[TenTec] What's wrong with the Ten Tec Scout?

[Stuart Rohre]

Mike, I am a long time Scout owner.  Nothing is wrong with the Scout if 
you accept its design parameters for a simple, no frills but a great 
filter radio.

Mine has been out to hot Texas Field Days, in the home station, in the 
club station, and has given reliable service.  It is excellent on phone, 
my main mode.  But our club CW hounds have used it without the drift 
some report.  The drift only comes about if the cW is so fast that the 
microprocessor does not have time to do its main job of correcting the 
VFO.  For speeds less than 25 wpm you should have NO problem.  If you 
use an external keyer, the Scout micro can then do its main job with the 
VFO and you will have NO drift.

There was a mod to correct drift for those production models that showed 
more than tolerable drift.  But, as it involves using combinations of 
temperature compensating capacitors, it should not be undertaken unless 
there is a demonstrable problem in your particular radio.

But, another easier fix is to place a muffin fan aimed at the heat sink 
for the final.  (Or, back off on the 50 watts setting with the power pot 
on the bottom of the radio.)

The receiver is excellent.  The plug in modules have never been a 
problem for us at club events with a wide variety of operators.

The Jones filter is marvelous.  Continuously adjustable, you can narrow 
it down to where you want to open it up for a bit more audio quality. It 
is sharp at the narrow setting.


Far from being a low point for Ten Tec, it met a price point and demand 
from hams like myself who wanted both easy QRP and the ability to up the 
power for severe conditions.  The controls were easy for anyone at Field 
Day to pick up.  There were no confusing menus, and fewer knobs to do 
all that is needed for basic communications.

Sure, it would have been nice to have had a faster microprocessor, or 
two to do the jobs of CW keying and frequency feedback control 
simultaneously.  But they were not available at the price point needed 
at the time the rig was designed.

One other thing, I have run my Scout on a good 45Ah battery.  But, you 
want to monitor battery voltage to stay at 12 volts.  Somewhere around 
11 volts, the rig is not getting adequate voltage thru the regulator.
I mulled over trying to redesign around a low drop out regulator, but it 
was just easier to carry a back up battery to the field given my little 
time for nice to do projects.

-Stuart Rohre
K5KVH