wrote:
In reading reviews about various Ten-Tec models, there is frequent
mention about failing PTO's and the need for rebuilding. How
concerned should I be about this? Are certain models problematic in
this regard than others?

ALL PTOs need to be rebuilt at some time. They work by moving an iron or
brass core inside tube with a coil wound on the tube. The lubricants
dry out, they become dirty, the gears wear. Ten-Tec is different in that
they still rebuild PTOs for you, sell rebuild kits, and include instructions
in their manuals.

Some people have had luck with re-lubricating them. Special bycicle
libricant has been mentioned on the Ten-Tec mailing list of doing the job,
it contians very small balls of teflon. Others have used WD-40 to remove
the old grease and applying fresh.

It depends upon too many factors to make a blanket statment. If you are
going to buy a rig, try it out. If the tuning knob sticks, the frequency
jumps or "wiggles" when you touch the knob, it probably needs a rebuild.

My personal favorite is the model 544 aka Trition-IV Digital. It is well
designed and simple to repair or maintian. The digital part is the
frequency display, not the tuning. If the PTO is in good shape,
it is easy to tune "spot on". A lot easier than a sythesized rig except
for the new ones with 1Hz tuning steps.

It only does CW and SSB, but it does them extremely well. It is missing the
WARC bands (they did not exist when the radio was made), and it has a
fixed 2.4kHz IF filter. Options for it were a second VFO for split operation,
crystals for the top end of 10m, a switched capacitor audio filter for CW,
and a 160 meter adaptor.

If you like full QSK, it has it, you can hear what is going on between
dits if you send slow enough.

I understand that you can pick one up for about $200 and up depending
upon options, if it has been serviced recently, etc.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Thanks, Geoff for the detailed and helpful reply.
Very informative.

73
Russ K3Pi

In article ,
(Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrote:

wrote:
My main rig is a Kenwood TS-850S. I am considering getting a back up
rig for it.

Main interest is cw. Internal Antenna Tuner is nice. Bands higher
than 10m not that important.

What models do you recommend that: represent good value, reliable, can
still be serviced (if used)?

Try a Ten-Tec. Many Japanese rigs are designed for SSB, with CW as an
afterthought. Ten-Tec rigs, while they work perfectly well for SSB,
were, and still are, are designed with a CW operator in mind.

Their older rigs can be easily serviced, and they still sell manuals,
parts and fix them for you.

The older ones don't include tuners, but a modern external auto tuner will
work with them.

Geoff.

If you'd like the WARC bands and a selection of bandwidths in an
excellent CW rig, check out the Corsair I or II.

Dave K9SW