[TenTec] Oh? Centurion PS

[Dennis Jones]

Hi All:

Had a problem with the Titan gold amp, it had been working great for  
along time, then the primary 240 volt fuse's blew, after a loud KA-POW.
Opened up power supply and found that on the circuit board, at the  
point where the HV leads are connected was blown away, big time  
carbon path, hhmmm, what gives. Called Ten-Tec and they said that it  
was the HV transformer or the HV board ($ 175.00 ) and that they do  
not make them in house anymore. They purchase them from Peter Dahl  
now, I was told.  I solved the problem by grinding off the carbon  
path caused by the arcing, also cut away the trace at that point, the  
trace is to close a spacing for the HV voltage, cleaned the board  
with a good cleaner and used TV Glyptal  HV dope on the trace and HV  
wires and replaced the HV wires going to the Titan, also replaced the  
HV caps with higher capacity and higher temperature rated ones. I use  
this amp on AM with no problems now, I love this Titan and work all  
modes. AM,CW,SSB and RTTY
Anyone who uses 120 VAC for the primary, is asking for trouble,  
always use 240 primary voltage, along with a good ground system.

Happy Camper

DJ    K6RCL  Goleta, Calif.



On Aug 5, 2007, at 10:10 AM, Dan Atchison wrote:

> Hi, Bob:
>
> Don't know how you came up with that rating for the Centurion HV
> transformer. My four year old 422B has a 2250 volt at 0.5 AMP CCS
> transformer in it. That's no where near 2500 W CCS. To answer the
> previous question posed by someone who said the HV PS in the Centurion
> is less than adequate, my experience is this:
>
> 1) 15 months after purchase my HV transformer went bad -- shorted
> primary windings. This known transformer deficiency by anyone here on
> the reflector was NOT fixed by TenTec under warranty - they  
> steadfastly
> refused to replace it. $700 bill because they said one of my 3-500Z  
> was
> bad. They sent a new tube (yes I was billed for it), but I put the old
> one back in.
>
> 2) 10 months after replacing the transformer, the second transformer
> went bad - shorted primary windings, same darn thing. While TenTec
> would replace that one under warranty, I elected not to ship it back
> (they would NOT send me one in exchange) because I was afraid of
> shipping damages to the amp - and was afraid they'd say another 3-500Z
> was bad.
>
> 3) I elected to purchase a Peter Dahl replacement HV transformer. I  
> had
> Peter Dahl increase the secondary winding to give me 2400 Volts  
> ($375).
> I have never looked back. Same tubes, same amp, different transformer,
> no problems (related to the transformer or power supply). The slightly
> extra voltages gives me a little extra power that really wasn't
> necessary (but 3-500Z like a higher voltage than the Centurion PS
> delivers). Oh, yes, I am still using the original tubes - including  
> the
> one they said was defective.
>
> Am I bashing TenTec? The Centurion is a fine QSK amplifier, but the
> known HV transformer issue has NEVER been admitted by them (read all
> the reflector emails about this issue, the Canadian transformer's
> always seem to fail with shorted primaries). I just wish the company
> would come clean and admit their transformer vendor has quality  
> issues.
> Fix the vendor or go with a better one.
>
> Dan -- N3ND
>
>
>
> [TenTec] Oh?
> Bob McGraw - K4TAX RMcGraw at Blomand.net
> Sat Aug 4 21:22:17 EDT 2007
>
> Previous message: [TenTec] Oh?
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>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---
> -------
>
> The Tentec Centurion does what the company says it will do. It is  
> rated
> at
> 1300 watts SSB output. Nothing wrong with that. The HV power
> transformer
> in the Centurion is rated at 2.5KVA or 2500 watts CCS. The HV power
> transformer in the AL-82 is rated at 1.8 KVA or 1800 watts CCS. The HV
> transformer in the "light weight" Tentec Centurion HV transformer
> weighs 36
> lbs while the "heavy duty" power supply in the AL-82 weights 32 lbs.
>
> Folks, just be careful, someone is jerking your leg. As Will Rodgers
> once
> said "it's not what people know that concerns me. It what they know
> that
> isn't correct that gives me concerns."
>
> 73
> Bob, K4TAX
>
>
>
>
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Dennis Jones
k6rcl at cox.net