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write your own review of the Ten-Tec Jupiter.
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KG4GLI
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 13, 2011 10:50
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Great Rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I purchased my second hand, but in like new condition. I got the Black\Blue model and it is much better the the first Grey\Green model I previously owned. Don't get me wrong the Gray model was a good rig, but I just like the build of the lasted model better. Great receiver and excellent transmit audio. I owned alot of rigs and I have to say the new Jupiter is a very good rig. If you can find one at the reasonable price go for it. 39 DSP settings and 18 Transmit settings. Very good Basic Rig.
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W0FEN
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 9, 2011 11:35
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Grest Rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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About 2 years ago I purchased the Jupiter for the Club station. It has been a great radio. It is very easy to use and the menu interface is intuitive. We had been using an old IC-720A. The replacement process took a little adjusting since the TTJ does not have an ALC input for an Amplifier. We run an Alpha at the Club Station and it was easily overdriven. Turning back the power output where we had never had to before was a little confusing for some operators. Other than this -which is a cockpit problem- this is an excellent radio. I would buy it again. We got one of the first versions that would copy CW and have used it a few times. The Station is mostly used for SSB Net Control operation.
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KG9H
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 21, 2011 10:16
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What a fantastic CW radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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For the past several years, I found that I have found myself moving away from CW because I couldn't listen to CW for hours on end like I used to. In fact the howel that I heard in the receivers drove me away after a half an hour. This was mostly using 250Hz filters, sometimes with 500Hz filters.
Enter the Jupiter.
I purchased this radio because a friend has one and recommended it highly.
I have never been more happy with a CW receiver, now listening all the time to CW with the 150Hz filter on. Yes... I said 150Hz!!! The receive CW signal reminds me of my Triton 4 from days long ago. (For the new hams that is another Ten Tec radio from the 70's) The howel that I heard in the others is not evident at all in the Jupiter! I spend most of my time is on 40 and 30 meters and the noise makes it hard to hear signals but this radio tunes it all out and the signals pop from the speaker!! I would recommend this in a minute to others on CW, have not had time to check it out on SSB yet, will have to do that in a few weeks. (Oh, I beleive that Ten Tec still offers a 30 day money back if you don't like it. How easy is that to place this radio front and center on your desk??) See you on 40 de Frank KG9H
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W8CFS
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Rating: 5/5
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May 22, 2011 15:24
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excellent value
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had several of the Jupiters. They have impreved them from the very early ones. I also have two of the Omni 7 radios. I just keep coming back to the Jupiters because of their ease of operation and that ten tec quite reciever. Very Happy.
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WA6MOW
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 8, 2011 14:01
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A solid performer.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This is a "big" radio by todays standards. I only work cw so my opinion pertains to that mode. These reviews are simply a matter of opinion and vary greatly as to what an operator is comparing a particular rig to. I have owned at least 90% of all the rigs made within the last 30 years so I have a pretty good feel as to how a rig should perform in real world day to day operating.
What I like about the Jupiter:
A simple menu, very refreshing. A very quiet sweet sounding receiver that allows use for hours on end without fatigue. A nice display. Good selectivity. The controls are well placed and easy to use. If you have big monkey fingers this rig is for you! My rig has the factory installed antenna tuner and I must say it is one of the best internal tuners that I have ever used. It outperforms my Z11Pro. I also have received very positive comments on its keying and that it is very pleasant to copy.
What I don't like; No memory keyer, not a deal breaker but would a nice feature.
The over all construction seems on the cheap side compared to the Icom and Kenwood radios. Band changing is a little funky but once logged into the rigs memory system it is no big deal to change bands quickly.
If you want to buy American and not spend a ton of money, a used Jupiter is good way to go. There are hundreds in use and they appear to be a very reliable radio. TenTec is famous for great customer support which is an important factor in purchasing a radio. Emails to their service department are responded to very quickly.
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KF4MKP
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 26, 2011 06:24
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Fantastic Rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I read ALL of the Jupiter reviews on eHAM before deciding on the purchase of this transceiver. I had wanted to get the Kenwood TS-2000 multi-bander, but after considerable thought about what I really enjoyed in Amateur Radio (CW, PSK31, SSB) I couldn't justify having 6m, 2m, 70cm...I didn't use them much on the FT-857 I just sold.
Back to the Jupiter. I was in East Tennessee on business and took the opportunity to go over to Sevierville and visit Ten-Tec.
