[TenTec] On the Corsair II revival idea and receiver noise

[GARY HUBER]

Before I bought my Corsair-II and was looking at the Paragon and 
Corsair-II, I was asked by one of the TenTec staff manning their booth 
at Dayton, "What radio are you using now and what is your principal use, 
DXing, nets, rag chewing or something else?" When I responded that I was 
using a model 546-C and matching external VFO to chase DX from a quiet 
rural location, his response was, "you'll be a lot happier with a 
Corsair-II... you'll be able to hear weak stations with it that will be 
covered in noise in the Paragon!" I bought the Corsair-II and sold my 
OMNI-D to my best friend who had just become a General licensee and was 
looking for a radio.

I still have that Corsair-II which was built in the last production run 
of model 561s. I did A-B tests with it and the Paragon (model 585) I 
bought several years later for MARS work for Operation Desert Shield and 
Operation Storm. In those tests which were done using a DOW Key Relay 
reversed so that only one radio was connected to an antenna or with a 
coaxial jumper between the two radios with one switch set for AUX ANT 
and the other to AUX RX and with the radio with the switch set to AUX RX 
having a good antenna connected to its SO-239, the Corsair-II was always 
slightly better. Its those signals below S-2 and into the RX/band noise 
where the Corsair-II comes out ahead.

I also had a fully loaded OMNI-VI+ (model 564) and found it, through 
testing in the manner above, to be at least equal to the Corsair-II, 
mostly due to 1.8 kHz and 500 Hz filters in BOTH I.F.s, making it more 
selective and a bit quieter. The CAT serial port on the 564 is a huge 
advantage for those doing computer logging while DXing or Contesting. 
The lack of frequency / mode information from an un-modified Corsair-II 
like the one I own is its major drawback, in my opinion.

I currently have an OMNI-VII (model 588) with a FLEX-1500 as its sub-RX 
(N4PY mod) as my primary radio and with the Corsair-II as the back 
radio. (see AB9M at QRZ.com for the station photo) While the OMNI-VII is 
a great radio for my needs, in my opinion (and experience) it needs to 
some careful adjustment of the RF gain to avoid digital artifacts which 
are created from strong signals in the passband when trying to work 2 
kHz to 10 kHz from the DX station with lots of callers.

Regarding the cost of any Corsair-II replacement; I know there is the 
issue of price, but I believe its also a matter of value for an 
experience which cannot be matched by others. If you provide a pure 
analog receiver and transmitter chain like the model 561 with only DDS 
VFO and CAT serial ports then perhaps your market segment is in a 
different range than the IC-7300. Today absent any product from TenTec 
to replace my OMNI-VII and FLEX-1500, I'll keep my Corsair-II and buy a 
FLEX-3000. The Eagle may need a replacement, but one for the OMNI-VII 
and ORION is long overdue.

-- 
73 ES DX,
Gary - AB9M