[TenTec] First Solid State Transceiver

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

Jim, it's a close call on who was first.
I believe the Argonaut 505 was the first fully transistorized 5 band SSB/CW
transceiver.
It was followed by the Triton 100w "Input" (50w) transceiver and then the
Triton II which ran 100w "Output".

At almost the same time, Swan was selling its SS-100 (100w in, 50w out)
transceiver, soon followed by the SS-200 which had 100w out.

I was on a tiny DX-pedition to Andorra (C31IL) in 1975 and we ran a Swan
SS-100 off of our VW camping bus' battery for about one week.  Of course we
ran the car's motor a lot to charge the battery and run the heater at night.

I don't know which month each of these rigs announced but they definitely
revolutionized ham radio and expeditions.  It would have been impossible to
run a week off a car battery using a tube radio.

When I returned to Andorra (C31SE) in 1979, I ran the CW station for 10 days
off of a car battery.  I was using an Omni A (Analog) with its dial lamps
switched off and running 50w.  We had one generator but it was at the SSB
tent.  I had 3 batteries and we would charge them either in one of the cars
or from the generator.

For its day, the RX in the Omni was OUTSTANDING!

73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 5:08 AM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Alpha Amplifiers and TEN-TEC Merge

On 5/12/2014 10:14 AM, Jim Allen wrote:
> These have survived for several decades,

Ten Tec had been building solid state rigs (the first?) for 5-10 years
before I bought an Omni A series D in 1980.

73, Jim K9YC
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