That wuz lotsa' fun seeing ur POTA activation & enjoyed ur review of that cool, little ole Ten Tec rig, too; & a few side notes: the story of the Tuskegee airmen, vry interesting but sad too, not getting deserved recognition until decades later☹️; & re Ten Tec, happy I got to visit their old HQ in Sevierville before they closed, but more importantly, I still have the first "keyer" I ever got (while a Novice) in the early 1970's, a Ten Tec external, single-lever KR-5, which I had to connect directly to a battery, since I didn't have an external pwr supply bk in those days; & this was, of course, bk when everyone had a tube-type rig, hi hi; 73 de WA4ELW in TN 🇺🇸 dit dit
Thanks for watching! Ten Tec made some great stuff. It sure would be exciting if they made a comeback! I’ve read things that suggest they might but who knows. Tuskegee Airmen- the first park I activated this day is the national historic site and has the museum for it. Very cool place to visit. As far as activating, it’s a parking lot. But still cool. I live in Notasulga, which is less than 10 minutes to Tuskegee. That’s why I activate there so often. hihi
THANK YOU THANK for taking my call. I just got back into cw and I have been so nervous about. I got a new paddle at huntsville and I havent touched cw in 20 years.
My 2nd Novice station was. TenTec Century 21 that was "Solid State" with 50 watts input and about 50 watts output on the higher bands. I worked the world with it, but CW only and no WARC bands. My first Novice station was a 300 watt Johnson Viking Valiant, CW & AM capability, no SSB, receiver was a Hammarlund HQ-145 with built-in 24 hour clock & Fine tune VFO for the ham bands. Both were tube type and huge power hogs, but not POTA capable, lol. My first QRP radios were 2 watt crystal transmitters I built with four 2N2222A transistors in parallel. In 1988 I built. Heathkit HW-9 CW QRP rig, but don't think it had WARC bands either, lol.
I’ve always admired the Century 21s. They are good looking CW rigs! And pretty cheap even in good condition. Wouldn’t it be fun to do a POTA with a Heathkit “hot water”? LOL I have bid on several HW-8s on ebay because I think it would be a blast to do an activation with it, then resell it. lol. but good working condition ones have gone higher than what I’m willing to pay so far.
An EFHW cut for 40m sloped up from the house from about 10' to about 35' pointing east and 100W through a FTDX10 :). If you ever bore of the Argo V, let me know and if I haven't found a cherry one myself, you have a buyer... :) de WD4AWD
My Google Pixel 7 emits RFI that nearly all of my HF rigs pick up, an artifact injected by the IF section of the receivers, mostly a problem when I am searching POTA spots to hunt new parks at the start of my activations. That way I get a feel for the propagation before I start calling CQ. It does lengthen my activations though as hunting in pileups while QRP a lesson in operator skill, lol.
@@spencerhochstetler Icom, Yaesu, Penntek, MFJ, KD1JV (Pre-MTRs). What it sounds like is some of the old pager intermod we used to get on VHF scanners. Some factors could be the Pixel 7 data traffic on particular cell bands, I will have to try activations in several different states & areas to know more conclusively that will allow me to reduce some of the variables affecting it. It definitely looks to be more IF than RF into the antenna. I laughed it off when Thomas K4SWL had the same issue with his Android over a couple different videos & didn't make the connection until just now, but moving the phone away from the radio solves it. Unfortunately I run into focal length issues trying to read the phone that far to the left. For me it is only a problem during hunting, during activations while logging on paper I never had to worry as the phone is not in active screen unlock mode. My Chromebook could have the same issue, but since I am not a Linux guru I won't have to cross that bridge. I was hoping for a tablet with my MIFI box, I can put the MIFI up to 30' away without issue, the tablet could have fonts large enough to avoid my focal length issues. More tests as I go.
Nice job getting the Argonaut V out in the field. It's not exactly ideal for field operations =) Be nice to those finals - they are a PITA to find. My Argonaut V is sitting on my workbench in pieces.
It’s such a beautiful rig! Sounds great and looks even better. I don’t really like taking it out because it’s not that easy to replace and it’s not really that tough compared to something like my FT-891. It’s going to get babied in the shack for a long time though! It’s one of my favorites. Hope you get yours back up and going soon! 73.
Yikes!! Been there before. I had a yellow jacket chase me in a circle around my chair while I was in the middle of sending during my activation this last weekend. LOL
@@w4arb I was hoping to not have to bring a fly swatter for anything that moves! I am glad those giant Mangrove spiders at the FL WMAs kept to themselves!
I was using a 20 amp hour LifePO4 battery from Amazon. It’s cheap and works great. I get several activations off of one charge. Here’s a link to the exact one: amzn.to/45Oa0lo I use this one with my >10 watt radios, and I have several smaller batteries I use with my 5 watt QRP radios.
I doubt they will produce amateur radios again. Listening to the “president/ceo” that was at Hamvention - he seems to be full of hot air. He made the same claim last year and the year before that they were about to release a new radio in the fall. Two falls later, we’ll see.
