The Delta II and the similiar Argonaut II came out in 1991. I bought
one of the first ones off the line. I thought it was a very nice rig
but I traded it on a used Paragon a few months after getting it (The
deal was too good to pass up). About 4 years ago I ran across another
Delta II on the used market and bought it to use on weekends at my river
cottage. It has served me well in that use. The Delta II / Argonaut II
were short lived rigs. I believe they were discontinued a year or two
after their introduction. Competition from the Kenwood TS-440 and
similiar rigs from Icom and Yaesu probably did them in. Also, I'm sure
the ARRL product review published in January 1992 QST had much to do
with their early demise. I've never seen a product review before or
since which was more derogatory. It was almost as if the reviewers had
an axe to grind against Ten Tec. I had the very same rig they were
reviewing sitting in front of me, had just worked 97 countries with a
wire antenna and the barefoot Delta II on 40 Meters during the 1991 CQWW
CW DX test and I could not for the life of me understand why the review
was so negative.
If I could redesign the rig I'd do away with the "Jones" filter and
allow for one or two acessory fixed bandwidth filters. The "Jones"
filter tends to change center frequency as you narrow it down. This can
be compensated for by using the IF shift but it is a bit of an
annoyance. I also find the skirt selectivity of the "Jones" filter not
up to snuff when compared with a fixed b/w filter. I add a DSP unit
behind my Delta II and with that added audio selectivity it's more than
satisfactory.
73,
Puck, W4PM
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