Paragon offers a new look at 30-year-old technology


Saturday, March 24, 2018, 2 a.m. —
I’ve been the owner of a 30-year-old Ten Tec Paragon that I picked up on eBay last fall, and finally today have had the chance to put in on the air.

I earned my Novice ticket not long prior to the Paragon’s release in 1987. At the time, I was reading all the magazines I could, building projects, and trying to get a decent CW signal on the air and also study to upgrade to Technician.

Most nights I listed to the guys talk — from evening to the wee hours — on 3898 kHz.

For me, the main draw on 3898 was the Trader’s Net. Of course, this was long before the advent of the internet, and traders nets were ideal for finding gear for sale outside the hamfest circuit. In fact, I often transcribed the 3898 Traders Nets listings and tracked the rigs and other gear for sale.

I couldn’t afford most of the gear I heard listed at the time, but listening gave me a great education of the going prices for relatively late model HF gear. I also go to know the Traders Net “regulars.”

There were several different “shifts” of “regulars” who populated 3898, and I enjoyed getting to know the many personalities. Several of them, as part of their hobby, enjoyed trying the latest gear as it hit the market. It was here that I first heard talk of the soon-to-be released Ten-Tec Paragon.

Several of the 3898 regulars bought and ran Paragons. They sounded great, and of course, and excelled on CW. The Paragon became of the many HF rigs over the past 30 years that I wanted to own someday.

This particular Paragon sold dirt cheap — the seller listed it as working but with issues. The issue? It was one of those common the Paragon — the memory battery leaking onto the logic board, and the leakage from the battery on the logic board.

The leakage didn’t make the rig inoperable, but it did make certain functions inoperable — the rig’s memories, ability to set the time and other logic board functions. When you turn the rig on, it reverts to 10.000 MHz, it does not remember the previous mode and frequency.

Having never operated a Ten-Tec, I’m still learning the controls, but boy howdy, the receiver is hot, even after 30-plus years. Due to the short power cord and the rig’s location from my regular shack supply, I’m powering the rig from a 10 amp switcher, which is enough to give me a good 40 watts out on CW. And 40 Watts is enough for now.

I haven’t made a contact yet, but will in the next couple of days.

To make room for the rig at the operating position, I had to remove one of my favorite Amateur receivers — the Allied Radio AX-190.

The Allied Radio / Realistic AX-190 was a Japanese solid-state ham band-only receiver with 1 kHz dial resolution. And I have to tell you, its a pretty good receiver. Its companion receiver was the general coverage shortwave receiver, the SX-190.

Currently, I own very nice examples of both receivers. However, I haven’t used them regularly for half a dozen years. To me, they are handsome designs that work very well.

But my plan is to sell both the AX-190 and SX-190 to make room at the operating position for the Ten-Tec Paragon and my Drake TR-7.

Part of what I’m also working on is finding some storage space for more of my bugs. I bought a heavy-duty shelf unit on eBay recently that I will use in the basement for long-term storage for my keys and related collectibles.

Enough for tonight … have a great weekend!

73 de KY4Z SK …. dit dit …