[TenTec] re Oh?

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

Firstly, when I say Ten Tec may as well throw in the towel and get out of 
the amp business, I have more in mind than the cw devotees who exist here on 
the Ten Tec reflector.  Beyond this, is a whole ham radio world of people 
with amps who have no need for QSK.   It may be important to you all, but 
the vast majority of hams running amps are running data, or working on 
phone.  In fact, of all the modes, cw and psk 31 are the only two that 
usually do not need QRO.

You can go on at length about how it took N man-hours to engineer a QSK 
circuit, the LED watt meter and the labor to add them on each unit, but it 
doesn't change the fact that most hams won't pay $1K for that and most hams 
look at the power supply, tank circuit, band switch, ....you know, the 
things that have to be there to call it an amp?....when making a buying 
decision.

The Centurion p.s. is known to be a problem--the stock supply puts out 
around 2.8, maybe 2.9 KV and drops down to around 2.5 or 2.6 Kv under load.  
  For the kind of dough they want now, that is frankly, unacceptable.  The 
stock h.v. transformer has been a known defect for years now--search the 
archive of this list, search eham reviews, maybe the amps reflector--there 
are cases of failure out there--I went through two before I got a Dahl 
transformer which Ten Tec should have been using all along like most amp 
manufacturers, but instead they keep using some product from some unknown 
company in Canada they have never identified as far as I know.   If you want 
to pay $3200 for that be my guest.

I used to see signs of sloppy workmanship in the AL82 a few years ago.  Not 
anymore.  I was at Dayton in May and looked at Ameritron's amps.  They are 
not laden with bells and whistles but in the things that count such as the 
power supply, the quality is there for a lot less money.

73,

rob / k5uj

_________________________________________________________________
A new home for Mom, no cleanup required. All starts here. 
http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us