[TenTec] My First Ten-Tec

[Don Jones]

My first Ten Tec, experience was Field Day 1994, one of the guys brought a
OMNI D for use on the CW Station. I slapped my trusty old MFJ Grandmaster
Memory Keyer with a set of bencher paddles and got busy on CW. Love the full
QSK, tolerated the AGC attack time pop in the ears, loved the ultra quiet
receiver and talked the owner into selling it to me 3 weeks later. I tracked
down a model 243 remote vfo and had a ball with the radio.
Later the OMNI D went down the road, I replaced it with a CORSAIR II. Never
did find a Model 263 remote vfo for that radio, so it did not last long. 
I bought a end of production IC-751A and got along with it very well for
several years. I kept thinking back to that ultra quiet OMNI D.
Then I got the trap shooting bug and sold off a bunch of radio gear so I
could buy a Browning Citori O/U trapgun. Shot trap for about 8 yrs and had a
ball. 
I went thru a phase and just did not play radio much. 
Then in 2009 the radio bug came to life once again and I got into it more
seriously. 
I bought a Darke C line with a fully modified Sherwood R-4C receiver. It was
a awesome receiver, but it was not compatible with modern day computer
controlled/assisted contesting. I got smoked in the Nov 2009 CW Sweepstakes.

That is when I found a OMNI VI Opt 1 with all but one of the filters slots
filled and it has the INRAD 600Hz roofing filter mode installed. This rig
continues to impress me. Every time I get a wild hair in my craw to try to
find something better a contest comes along and this old warrior comes thru
with flying colors. Field Day 2012 was the most recent example. I think the
nicest thing about this VI is its ease of operation. Everything you need to
clean up a hard to copy week station is right up front not buried behind a
multitude to menu numbers that one has no chance of memorizing (like the
TS-590S I just bought, thinking I should have looked around and bought a
used Orion instead). 
I see I have gotten long winded, like many here I could ramble along much
longer.
73 Don KO7i