[Premium-Rx] Ten-Tec SP-325: opinions wanted

[Ed Tanton]

I too have one of these receivers, but I'm willing to take the other side 
here.

First, no, it surely is not a Premium Receiver. Not even close. Even if it 
had a microprocessor, no way.

Second, and more to the point, it IS a good 'little' GC receiver. Best I 
can do comparatively, is to say it is NEARLY as good as my ITT/Mackay 
Marine 3031-A, but NOT even close to my RACAL RA6790/GM. Also, I think my 
R71-A is better, but not by a whole lot-and I would rate it about as good 
as the R-71 (the R-71 was much better made). It is a lot better than most 
of the cheaply available portables you see advertised from time to time. 
It's a LOT better than the semi-boatanchor solid-state versions of the 
All-American-Five-but-for-shortwave (Eico Space Ranger, Knight, etc.)

I am sorry Nigel paid what he did for his-scarcity notwithstanding-because 
here in the USA it ought not go for more than about $250 in near-perfect 
shape. It's PS is a BIG weakness... if you look in it, there are a number 
of resistors that will be brown from heat, and-as I recall-some 
semiconductors that are obviously under-heat-sinked (heat-sunk??? [grin]) 
The PS pcb will likely show discoloration from that heat in multiple 
places. Other than that, it's not bad, reliability-wise.

I once set all the aforementioned receivers onto 10MHz WWV-plus my Drake 
R-7-prototype, and left them for a couple of days (they had all been on at 
least a couple of hours at the time.) When I checked them, the worst was 
about 300Hz off-and that was the SP-325. The RA6790/GM and the 
R-7-prototype were spot-on. The R71-A was ~200Hz off... and I forget what 
the reading on the '3031-A was... except that it was better than the SP-325.

Would I buy the one for $275+shipping? It would largely depend on need. If 
I had a specific application in mind... something like a decent little 
secondary General Coverage receiver to fool around with, for casual 
listening... maybe. The MOST I'd pay for that theoretical near-perfect one, 
with manual, might be that $275 WITH shipping. For any of those variables 
to be different from that, the answer very quickly gets to be "No way!"

If you like, feel free to quote this to the seller-FWIW.


73 Ed Tanton N4XY <n4xy at earthlink.net>

Ed Tanton N4XY
189 Pioneer Trail
Marietta, GA 30068-3466

website: http://www.n4xy.com

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