"Every CW op should have a Ten-Tec"
Those words were spoken to me when I bought my first rig as an almost-ham in 1978 as I paid for my shiny new Century 21. The Novice ticket arrived in the mail & the Century 21 (and many hams on the other end of it) began schooling me in the art of CW.
Elecraft came onto the scene years later and my old Elmer's praise of Ten-Tec could have applied to Elecraft as well.
K1, KX1, KX2, KX3, K3 - I've owned them all, but never another Ten-Tec. (Well, except for the Eagle [owned for 4 days] fiasco, but that's another story).
That changed yesterday when FedEx dropped off my new-to-me Argonaut V.
Works like a charm.
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Looks like a nice and small radio John. I first saw a tentec radio in 2013, it was a 555. I never heard of the brand before it. What did I know....I'm only a licensed ham since 1998. I hope you will make many great contacts with this rig. 73, Bas
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bas - I think it will become my travel radio. More about that in a future post. I first learned of Ten Tec in 1977 when I took a CW class at a radio store...they only sold Ten Tecs.
Delete73,
John
You left out the Elecraft K2. I picked up one used at Dayton a few years ago. It was a very early serial number, so I ordered up all the update kits and after putting them all in place, I encountered some issues with tuning up some of the circuits. Also, I had obtained the 100W amp in an separate case with the 100W ATU, leaving the main K2 with the 10W ATU, which makes for a very flexible home/portable setup. So, I ended up taking it to Dave, W8FGU, to fix it up. And he did an excellent job. He found that the original K2 builder had put a resistor lead in a via, instead of the proper PCB hole (he found this by inspection, since he's seen so many K2 builds), and one of the final transistors in the 100W amp was blown. The K2 and amp now work FB, and I find the K2 a very FB CW rig. It's a keeper, in my book. I also have a K1, KX2, K3s, and now a K4D. I guess you could say I've become an Elecraft fan boy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning Dave - The K2 is one of the few Elecraft rigs I've never owned (the other is the K4). When it came out, I was buying a house and making the move to civilian life...money was tight in those days! I did borrow a K2 during a 2-week business trip - one of my fellow attendees was a ham and wanted me to use the radio while I was stuck out of town away from my own shack.
DeleteThe K2 is still for sale and I periodically think of buying one just for the experience of building it but, totaling it all up, the K2 amounts to an excessively expensive radio these days. I missed my opportunity.
73,
John