[TenTec] How well is a Scout on SSB?

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Mon, 2010-01-11 at 18:04 -0600, Stuart Rohre wrote:
> I have always had good reports on SSB on my Scout. 
> 
> The drift problem was a non problem if hams just read the manual and 
> were not CW speed addicts.  I never could send as fast as they said it 
> caused the CW problem so a non issue here. 
> 
> I did find that Scouts don't like to run a battery that is only capable 
> of 11 volts, one year at Field Day.  Then, it did drift on SSB, but it 
> was entirely the fault of the discharged battery.  Putting a fully 
> charged one on the rig fixed everything.  The limit was because of the 
> input to output differential needed by the model voltage regulator 
> chip.  Most standard ones need a 2 volt differential or so.  I was going 
> to see if a low drop out regulator could be found to fit the board, but 
> never got time to pursue that mod.

The LM2950 family works down to about half a volt drop better than the
LM7800 family or LM340 family that requires two volts headroom. There
are others with lower drop this year, pages of them in the Mouser
catalog. Some might even have the same case as the older regulators.

>  There were some capacitor changes 
> that improved the CW issue, at high speeds. They are in the archives of 
> QRP-L reflector, if not also in Ten Tec list archives.
> 
> 73,
> Stuart
> K5KVH
> 
73, Jerry, K0CQ