[TenTec] re Centurion amp

["Rob Atkinson, K5UJ" <k5uj@hotmail.com>]

Hi paul,

you do not say what mode you op in contests.  There are 4 issues I have 
faced with my Centurion--some are minor, others may not be:

1.  Failure of stock plate transformer.  After the second blown Ten Tec 
xformer I had them put in the Dahl xformer he makes for the Centurion.  No 
problems after that.

2.  Cooling.  The Ten Tec fan is okay for ssb and cw.  If you use the amp 
for AM or (I estimate) a 100 % duty cycle mode you will have to augment the 
cooling or run the amp at reduced power which is what Ten Tec advises in the 
manual I believe, for rtty and sstv.  I don't know if there are any sstv 
contests, but there are rtty contests so take note.

3.  Unadjustable tuned inputs.   On some bands (high end of 75 and 160 for 
me) the swr of the amp's input gets pretty high, 1.5 to 1.9:1.  If you 
operate up there, your 100 w. exciter may fold back more than you want.  I 
have dealt with this by using either the exciter's tuner, or running an 
exciter that can make up for the foldback.

4.  On one or two bands the Centurion screams at its spec'ed limit 
effortlessly with only 80 w. drive.  Other bands it struggles to hit 900w or 
1 kw or needs > 100 w. drive.

For me and probably for you, 3 and 4 are trivial.  I do not operate AM (I 
would like to, but I don't have an "AM location") or anything digital so 2 
doesn't matter to me, and now that I have fixed the B+ xformer prob., I'm 
basically happy with my Centurion.

73,

rob / k5uj

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