I own a number of radio rigs from lots of different manufacturers (Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, JRC, Drake, Collins, ...) but, until yesterday, I had no Ten-Tec in my collection. So my new Paragon is for me, besides a new toy, my very first Ten-Tec. I have fixed several Ten-Tecs over the years but I had none of my own.
This unit arrived in pretty good shape, with only some light dirt on it. I bought it as unworking in AM mode and generating extrange sounds at low frequencies. Obviously, I suspected of PLL problems as they are well documented all over the WEB... Well, I have not found yet any obvious problem with the rig in both aspects!. So I guess there could be an intermittent fault waiting to develop again.
Unit arrived with original User Manual (nice one, more like a Service Manual) and a non-original hand mike (which seems to be wired wrongly). It has an optional FM module, but no RS-232 module and no extra filters. Here you have some internal pics:
Only sign of previous repair I have located so far (I have not yet opened lower inner cover) is around the backup battery charging (I guess) circuit. BTW, battery holds a charge but memory and RTC are reset when power is out. So something is wrong here:
Despite the inclusion of the original Giehl EPROM manual in the back of the User Manual, this unit has an standard Ten-Tec EPROM on it, version 3.9:
I wonder if someone would sell me a Giehl EPROM...
I need to check the unit in detail but, so far, it seems to work pretty nicely.
UPDATE #1
I have just opened the inner bottom cover to check. There are good news!. Unit seems completely untouched. GREAT!!!
Here you have some pictures:
And now some more detailed pictures: this is from the PLL area. I have found that wiggling these connectors warbles the signal but this could be due to stray induced capacitances:
And this is the antenna discharge protection:
I will add more info as my work progresses.
73 JOSE EB5AGV
6 comments:
José,
puedes conseguir chips directamente de Jack:
http://home.fuse.net/jg/Chips/ParagonChip.html
Buena suerte con tu nuevo Ten Tec.
jon, ea2sn
Hola Jon,
Gracias por tu comentario. Sí, lo había localizado... veré si vale la pena el poner ese chip o no. Es cuestión del uso que le de al Paragon. Por ahora, como estoy en proceso de ampliación del shack, lo tengo guardado.
73 JOSE EB5AGV
I have a Paragon that started out fine but developed an issue. The s meter stopped working on incoming signals, but works fine when checking swr and output. Also, the af output seems too loud and a bit distorted. Any ideas what could be wrong?
Thanks K1PN
Hi Jose,
Congratulations with your equipment !
I wonder if you can help with information about a Paragon. It's working fine but showing nonsense on its display.....
We have to replace a HD63705VOP VERSION 2.1 but have been unsuccessful. We got another chip, but what we need is the content. Can you help with "reading" your PROM or in any other way ?
73,
Frans PA0FVE
I read where another ham had to re-solder some leads on PLL chips, and that fixed everything.
VE3GYY
I own a Paragon and Paragon II. Is there any alignment procedures that you can find or have available?
Dave AA5HL
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