I have had three TenTec Scouts. The first was bought new from the
Company, and returned in 30 days. The second was a demo bought from the
Company and returned in ten days. The third was a used Scout, bought
from an individual, and sold shortly thereafter.
Why did I get rid of all three of them? Was it because I did not like
them? To the contrary, I really did love those lil critters. The
receiver was very quiet, the Jones filter worked great, and I got some
of the best SSB reports I have ever had. I would buy another today if it
were not for one problem...
I operate 95 percent CW. I operate around 30 WPM. I found that at that
speed the rig would jump and drift right out of the other fellows
bandpass. If I operated around 20 WPM or less, no trouble at all. And it
was very stable on SSB. I tried the "fan" and "pause" methods of curing
the problems but these did not work. I wish I had tried disconnecting
the microprocessor system that I see recommend here on the reflector,
but I didn't. It got so bad that some old friends constantly complained
because they had to keep their hand on their tuning knob. This was true
if the band was crowded and they had their selectivity set very tight. I
was getting a reputation as a "drifter".
I really loved that little Scout. The receiver was much more quiet than
my Kenwood/Icom/Yaesu rigs. And it is much easier to use. But the
shift/jump was just to much for me.
These are my opinions and I am not bad mouthing a rig which I really
think a lot of. It is a good one except for that one problem. But that
is a very big problem for me.
73,
Jim, K5ROV
Clark Savage Turner wrote:
>
> On Fri, 29 Oct 1999, Beamer, Jay wrote:
>
> > Come on Y'all. This is all very simple, actually. "I want this, I want that,
> > I want it cheap"!! Get real! Ain't none of these radios going to be
> > everything to everybody, or anybody, for that matter. If it doesn't have
> > what you're looking for, don't buy it! If you can't find one that doesn't
> > have every single one of your precious features, don't buy anything!!
>
> This is the essence of the situation. I can't agree enough with this.
> Try it out. All engineering involves tradeoffs, find out what you
> want from a radio then determine how Ten Tec made the tradeoffs to
> see if you get the balance you want. The Scout is a wonderful radio
> for many tastes, but for others, it might not suffice.
>
> I am very GLAD to see the honesty of Ten Tec listers that they can
> discuss the tradeoffs (the "negatives") of their beloved radios
> and learn from it. It strengthens the manufacturer and user of
> the rigs to learn about others' findings and discuss them with
> candor.
>
> I have plenty of "complaints" (tradeoffs I do not like) but if you
> come to my shack you'll find Ten Tec up front. That explains it all.
>
> Clark
> WA3JPG
>
> --
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--
James (Jim) Parsons, K5ROV USAF, Ret. Ham for 58 yrs.
k5rov@earthlink.net QCWA, NWQRP, Fists, ARRL
EX: W1RLA, K5FBB, K4FEO, SV0WN (CRETE), SV0WN (RHODES),
DL4NC, DL4JP, KA2FC (JAPAN), KA2JP (JAPAN).
JOHN 3:16
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/tentecfaq.htm
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