[TenTec] My Argonaut II Came Back From the Factory Today

[Steve Berg]

Thank you for clarifying this for me, John.  I put the rig on the air 
yesterday, and it acts like a new radio.  I am very happy with the 
quality of the repair.  I had no idea when I sent it in that it was 
going to be caught up in a corporate transition.  I realized that the 
chances of Ten Tec having the necessary repair pots was far higher than 
would be the case in most other repair services.

I used to have a Kenwood TS-790A vhf/uhf multimode transceiver. It was a 
top of the line rig, and was a bit newer than the Argonaut II.  Kenwood 
no longer services them, and a prominent regional vendor did not know 
how to test for ALC action on SSB. They kept keying it on FM, and saying 
that it worked fine.  One of my local 2-way techs fixed it for me.  It 
was a defective diode. But as we are seeing, such things as integrated 
circuits and processor chips have an increasingly short production 
lifespan. So, try getting even a 10 year old radio from a foreign vendor 
fixed by the importer.  I donated it after it was fixed to a friend of 
mine who just got his license.

I read on this list that newer radios were getting repaired and shipped 
back, so I knew it was a matter of time before mine got done, too.  I am 
just delighted that they will work on their legacy products, parts 
permitting.  And I think that the price I paid was very reasonable.  I 
have had a great time with this radio since I bought it from AES many 
years ago.  Now, it is working fine again, and I am looking forward to 
enjoying it for a long time.

73,

Steve WA9JML


On 5/10/2016 6:25 PM, John Henry wrote:
> Funny, people think that one report of 6-7 mos because they had to wait for
> parts for an Argonaut II, is now the norm for all repairs.
> That is ridiculous.
> I know of a LOT of rigs that get in there Monday and are either back home
> or on the road to home by Friday.
> They do the best they can, and if the parts are in house, and it is not
> backlogged, it makes it home asap.
> What I find EXTREMELY positive about Steve's post is that they were able to
> fix an Argonaut II. The previous owners had stated that they would not fix
> products that are out of production, so, I call this a step forward in the
> quality and the reputation in TEN-TEC repair, and NOT a step back because
> they had to wait for x period of time for an out of production part to be
> acquired and ....
>
> geesh...
>
> 73, KI4JPL
> John Henry
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