I have to say that Stan (in sales) was very helpful. They let me test all the rigs they sell in their dedicated visitors ham shack. Even though this is a review on the Jupiter, I have to say how impressed I was with the new Eagle they recently introduced. (Ten-Tec's pictures and ads in the magazines just don't do them justice, they are really nice)
I bought the radio w/o the tuner, but did buy the tuner kit. As soon as I unpacked the rig, I went to work installing the tuner kit, it was very easy as the instructions were clear. (only about 4 wires to solder and make a plug-in connection).
I had a random-length wire in the attic for SWL (HF homebrew antenna is hanging on the tower but not spread out yet). Using the LDG 4:1 balun with the wire I hooked up the MFJ antenna analyizer and bang, by pure chance it was resonant on 20m and had a near 50-ohm match. A few minutes up and down the band and I couldn't belive how great the receiver was. The bandwith filters are excellent.
I set up my buddipole for 20m and went to trying out CW, the Jupiter is impressive with the traditional Ten-Tec full break-in QSK, no mechanical relays clicking (like on the yaesu I sold, which drove me nuts after a while).
I went through all the rigs features. Operating SPLIT is easy to configure.
No direct frequency entry, although a remote keypad is available as an option. This doesn't bother me as the STEP function has numerous choices and will get you where you want to go fairly quickly.
I had read the mixed reviews about the SWEEP function, but it does the job and I found myself using it even more without much trouble or inconvienence.
I like the MONitor feature, this gives me a good example of what my transmit audio sounds like as well as how much punch the speech processor is giving me.
I believe that for the money spent, this rig equals the receive and transmit performance of much more expensive tranceivers.
I know there are some negative "cosmetic" reviews of this rig, but looks do not equal function or performance. Don't buy a radio because it looks good, buy it because of it's performance. You'll be pleased with owning any Ten-Tec rig.
The next review I write will be on Pegasus Emulation operation and how the rig performs on PSK-31.
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WB0FDJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 25, 2011 21:46
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A great radio.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Update: 9 months into this investment and I think I made a excellent choice. I've been doing a lot of A/B testing against by old Omni V and other rigs I have and it's holding its own against them. It is a great CW machine. I run a lot of digital, especially JT65a and it gets the job done nicely. Theres just enough bells and whistles to get you through most anything, without so much that it gets in the way. Everything you need for operating is right in front of you (i.e. a knob) and the set and forget stuff is in a very easy to understand menu. I've had zero problems with this radio. Yeah it's not exactly a "contest radio" for the hard core but the average Joe would find a lot to like here. I highly recommend it. If you get one join the Yahoo group. Earlier review follows.
When I went looking for a "full power" HF rig (everything else in my shack is QRP) I looked at all the of major offerings. I have nothing against any of the big three: my two favorite commercially built QRP rigs are the FT-817 and IC-703 plus. You won't hear from me about how Ten Tec is better than XYZ brand, but when I pared my list down to what I actually needed the rig to do, and eliminated all the extra stuff the list grew shorter and the Jupiter began to stand out. My "needs" were something adequate for SSB because I use it less than 1% of the time, something very good on CW with full breakin and enough of the extras to enhance basic operating i.e RIT/XIT, PBT, the usual suspects..... I like a radio with near bulletproof finals. Something simple with maybe one main menu. Well...thats the Jupiter. Competent, solid yet simple design, can be upgraded since its essentially software defined.
With Ten Tec's 30 day return policy no one ought to be reporting "I'm stuck with the radio" and that is one reason I decided to buy it. The first 29 days I put it through a lot of use and decided to definitely keep it. Like many of the others who have reviewed it, I thought seriously about one of Ten Tec's more elegant radios but realized that, for what I need, this is more than enough. If you are looking for something more middle of the road but still very competent, you might want to take a look at this one. If you are contester or do something more specialized we both know that this wouldn't be you first choice. If you are average well rounded ham that wants to do general operating this might just be the ticket.
I've also just decided to get into the digi modes so got Ten Tec's USB sound card that takes some of the drama and mystery out of getting one up and running on PSK31 and other digital offerings.
I've paired it with fldigi (the computer in my shack is Linux based) and use flrig to control some of the basic features, i.e. volume, frequency, filtering, mode choice, etc. It's "enough" without getting in the way of the simplicity I was seeking.
It's a good rig. Does what Ten Tec said it would. It's likely my last "ready made" rig. My dealings with Ten Tec (first rig from them was a new Argo 509) have been outstanding.
