[TenTec] Paragon and Model 544

[Vic Klein]

Well, the boards have been out of production for many years, but these are
simple through-hole circuit boards with components on leads, so they are
really pretty easy to repair and work on. The major and minor loop boards
had an issue where the radio would become unstable or lose PLL lock, but as
you noted, resoldering fixes that. You can reheat the connections and get a
quick fix, but ulitmately removing the solder around critical RF paths and
resoldering them with fresh solder seems to be a permanent (or at least
another 20 year) fix. Ten tec was still repairing them at least a year ago
and I got essentially same-day service while in the area on a board that was
not one of the easy to remove parts as most of them are. I think the Paragon
is a wonderful radio, perhaps the prettiest radio ever, and one of the best
bargains in the used market. I still use mine even though I have a brand new
radio as well.

=Vic=
WA4THR

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To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Paragon and Model 544
From: "Walt K8CV" <waltk8cv at wowway.com>
Reply-to: Walt K8CV <waltk8cv at wowway.com>, Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
<tentec at contesting.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2015 09:36:52 -0400
List-post: <tentec at contesting.com">mailto:tentec at contesting.com>

I have a very early Paragon and I thought the PLL board or what ever
controls 
the frequency became unobtainum and also had solder problems. Mine quit and
I 
re-soldered the whole board on TenTec's recommendation and it fixed the
problem 
and it has been running ever since. I do have newer rigs that I more
frequently 
use but the audio was just super for SWLing , but that is another phase of 
radio that the computers killed.

Walt K8CV