- #Ten tec pegasus 550 review update
- #Ten tec pegasus 550 review upgrade
- #Ten tec pegasus 550 review full
Throw in some upgrades, and you will have one of the best CW rigs made without a single menu to navigate. If you can get one for $300 - $350 or less, buy it. It clearly states that you should adjust the RF gain to achieve an S-7 signal strength (I usually go even lower like S-5 or so on strong signals,) and then adjust the AF gain according to the level needed for you, and the pop goes away. Now the Omni has silky smooth tuning and rock solid stability without having to wait for a warm-up.Īs far as the complaints about the AGC pop, just read the manual.
#Ten tec pegasus 550 review upgrade
My next upgrade was to replace the old and drifty PTO with Joe's DDS digital encoder dual VFO with split (also available at. One is Joe's sine wave side tone kit which replaces the old raspy side tone with a joyous (and adjustable) side tone - Great improvement for only around $25
#Ten tec pegasus 550 review update
To update my Omni, I added two kits from. Hearing is one thing, but actually seeing the signal on the audio spectrograph confirms that CW notes just seem to float on top of the tiny crackles of qrn (which are very quiet in the Omni) and weak signals can be pulled with ease. While other rigs struggle to pull weak cw signals from the terribly noisy audio (some rigs sound like a tornado is swirling inside the rig,) the Omni shines. On a spectrograph during summer qrn conditions on 40m, my suspicions were proven true. I have compared signals back-to-back with radios from the "Big Three," and cannot find a better receiver. I've been using this rig for over 2 years now and have logged over 3,600 CW qso's with it to date. You would have to spend thousands of dollars to get a receiver this quiet. As I tend to stick to 80/40/30 it won't bother anyone. I have read to not use this radio on 18MHz, due to a transmitted spur at 18MHz. I had to resolder some crystals when I got it, relube the PTO (wish I had gotten new parts when I did it!) but that's trivial repairs for a radio of this age. Might be a radio problem, as I also a loud carrier. On SSB: I tried it a couple of times, and found my audio overdriven on a second radio. I have to lower gain for a few signals, as the AGC does pop. I flip the Audio filter to 1, to tame some high frequency hiss, then raise RF gain until I hear band noise. I use an external speaker, set the RF gain all the way down, then advance AF until I get about all the noise I can stand. But otherwise I find this radio a joy on CW. Mine has the 1.8kHz and 500Hz filters the 500Hz filter is a bit lossy. I haven't had an issue though with just going by ear. I tried it recently, and I agree, it doesn't seem to help with zero beat. Zero beat: I've read that it really doesn't work. Since I pretty much only do CW, ALC is set all the way up, and I tweak just drive. The ALC knob is apparently to set max output power, while drive is for setting mic gain. But I feel a bit of grit in there, and it's not exactly fun to rebuild. I do like the analog PTO, and I've never noticed drift. Mine has some felt behind the knob as it's too loose otherwise. Maybe that's due to this control? It's not much of a bother other than during band change. Perhaps the resonate control is actually a good thing the radio is quite selective and sensitive-and quiet. Ok, a fourth: I'm afraid the band switches will wear out, which might brick an awesome radio. IMO, I have three gripes about the rig: the preselector (aka "resonate"), a PTO which needs periodic rebuilding, and a strange two-knob power setting. Everybody has their favorite rigs, I have several but this is the one I go to when I get on the air, and you cant go wrong picking one of these up on the used market. Yes, as previously mentioned it has that "pop" on very strong signals but that is easily overcome with use of the RF gain control as pointed out in the owners manual, and the PTO will probably have to be serviced once in awhile ( cleaned and greased ) although mine is still smooth after all these years. Ten Tec service as we knew it is gone but I think most anything is available from Mouser or another supplier. I've never had to do any repairs but looking inside it would be an easy task, most of the parts are generic and it doesn't seem that difficult as there is plenty of room inside to work.
#Ten tec pegasus 550 review full
I know there are much more sophisticated rigs on the market these days, but for a simple to operate, excellent performing rig these are hard to beat especially if you love CW with its low receiver noise and full break in capabilities. Its going strong, zero problems and I still use it all the time. I wrote a review of my newly acquired at the time Ten Tec Omni C 12 years ago and figured its time to do an update on it.
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