[TenTec] Corsair II realignment: DIY?

Joe Roberts jroberts at io.com
Sat Jan 1 22:28:05 PST 2011


On 1/1/2011 6:37 PM, Andrew Moore wrote:
>> those TT PTO rigs are "the new boatanchors"
> My ears hurt when I heard "boatanchor" and Corsair II used in the same
> sentence, but it's probably true.

Perhaps the word "classic" is more accurate than "boatanchor"...they are 
not that heavy after all.

Back in the 80s, I was replacing Sprague Atoms, Cornell-Dubilier 
"Beavers," Tiny Chiefs, Bumble Bees, and the like in 50s-60s rigs. Of 
course, it really helped performance. Well, we are at the same degree of 
historical remove from PTO Ten Tecs! Time flies, eh?

I don't think the yellow IC caps and the mini Elnas in old Ten Tecs are 
any more age-proof than the antique parts in tube rigs and they are 
probably even less long-lived than say a Sprague Atom or Mallory twist 
lock cap. Those big old suckers held up well.

In any case, when freshened up a bit with modern parts, the analog Ten 
Tecs (and I'll count in Omni V here) are absolutely wonderful radios and 
I sit there with a stupid grin on my face every time I fire one up. Lots 
of character, easy and natural to operate, and just work so good.

Ten-Tec made some fantastic great user-oriented ham rigs back in the 
analog days. Then and now, most people don't realize how good they were 
and still are.

My experience recapping old Ten Tecs (and similar era JA rigs) is a 
night and day difference. Not subtle at all and very much worth the $20 
in caps and a few hours labor.

To those who wisely state "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," I say a) 
Where's the fun in that? and b)Most of these 30 year old radios are more 
broke--or at least worn out--than appearances suggest.

I encourage owners of Omnis and Tritons to go for it. Start with the 
1000uf across the power connector and the AF board. Six caps. If you 
like that, try the IF board. Six caps. And so on...

One other thing, since many of the caps in these rigs are axial and all 
you're gonna find in fresh, high grade caps is radial form factor, I 
drilled new holes for radial mounting. In many cases, I found I could 
make a shorter run to the ground traces when drilling a new hole for 
radials than I could with the axial lead caps. Think it through and you 
will find this to be a neat and efficient approach. The axial holes are 
still there if you ever need them.

Good luck,
Joe N5KAT



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