I got my novice ticket in 1963, and got on the air with a Knight T-60
transmitter, a command set 40 meter receiver, and a Gotham v-80 vertical
antenna. I failed my general test in Chicago, but recouped by passing
my tech test at 12 wpm with a keyer. I discovered the joys of 6 meters,
and was having so much fun that I forgot about HF for several decades.
Eventually, techs were given some HF CW privileges, and despite being a
starving college student, I managed to buy a Hallicrafters HT-37 from a
local ham, and used it with a dipole with my HRO-50T1 receiver. I
really liked National equipment, and after passing my advanced ticket in
the early 80s, bought a NCX-5 and power supply. I also was given a
Heath HW-7, which I still have, and I got the QRP bug badly. In the
1990s, I decided to sell the worst motorcycle I had ever owned, a
Triumph Trident, and since I had spent many years fixing and very little
time riding it, I decided I would treat myself to something that
actually worked, and after considering a Delta II, figured that 5 watts
would tear up fewer televisions in this fringe area, and bought an
Argonaut II from AES in Milwaukee. I still have it. It has made some
trips back to the factory, but has generally been a great little rig,
and it has many thousands of hours of use on it. I have read the test
of these radios in QST,and I suspect that the testers did not read the
manual, and were too incompetent to learn how to really use the rig. I
bought one of the 6 meter transverters for it, and while writing my
doctoral dissertation in 2000 or thereabouts, I kept it on most of the
time during the F2 openings then. With a whopping 8 watts out, and a 4
element beam up about 55 feet, I managed to work all continents on 6
meters. One of my buddies gave me a Hy-Gain trap vertical, for HF, and
I put that in the back yard for HF. I have worked a fair amount of DX
with the Argo II, and also with the Omni V.9 and the Corsair II. The
display on the Omni started getting increasingly intermittent, and was
no longer fixable, so I sent it down to the factory so Paul and the
Techs can use it as a donor to keep others alive. I bought another Argo
II, and I screwed that one up, so it is headed to the factory this week
for work. I admit that the Omni and the Corsair II have much better
receivers, and a lot more power, but for some strange reason, the Argo
keeps pushing them off the desk, and onto the shelf. I wanted to buy an
Argonaut 509 years ago when I lived in Massachusetts, but never got one.
I am waiting for the 539 to come out, and want to try it with my
transverter for 6 meters. In the meantime, the Argonauts are going to
get more use. The service from Ten Tec has always been first rate, and
I really enjoyed touring the sales area when I passed through the area
on the way to a meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. I do have a few
Japanese radios, and they are very nice, if overly complex. It is hard
to beat Ten Tec for reliable radios, of excellent performance, and that
are easy to use.
73,
Steve WA9JML
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