[TenTec] How to K2 and Paragon compare?

[Paul]

Doc - The Paragon might be out of inventory, but it and the K2 are 
traded all the time in the various ham classifieds. And rig 
comparisons are much of the meat of newsgroups such as this. I 
apologize if I am misinterpreting your situation, but it sounds like 
you want to stay away from rigs that require Two simultaneous button 
pushes. The ArgoV and SGC-2020 come to mind. In order to access 
important features, you must hold one button down while pushing 
another.

The front panel of the K2 is about 1/4 the size of the Paragon. There 
are about 12 push buttons on it and from the different colored text 
above and below each function, that means either a  "shift" button 
has to be pushed or pushed and held, in order to get to the second 
function.

I don't have enough RX time on the K2 to compare. It is certainly 
rated high in the Shurewood Engineering reports (which has the Orion 
II on top). But your location, antenna, operating modes need to be 
considered. If I don't work contests, if I leave in a rural area - no 
strong nearby stations,  if I just have a wet noodle up a glorious 20 
feet, will I need certain features or be able to work someone with 
one rig but not the other? Probably not.

There is a big power difference. So if you want 100 W on the K2 you 
will need an external amp or get the K2/100 model.

73,
Paul