*About the same thing happened to me about 6 weeks ago. Mine was not so
severe. On a good day my power input to the Heathkit Amp is about 45-55
Watts. Anytime my station is shut down I always switch to the Dummy Load in
my MFJ-989c Tuner. Soon after a visit from the Grand Kids, I walked into
the Shack and smelled something wrong. My Paragon was on and in the Tune
Mode. After shutting the rig down my Tuner and the Radio were Very Hot. It
took them both over an hour to cool down. Knowing that my Radio just had to
be Toast, I fired it back up and all was well. I have since turned the
Beep/Tone Level back up on the Radio. It will Never Annoy me again. To the
best that I remember all of the Hot/Burning smell was coming from the
Tuner/Dummy Load. After checking the radio out very closely I could find no
damage. The Big Honkin Dummy Resistor in my Tuner did not fair as well. You
can tell at a glance that it has been really HOT. Maybe my silent prayer to
the Patron Saint of Radio Gear helped. Also, there is One 9 year old
Grandson who will think twice before pushing any buttons on PaPa's Radios
again. I don't believe that any KenYaeChicom radio ever made could have
withstood such abuse. I would like to thank the Patron saint of Radio's and
Ten Tec Engineering Excellence for the averted Disaster which could have
happened....................*
* 73
cul de Wade/KJ4WS*
On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 7:06 AM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP <Rick@dj0ip.de> wrote:
> Mike, your story was not PC.
> It did not begin with "do not try to do this yourself at home" (Hi)
>
> 73
> Rick, DJ0IP
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mike
> Bryce
> Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2012 8:10 PM
> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
> Subject: [TenTec] Ten Tec; They make one heck of a solid state PA
>
> Boys and girls,
>
> last night I was just about to button up a Omni V I have been working on.
> Doing a calibrate on the internal power out meter and verify the SWR was
> reading correctly..
>
> I placed the Omni V in 'tune' and with the output into my cantenna, I
> started to do check the calibration.
>
> Then I was distracted. Don't know by what or for what reason, but i found
> myself sitting in front of the TV watching a movie. After the movie was
> over, my wife said she smelled what she said was the oder of paint.
>
> Running into the room, the smell of hot paint rushed into my nose.
>
> I looked down and the Omni V was in transmit, 100 watts showing on the bird
> thruline. The dummy load was almost on fire, oil bubbled out of the
> pressure
> valve. The heatsink on the back of the radio was so hot the entire rear of
> the radio was too hot to touch! The paint smell was from the top and rear
> apron of the rig.
>
> I grabbed a muffin fan and quickly had it blowing air across the rear of
> the
> rig.
>
> It took almost an hour to cool the rig down to the point I could touch it.
>
> Thinking I just screwed up big time, I wondered if any of the parts inside
> the PA had un-soldered, I dug out another dummy load, held my breath, and
> pushed the 'tune' button.
>
> Up she came, 100 watts on all bands.
>
> Damn...
>
> The Omni V was keyed for over two and half hours and while hotter than
> hell,
> suffered no ill effects. That's a statement of a well designed solid state
> amplifier.
>
> And on a side note, the MFJ "cube" switching power supply I use on my
> service bench held up as well. It's too was at the melting point,
>
> I remember when W8AU left his Triton 4 in keydown inside his car for an
> hour, it too survived.
>
> Could have been worst. A lesson learned. Battery replaced in smoke detector
> in shack.
>
> mike wb8vge
>
>
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