[TenTec] re Oh?

[Mike Hyder -N4NT-]

Rob,

Something seems wrong here.  Either you have bought a Ten-Tec amplifier and 
are now feeling stupid for having done so or you haven't bought one and are 
proclaiming your brilliance.  Either way, we couldn't give a bigger rat's 
patoot.  If you have bought one, sell it.  If you haven't bought one yet 
just don't buy it.  In either event spare us your whining.

(To everyone else, this just shows why I prefer CW -- all the operators can 
read and write.)

Mike N4NT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob Atkinson, K5UJ" <k5uj at hotmail.com>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2007 7:34 PM
Subject: [TenTec] re Oh?


> 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