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Tag: solid state

How To Use AI To Design Electronic Circuits

by JimPosted onMarch 2, 2025March 2, 2025Ham RadioLeave a comment on How To Use AI To Design Electronic Circuits
photo of the TCXO on the Logic Board

I wondered if I could ask an AI to design such a circuit. So I prompted ChatGPT: “Simple one transistor circuit to amplify a 20 MHz signal generator.” The resulting answer was quick and amazing.

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How to Align a Ten Tec Omni 6 Plus With Ease

by JimPosted onFebruary 27, 2025March 2, 2025Ham Radio2 Comments on How to Align a Ten Tec Omni 6 Plus With Ease
photo of the Bottom of Omni VI chassis

Ten Tec documentation is minimal at best and there aren’t any professionals at Ten Tec to consult any more. We’re on our own. I’m sharing a minimal alignment process I used to get a radio back within spec.

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Troubleshooting the Ten Tec Omni VI Plus

by JimPosted onOctober 23, 2024February 28, 2025Ham Radio4 Comments on Troubleshooting the Ten Tec Omni VI Plus
photo of Ten Tec Omni VI Plus transceiver

The Symptoms We recently traveled to Omaha to visit a high-school friend and fellow ham. He had purchased a Ten Tec Omni VI Plus on…

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A Great DC Converter for Mobile Tube Transmitters

by JimPosted onFebruary 14, 2024April 29, 2024Ham Radio1 Comment on A Great DC Converter for Mobile Tube Transmitters
photo of a great solid state power supply for mobile tube transmitters

Building a solid state DC converter to power a 1950’s era mobile tube transmitter. The build uses an NOS Triad TY-83 toroidal transformer and high-power germanium transistors – the best available power conversion tech in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

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Solar Power And Ten Tec’s Awesome Closet Kilowatt

by JimPosted onJuly 26, 2023March 5, 2024Solar Power2 Comments on Solar Power And Ten Tec’s Awesome Closet Kilowatt
photo of the Omni VI+ with Antenna Coupler and Herculers Amp

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been restoring a Ten Tec “Closet Kilowatt” from the late 80’s for a solar powered station. It consists of a model 253 Automatic Antenna Coupler, model 420 Hercules II amp and model 564 Omni VI Plus.

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How to Build the Great Argonaut CW Filter

by JimPosted onMay 23, 2023March 5, 2024Ham Radio2 Comments on How to Build the Great Argonaut CW Filter
photo showing the PC board final fit

With the Ten Tec Argonaut 509 restored and working well, it was time to try it out. The Anderson Power Pole made it easy to connect an 8 amp hour gel cell. I hooked it up to my end-fed half-wave antenna and listened around 20 meters. There were plenty of CW signals and I quickly realized a CW filter was going to be needed.

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How To Restore a Classic Argonaut QRP Rig

by JimPosted onApril 26, 2023May 24, 2023Ham Radio2 Comments on How To Restore a Classic Argonaut QRP Rig
photo of The Argonaut ready for contact!

By now, I’ve written about quite a few classic Ten Tec radios. There are those who would argue that the Argonaut, first introduced in 1972, started it all though. It was the first recognizably Ten Tec product and would set the style for decades to come. It was also the first popular QRP transceiver that included both CW and SSB modes.

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How To Add CAT Control To A Ten Tec Omni VI+

by JimPosted onMarch 8, 2023March 8, 2023Ham Radio2 Comments on How To Add CAT Control To A Ten Tec Omni VI+
photo of The Current Ham Shack

The Ten Tec Omni VI+ and CAT Control In an earlier post, I described acquiring and repairing a Ten Tec Omni VI+ (model 564) transceiver.…

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How To Fix A Great Ten Tec Omni VI+ Transceiver

by JimPosted onMarch 5, 2023March 6, 2024Ham Radio7 Comments on How To Fix A Great Ten Tec Omni VI+ Transceiver
photo of a Ten Tec Omni VI Plus front

In late 2020, I bought a Ten Tec Omn VI+ transceiver (model 564). It was a big step for me since most Ten Tec equipment I had purchased before was older and pretty inexpensive. The Omni VI+  represented a step up both in performance and cost. Released in 1997 with an MRSP of $2850, It was Ten Tec’s flagship at the time.

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How to Restore a Dynaco ST 150 Audio Amplifier

by JimPosted onMay 8, 2022March 6, 2024Stereo SoundLeave a comment on How to Restore a Dynaco ST 150 Audio Amplifier
photo of The Dynaco ST 150 Stereo Amp

Lately, I’ve been restoring a Dynaco ST 150 stereo amplifier. As my collection of classic vinyl recordings grows, I’ve assembled the ultimate 1970’s playback system. Coming of age in the mid-70’s, I coveted the then-new high-power solid state amplifiers.

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