[TenTec] Argo 556/Scout modules

[Kevin Anderson]

Stuart wrote:

> In interesting fact is you can remove one 12 volt wire, 
> and swap one coax jumper, and make a Scout into a 556, 5 watt 
> radio, very quickly.  The 5 watt 556 was just a Scout running 
> with only a driver transistor and no two transistor final. 
The 
> same modules provide the Band Pass filtering for the output 
> signal.

I have both a 555 and 556.  While what you say is true, there is
actually a production difference between the two radios.  I
can't remember which board specifically (I'm at work and the
radios and manuals are at home), but the 556 actually has a
different board in it to make it a true 556.  The primary change
on that board is in changing the meter so it reads full scale on
5 watts (i.e., 50 on the meter equals 5 watts).

While I like the 556 I have, and will keep it, the one negative
that I can see when compared to the 555 is that without the
finals of the 555, the driver transistor of the 556, now the
final, has less protection.  When it fails, the entire radio
will fail.  In return for this loss of protection, the power
consumption of the 556 at full power is considerably less than a
555 turned down to 5 watts.

Cheers/73,
Kevin, K9IUA


-- 
-------------------------------------
Kevin Anderson, Dubuque IA USA, K9IUA
k9iua (at) yahoo (dot) com
http://postoilgeography.blogspot.com/
-------------------------------------


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Now that's room service!  Choose from over 150,000 hotels
in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit.
http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097