[TenTec] Ten-Tec Rig Comparisons

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

The Sherwood list is the most comprehensive, making measurement details 
that ARRL has only adopted recently (compared to the age of a Triton or 
Corsair).

Some of the early Tentecs used direct conversion receivers which limited 
their performance by any standards. I'm recalling those were the Century 
models. The don't perform well enough to make the Sherwood cut.

I think PTOs from the first radios with IFs up through the Corsair II 
were so identical the same rebuild kit fits each. Filters are the same 
because the frequencies are all the same (5 MHz PTO, 9 MHz IF). Some of 
the earlier rigs didn't include WARC bands and them when they first 
included them as options (before the bands became available) some used 
an 9 MHz mixed PTO with a 9 MHz IF to get to 18 MHz and the second 
harmonic of the two mixer inputs tended to leak out to the antenna, 
especially the oscillator drive. But that kept SSB1 as USB. The cure for 
that was to mix the PTO to 27 MHz but that inverted the sideband 
selection on 18 Mhz..

There have been continuous progressions in the number of filters 
possible and in bandpass tuning with the added 6.3 MHz IF and filters. 
The Paragon was much more digital with synthesizers instead of crystal 
for band select and PTO and was the first to have continuous coverage 
possible, I think. The Omni V and VI use a UHF synthesizer divided down 
to 5 MHz for the PTO and crystals for the band selects but only include 
band pass filters for ham bands. No continuous coverage provisions.

Now the Scout is in a class by itself with different frequencies for IFs 
and filters and method of bandswitching and minimal controls for mobile use.

There are some pages with pictures and some specifictions without the 
performance measurements or opinions of the Sherwood list. Those could 
be your raw material to be enhanced by searching out user opinions and 
mods. Sometimes mods have been collected on certain web pages.

73, Jerry, K0CQ

On 4/30/2010 7:31 PM, Curt wrote:
> Well, what I've actually been looking for was something similar to the
> comparisons published by Sherwood Engineering, but including only the rigs
> Ten-Tec has built over the years.  That former table lists lab measured
> performance info for several of the Ten-Tec rigs but not all.
>
> And, knowing the standard features, available options, commonly applied
> modifications, "shortcomings" ( like no RF gain control ), commonly
> experienced issues ( like needing to rebuild the PTO every few years ) would
> be useful too.
>
> Maybe such a compendium doesn't exist, but given the large user community
> that's a little surprising.
>
> 73, Curt KB5JO
>
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