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W8ERV
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 3, 2010 15:38
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What Took Me So Long???
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Once upon a time, I owned a Yaesu FT 1000MP Mark V. This is among the nicest rigs I've seen, but what an incredibly difficult radio to fully learn! Nothing against Yaesu, because I like em, but the knobs and buttons made it a LOT to absord, so I decided to sell it.
Enter the older, green-faced Ten Tec Jupiter 538AT. "Madame Jupae" was being sold on eBay right after I sold the Yaesu. The odd thing is that I had just been talking to a fellow Ham (and Jupiter owner) about which one I should go for. Without hesitation, he told me that he would buy the Ten Tec. After answering some of my questions, he also informed me that, since Ten Tec is located in the US, they will actually talk to you on the phone if you have a problem.....what a novel idea!
So I bought it. I love it and it's got the latest firmware, with all the bells and whistles. Maybe 6mos to a year from now, I will come back and give you my experienced review, but for now, I am VERY impressed with it. From the ease of use, to the built in filtering,.....you name it.
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W3LZK
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 29, 2010 18:33
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Getting used to a great rig!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Greetings, I am the second owner of a Ten Tec Jupiter. This is one of the "older" ones, before the display went from green to blue and the cabinet from gray to black. I however, like the gray/green combination, I personally think the green screen is much easier on the eyes, maybe not quite as harsh as the blue screen appears to be. As far as the cabinet goes........it doesn't really affect the radios performance. I would like to note however that the views expressed here are mine and mine only. I mean no disrespect, nor am I implying that one version is better than the other, I am simply making observations on the Jupiter that I have.
I have only had this about 3 maybe 4 weeks now, I am still in I guess you would call it a learning phase, where in I learn all that I need to know about this rig and its many features. My other rig/s include an Icom 756 Pro III, and a Kenwood TS-480HX that is my mobile rig. I would say without any hesitation that the Jupiter's receiver is every bit as sensitive as my Pro III's is.
Having my Pro III and its IF based DSP made it easy for me to adjust to the Jupiter, but that is about as far as I will go. For the most part everything about the Jupiter is well laid out, the bandwidth selector and the PBT and the multi switch are right there in your face, its hard to miss them. My only caveat with this rig, and its just a minor thing that takes nothing from the overall appearance/operation of the rig, tht is you have to push a button for additional functions of the multi switch.
I am still getting used to the bandwidth and PBT selections. I've got it down, no problems on that end, its just different than my Pro III. I keep making comparisons to my Pro III, but that is the only rig I have that can come even close to the functions of the Jupiter. On my Pro, I have the bandwidth/filter set on 2100, 2400, sometimes 2800, and as narrow as 1900, the pass band tune on my Pro I don't have to fidle with that much...on either rig. The AN and NR are incredible, I thought the NR on my Pro III was good, on the Jupiter it is excellent! Can't forget about the attenuator, very nice indeed, my Pro II will only go to 18dB whereas the Jupiter will give you 20dB attenuation....wow. Yea, yea, its the simple things that get ne excited, what can I say.
Haven't used the sweep much, a few time, it can be a useful tool if you need it or use it a lot. Everything else is pretty much same old same old, you push the button you want for say......oh, mic gain or RF, any of those, you push the button and turn the multi control and you get your desired results. I must say though, the one thing that gave me a fit at first was the step key. Ya press the step button and turn th multi switch right? No! Ya gotta press the buttons that are marked for AF, RF, PBT, Mic,etc. to get your desired step increase/decrease. Don't know why, but that threw me, spent the better part of a couple of hours figuring that one out. But once the data was entered into the old brain pan, then everything was good. My Jupiter does not have the internal antenna tuner so I can't comment on that function. Fortunately all my antennas are resonate, my amp a 600 watt solid state from Ameritron, so life is good.
This is just a preliminary review, I'll post again in 6 months or so, by then I'll have gotten used to a great American made rig.....who knows, I may get rid of my Pro III and get another Ten Tec, something a little more than the Jupiter.
73 de Mark
W3LZK
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W8JBV
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 8, 2010 03:26
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Great Rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had this rig over 2 years now and can't say anything bad about it . Great Rx and TX. I have added a Ameco preamp in front and Ameritrom ALS 600 after it. low noise on Rx and very EZ to use a no brainer.Very good DSP and AN. You can only know just how great this rig is if you buy one you don't have to spend big bucks to get a great radio.Best rig for the money.
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