[TenTec] Power attenuation for Ten-Tec 509

[Russel Behm]

Mats,

I am not aware of a commercially available attenuator that would meet your
needs.

I have been using a home made external attenuator with my Ten Tec 515 during
Field Day Contests for 40M & 80M SSB. It is based on a Step Attenuator
design article in the ARRL Handbook, 1992. There is a table of resistor
values for a Pi or T section attenuator versus attenuation value. Also, the
resistor values are calculated for 50 Ohm or 75 Ohm transmission lines. Five
watt carbon composition resistors would be the best, but hard to find.

My attenuator is three sections: 3dB, 6dB, and 10 dB. The advantage of the
external attenuator is that it is possible to quickly change the power level
to your desired value. The disadvantage is that the attenuator setting will
also attenuate the received signal, unless the attenuator is switched off
during "Receive". That is not too practical, so I tolerate the attenuated
receive signal in most cases since I can only work strong stations with low
power anyway.

My station setup includes a WM-2 QRP Wattmeter from Oak Hills Research, with
the most sensitive scale of 100 milliWatts. You might consider this
Wattmeter (or equivalent) for your application, whether or not you decide to
include an external attenuator.

Russ
K6RHB
Santa Barbara, CA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Mats Strandberg
> Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 6:28 AM
> To: tentec at contesting.com
> Subject: [TenTec] Power attenuation for Ten-Tec 509
>
>
> Hello!
>
> I am the happy owner of a Ten-Tec 509 that according to the
> manual should be
> capable of delivering 3 Watts RF Output.
>
> In the Swedish Portable Contest, there is a Power Multiplier that demands
> the RF output to be less than 1 Watt.
>
> Can anyone supply me with information of suitable Power attenuators that
> could be used to reduce the 3 Watts down in several steps, for example
> 1,5W/1W/500mW/100mW?
>
> Thanks in advance for any possible help.
>
> SJ6R - Mats
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