[Elecraft] Ten-Tec Orion & 2m transverter

[John Petters G3YPZ]

Earl said
> I took a lot of flak from died-in-the-wool Elecrafters whenever I
> complained about the radio, but Eric and Wayne (Elecraft
> owners/engineers) apparently took heed and did something about it.  For
> fear that I get flak from died-in-the-wool Ten-Tec'ers who think that the
> Orion is God's gift to Ham Radio,

I have built the Ten Tec 2m transvertor for a friend. He ordered this b4 the
Elecraft transverter was announced, which I have on order. I built the tvtr
last week expecting a great improvement over my IC706Mkll. The Ten Tec uses
a diode ring mixer, and a mosfet rf amp, so I expected a really hot, low
noise setup with my K2. The opposite is true. The noise came way up and the
sensitivity is not as good as the 706. Of course its made the K2 sound as
noisy as the 706. I had always regarded Ten Tec equipment as top of the
range, but I am not happy with this. The noise is in the IF post mixer amp
which uses a bipolar bog standard device - a 2n4124. Changing this to a
2n3866 has improved matters as has changing the front end fet.  I am playing
with a mosfet  post mixer amp.

As you can imagine, I am eagerly awaiting the Elecraft 2m transverter and
would be interested to know what Elecraft have used as the mixer diodes (Ten
Tec uses 1n4148, not matched) and in particular the post mixer amp. I'm
hopeful that the Elecraft tvtr will live up to the  K2's reputation.
73

John Petters
www.traditional-jazz.com