A Triton I came my way with a p/s, in very nice shape indeed. Not able to
reject its failing of it not actually being a Triton IV (ok, so it has
less power and is analog, big deal). Tried it out on local SSB last nite
and got
decent reports (Toronto- Sault St. Marie circuit) with the old xtal mike
that came with it.
Anyhow, a couple questions if anyone knows.
This does seem to be a little low on power. Lock/load max before T-T p/s
protection circuit trips out at about 5 on the Triton's Forward meter
reading seems to be
region of 20 watts. That seems a bit low (shouldn't it be about 50 watts
if it is a 100 watt input rig). Think this calls for re-alignment, or a
look at PA/driver transistors, whatya think?
However, to me mind oddly it DOES seem to peak at about 50 watts on SSB
when full ALC peaks, so I am
a bit curious as to why Lock is only about 20 watts (to be honest, at this
point I have not done a KEY DOWN in CW to see if it differs from Lock and
Load as far as RF out on a good watt meter shows, sorry...). I always
figured full CW key down would be equal to or 'more' than SSB 'peak'.
Am I naively missing/assuming something in regard to continuous wave power
available in the class of amplification used versus SSB?
To my mind it does not seem to fit with previous experience on rigs re.
power out in these modes.
Also, in SSB I think transmit frequency might be a bit low compared what
is
being received at. Again, alignment perhaps or any other ideas as to how
this might be. Could use RIT offset to compensate when 'dialing' in to a
frequency of course, but am naturally curious as to this.
I am not going to probably go heads over heels on this aside from what I
can do at home probably - to be honest the
Canadian dollar is so low now that if I sent this back to T-T to be looked
at by the service desk the cost would be nuts given what the rig
essentially is/does (ie. if I use it as a break-in cw rig at 20 watts or
less where the xmit/recv frequency shift seems to be not a problem but
only an issue on SSB).
This did not have cw filter, but I plugged in the SuperSCAF filter and
results are fine. Will think about installing a 217 xtal filter (as per
Doug Demaw QST article re. Triton IV) and/or a multipole 741-based audio
filter (4 widths obtainable versus the 2 width T-T audio filter) if I find
the time or inclination (measured by depth of snow come January or so...).
I think documents on this from Ten-Tec
are sparse if asked for, but I guess I can call Seviereville and ask.
Maybe the desk can give me some hints on the rig after I get any ideas to
pursue from the List members.
Thanks.
Brien Pepperdine
Amateur Radio Station VE3VAW
Toronto, Ontario Canada
ARCI QRP #8773 - NORCAL QRP "ZOMBIE"
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