[TenTec] My First Ten-Tec

[Steve Berg]

I got my novice ticket in 1963, and got on the air with a Knight T-60 
transmitter, a command set 40 meter receiver, and a Gotham v-80 vertical 
antenna.  I failed my general test in Chicago, but recouped by passing 
my tech test at 12 wpm with a keyer.  I discovered the joys of 6 meters, 
and was having so much fun that I forgot about HF for several decades. 
Eventually, techs were given some HF CW privileges, and despite being a 
starving college student, I managed to buy a Hallicrafters HT-37 from a 
local ham, and used it with a dipole with my HRO-50T1 receiver.  I 
really liked National equipment, and after passing my advanced ticket in 
the early 80s, bought a NCX-5 and power supply.  I also was given a 
Heath HW-7, which I still have, and I got the QRP bug badly.  In the 
1990s, I decided to sell the worst motorcycle I had ever owned, a 
Triumph Trident, and since I had spent many years fixing and very little 
time riding it, I decided I would treat myself to something that 
actually worked, and after considering a Delta II, figured that 5 watts 
would tear up fewer televisions in this fringe area, and bought an 
Argonaut II from AES in Milwaukee.  I still have it.  It has made some 
trips back to the factory, but has generally been a great little rig, 
and it has many thousands of hours of use on it.  I have read the test 
of these radios in QST,and I suspect that the testers did not read the 
manual, and were too incompetent to learn how to really use the rig.  I 
bought one of the 6 meter transverters for it, and while writing my 
doctoral dissertation in 2000 or thereabouts, I kept it on most of the 
time during the F2 openings then.  With a whopping 8 watts out, and a 4 
element beam up about 55 feet, I managed to work all continents on 6 
meters.  One of my buddies gave me a Hy-Gain trap vertical, for HF, and 
I put that in the back yard for HF.  I have worked a fair amount of DX 
with the Argo II, and also with the Omni V.9 and the Corsair II.  The 
display on the Omni started getting increasingly intermittent, and was 
no longer fixable, so I sent it down to the factory so Paul and the 
Techs can use it as a donor to keep others alive.  I bought another Argo 
II, and I screwed that one up, so it is headed to the factory this week 
for work.  I admit that the Omni and the Corsair II have much better 
receivers, and a lot more power, but for some strange reason, the Argo 
keeps pushing them off the desk, and onto the shelf.  I wanted to buy an 
Argonaut 509 years ago when I lived in Massachusetts, but never got one. 
  I am waiting for the 539 to come out, and want to try it with my 
transverter for 6 meters.  In the meantime, the Argonauts are going to 
get more use.  The service from Ten Tec has always been first rate, and 
I really enjoyed touring the sales area when I passed through the area 
on the way to a meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.  I do have a few 
Japanese radios, and they are very nice, if overly complex.  It is hard 
to beat Ten Tec for reliable radios, of excellent performance, and that 
are easy to use.

73,

Steve WA9JML