dinsdag 17 februari 2026

99 QSO's with the Ten-Tec on 14 MHz

I got the Ten-Tec 1320 for 20 meters from a fellow HAM, who ended the hobby.  Tnx Henk.
I used the Ten-Tec 1320 in CW Contest QSO's.

Look at the Table below, at the end of the post, to see all the DXCC's that I worked with the Ten-Tec.
(At the moment, I have made a total of 99 +1 QSO's with the Ten-Tec.)

Set up of my station with the Ten-Tec 1320 for 14 MHz
MorseMachine  -  Ten-Tec 1320  -  Attenuator 0, 10 or 20 dB  -  PWR-SWR meter  -  Bencher

Power 
As a low power enthusiast I always (very often), use the lowest possible power in contest QSO's.
I use a supply voltage of 12 V to reduce the output power of the Ten-Tec to 2.4 W.
For very low power I used a the Ten-Tec followed by the PA1B attenuator of 10 dB or 20 dB.
When signals are strong, I reduce my power.
With an attenuation of 10 dB, I reduce the power of 2.4 W to 240 mW.
With 20 dB the power is reduced to 24 mW. hi.

Unwanted sideband
In QSO's I discovered that the unwanted sideband, isn't completely suppressed by the crystal filter.
I have adjusted my working method. I go from high to low frequency, to avoid, to answer on the wrong sideband. hi.

Contests
I used the Ten-Tec in the 4 contests.

In the Russian DX with 3 Watts to get a feel for the Ten-Tec.

In the Marconi Memorial contest I used 2.4 W and  made 1 QSO with 240mW.

The conditions were good for low power in the IARU HF Championship.
With 11 QSO's with 2.4 W and 44 QSO's with just 240 mW.

In the YO-DX contest I started with 2.4 W in 14 QSO's.
When condition got better I reduced to 240 mW in 7 QSO's. 
Further I could even make a QSO with 9A3YT with just 24 milliwatts.
For 24 mW I switch to 20 dB. With an attenuation of 20 dB the power is divided by 100.

Table
I had great fun with low power. 
Every time I use the Ten-Tec I find out new things.
Look at this nice table of worked DXCC-counties in 99 (+ 1) QSO's





1 opmerking:

  1. Hello Bert. I hope you are well. TenTec was my favorite transceiver: Argonaut 509, Argonaut 515, Century 21. Best cw rig of all time. I bought a G-106, ok but the lack of RIT, and the headphone via the mic cable very, very annoying. Keeping it for possible travel use. My current set up is on my QRZ page; 99 percent 5 watts, sometimes less, rarely more. 73/72 and take care. Dick F8WBD

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