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…
I learned in early March, 2024 of Bob Heil’s passing. Although I never got to meet Bob Heil in person, I feel his influence in my own enjoyment of the Amateur Radio hobby. Let’s see if I can build Bob Heil’s classic microphone equalizer!
It’s been about a year since my last post on the Mac, FT8 and the Ten Tec Omni 6 Plus. Since then I’ve learned a few things, made some refinements in my setup and developed a better idea of how I want to use my station. It’s time to talk about integrating MacLogger DX with WSJat-x and GridTracker. Plus, there’s an FLDigi Bonus!
I’ve been using MacLogger DX (MLDX) for several years now, and would like to have it connect with my antenna rotator. It supports several models, and can automatically command a rotator to a bearing based on a ham’s QRZ location. An Arduino can be used to connect MacLogger DX to an inexpensive antenna rotator.
I was recently asked about the power switch on the Ten Tec Triton IV transceiver. Was it capable of switching the 12-volt line used to power the radio? The short answer is no. Co-located on the volume control, it was intended to switch an external power supply like the Model 252 or 262. Switching the 15 or so amps of 12-volt power needed for the 100 watt transmitter would destroy the switch.
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.
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.
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.
After getting the serial port sorted out on the Omni VI Plus (Omni VI), it was time to get FT8 running. In this post, I describe two methods. One uses a Tigertronics SignaLink USB sound card with a FTDI-based USB to serial adapter. The other is based on a MicroHam MicroKeyer and a Sabrent USB audio adapter.
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.…