare... (2.4 kHz, 600 Hz, and audio filters installed).
> 
> I won't be using internal keyers. Probably key from logging program
> backed up with an AEA MM-3 keyer.
> 
> I started collecting a set of  I.C.E. transceiver filters for 80, 40,
> 20, and 15 meters. Hopefully I will find an entire set by Field Day. I
> believe having them in line will help any transceiver that I choose.
> 
> I haven't decided if I will operate the transceivers off deep-cycle
> batteries/charger combinations or off the matching Ten-Tec power
> supplies connected into the club's generator. I have done both in the
> past. Last year I had a computer-type UPS between the generator and my
> TS-940SAT which kept it from going down when the generator was being
> re-fueled, etc.. The Corsair II would probably be easiest to please off
> the battery/charger environment I would think....
> 
> So which of these three Ten-Tec transceiver have you used in a contest
> environment (Field Day especially) and what issues did you encounter?
> 
> 
> 73,
> Jerry, KG6TT
> Fairfield, CA

The Corsair II has the RF performance to survive your plans, and has
fewer front panel controls to get messed up by the casual user.

I think you'll find this year that you will need 40m and 80m antennas in
preference to the 20m beams because its likely 20m will be dead all
night. Last FD it was dead from 2 or 3AM CDT to sunup. 15 wasn't open
all that much and 10m never opened in Iowa.

The big problem on 75 were all the home stations running kilowatts in
noisy situations so the 100 watt FD stations couldn't be copied in their
pile ups. Once the strong signals were ignored, the contact rate went
back up.
-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ,
All content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer