[TenTec] century 22

Ron Notarius W3WN wn3vaw at verizon.net
Sat Dec 30 18:17:40 EST 2017


Hi Rick,

Actually, I agree.  Back when I came to Pittsburgh to help open & work at an Amateur Radio store, we were a Ten Tec dealer (yes, there were once such things) and early on had the Argosy and the Argonaut 515 both on the shelf.  

Both were excellent rigs for what had been intended, but to be honest, neither was perfect.  An RF Gain would have served the Argosy well.  (So would 12 and 17 meters) but let's also remember that the rig was intended to be sold for under US$500 retail at the time; MSRP was $499.  So some decisions were clearly made to keep the costs down.  (I'm not saying I agree with the choices, just that they existed)

I can tell you that when it came to performance, you could put a TS-430S side by side with an Argosy, on the same antenna with a switch.  The Argosy heard signals the 430 did not.  Even with its faults.  On transmit, assuming you didn't tell the other station which rig was which, the Argosy always got better audio reports, and few if any noticed the difference between the 430 at 100 Watts and the Argosy at 50 Watts on their S meter.  

Now I'm sure that some will want to argue the point with me... but I'm the one who had both rigs on the "test the rig" bench (actually, a hollow wood door on saw-horse like wooden legs... I ought to know, I built it) and helped potential buyers who sat down to listen or whatever.  So I know.

...and 4 times out of 5, if someone was going to actually BUY the rig that day, they bought the 430 over the Argosy.  Why?  Because it had 100 W out, 12, 17, and 160 meters, and bells & whistles that the Argosy did not have.  Even though most would admit that in terms of the pure performance, the Argosy was the better rig hands down.  And that 1 out of 5 who did buy the Argosy tended to be someone who primarily operated CW.  Go figure.

(I should add that I learned later that half the people who decided on one rig over the other bought it... via an 800 number from a big dealer like HRO, EGE or AES who could undercut us on price.  And paid more in shipping than they would have in sales tax, and paid full price for the power supply, filters, and other sundries.  But they saved $20 on the rig itself!  Which is why the little mom-and-pop stores had and have trouble surviving, but that's another story)

Ahem.

When the 525D came out, I was a little disappointed in the display itself, and the extra power consumption didn't help.  There was also something "magic" about the $499 MSRP for the Argosy that disappeared when the 525D was MSRP at $529.  You'd think $30 wouldn't make that much of a difference at the time, but it did.  

In any event, I would love to have one, one day.  And one day, maybe I will.  But right now, I have something else in the pipeline, so the shekels towards an Argosy will just have to wait.

HNY to you as well

73, ron w3wn

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Rick at dj0ip.de
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2017 4:10 AM
To: 'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment'
Subject: Re: [TenTec] century 22

Hi Ron
HNY (in advance).

I too liked the Argosy (analog - not digital).
But to be honest, my Argonaut 509 into which I addad a 9 MHz CW filter and mounted its AF filter inside instread of outside, OUT-PERFORMED the Argosy on receive on the low bands.  
There were two reasons for that:
1) The Argosy did not have that lovely "elevator" preselector that the two Argonauts had, and
2) The Argosy did not have an RF gain.

I solved that problem by adding a switchable RF Attenuator to it and used my tiny but super-good home-brew tunable 40m preselector with it.

People may wonder why I did not like the "D" version.
Simple:  Battery drain.  Most of my portable operation was off of a motorcycle battery.

73,
Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt, Germany)

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ron Notarius W3WN
Sent: 30 December 2017 00:35
To: 'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment' <tentec at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] century 22

Really?  

I always thought the C22 was an Argosy without the 50 W "brick" (since it uses the Argosy case and front panel).  Never appealed to me, because I'd rather have an Argosy (525 or 525D), given the choice, so I never looked into it any further.

Might explain why the C22 wasn't that popular.

73

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dukes HiFi
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2017 5:07 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Cc: w2iy at verizon.net
Subject: Re: [TenTec] century 22

Whoda thunk???

The C21 was a superheterodyne with a 5.0 to 5.5 MHz wide IF stage, fed by the RF input and the crystal oscillator for each band, and a product detector on the AF board that uses the VFO as the “BFO” to carry out product detection. It is NOT direct conversion.

I had always assumed that the C22 was a repackaged C21 with digital display. WRONG!

It is indeed a direct conversion radio. It premixes the PTO with the crystal oscillator for each band and shoots the result (which is right on the revive and transmit frequency) right into a mixer which direct detects signals, then on to the AF stage! What a downgrade compared with the C21!

WHAT A DOWNGRADE TT made to produce the C22!


If you have a choice, get a C21!

Gary

W0DVN

> On Dec 29, 2017, at 3:04 PM, Winston <jones_winston at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> 
> Good fun cw rig.
> Winston K4CWQ
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Dec 29, 2017, at 2:56 PM, Dr Richard San Antonio <K1MD at cox.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Buy it....lots of fun but don't sell your Omni6+!
>> 
>> Richard K1MD
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of 
>> Michael Tortorella
>> Sent: Friday, December 29, 2017 11:42 AM
>> To: tentec at contesting.com
>> Subject: [TenTec] century 22
>> 
>> Hi all, I am contemplating purchase of a Century 22 and would like to 
>> hear what people on the list think of that rig.
>> 
>> Thanks and 73
>> 
>> Mike W2IY
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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