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Reviews For: The Radiosmith

Category: Amateur Radio Equipment Repair

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Review Summary For : The Radiosmith
Reviews: 81MSRP:
Description:
Expert repairs and restoration for all brands (Collins, Drake, Icom, Kenwood, Ten-Tec, Yaesu, and Others) of vintage and modern ham radio equipment including linear amplifiers, station accessories, OEM power supplies and Astron power supplies by a degreed Electrical Engineer who has been a licensed ham (20 WPM Extra Class) for over 38 years. For more information, contact The Radiosmith via email at: radiosmith@tampabay.rr.com
Product is in production
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
55815
K4BSK Rating: 2020-12-14
Omni 7 Issue Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Sent my OMNI VII to Steve. He found some bad components on the DC input board. He ordered parts as necessary to replace. I was grateful, not only for Steve's ability to diagnose issues, but also the steps he took to keep me informed. Quick turn around. I feel like I have a new friend.
K5MBX Rating: 2020-11-14
The Best! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Steve, rebuilt my Collins KWM-1 power supply which was a mess. He made it like new and brought it up to factory specs. Beautiful work. He had to put a lot of time into the restoration because it had been grossly modified. His price was fair and he actually cut me some slick on the labor.
I certainly will use him again and highly recommend his.
Charlie Hugg, K5MBX
KU7I Rating: 2020-11-06
Fast service, great comms Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Sent my two Yaesu YS-60 watt meters to have the burned out backlights replaced. I would have done it myself but these bulbs are incredibly difficult to get to so I sent them to him. They are both back. I have one as a backup on the shelf. I will definitely use The Radiosmith for any future service needs. Does not get any smoother or easier and he is fast to respond to emails.
WB0ZPW Rating: 2020-10-11
GREAT SERVICE Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Sent in a Ten Tec Jupiter which had "died" on me. Steve had it up and running, and back to me VERY quickly. Can't give him a high enough rating except to say if you need your radio repaired, THIS is the fellow you want doing it!!!
KI4OXD Rating: 2020-10-06
Excellent Work! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Sent my Omni VI Option 2 off to Steve a few weeks back. It was off frequency and putting out a 75 watt carrier on LSB.

He was able to track the frequency issue to a corrupt EPROM on the logic board that was causing the PLL frequency to be off by 150Hz. He was able to reprogram that, fix the carrier issue, realign the radio and bring it back to factory specs.

It's working better than it did after I sent it to Ten-Tec in 2008.

Highly recommend. I'll be talking to him about repairing a Jupiter before too long.
NZ2V Rating: 2020-08-13
Superlative Performance Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I just got my Ten-Tec Century 21 model 574 back from Radiosmith. It has been a good rig, but it's 1974 birthday was showing everywhere in the performance envelope. In short, she was a bit tired. Steve told me that he could return the rig to factory specs and that is exactly what he did. I am stunned at the increase in performance of the little rig, and pleased with the quality of work. It is essentially a brand new radio. Steve did the work in a timely fashion and his rates were reasonable. What more can you ask for?
WS4K Rating: 2020-07-12
Ten Tec repair? Steve is THE GO TO PERSON! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned a Ten Tec Corsair original model since I bought it new in 1982. Because I lived in an antenna free neighborhood, it saw little use over the last 20 years. I have retired and moved to a neighborhood zoned agricultural so I could once again install a tower. I thought I should get the Corsair checked and aligned before I plugged it back in. I have read many good things about Steve, The Radiosmith.

Steve has excellent communication back and forth. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge on Ten Tec! I would venture he knows more than the current factory technicians. He owns several Ten Tec's himself. He still believes in them for CW. That is the same reason I have not purchased a newer SDR. Steve burned in my radio and discovered numerous issues, including problems with the display and the fact it was only putting out 50 watts. He made recommendations for the repairs. Once finished he offered one more repair, at my option. That was a repair of the PTO and he gave an updated estimate for that. All his fees were EXCEPTIONALLY reasonable.

In less than 2 weeks, I received back a Corsair that works better than it did in 1982. It is perfect. I just can't complement Steve enough. Do not have any doubts about his service. Just make an appointment with him and make your radio better than new too. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.
Eric WS4K
K4ZNC Rating: 2020-07-07
Excellent service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
7/7/2020
I sent Steve my FT101E to install a CW filter and VFO stabilizer. Filter went in easy, VFO stabilizer not so much! A nightmare install, yet Steve persisted to determine that the bosrd was defective. He fixed the board using an additional 2 hours to fix someone elses mistake. Steve keeps in touch with regular updates on progress and any problems. Highly recommend Steve and he gets all my other equipment for repair. Rates are very fair.
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I sent Steve my TenTec Scout which was not transmitting, but received OK. He determined that the unit did transmit and that there might be something wrong with my installation. Yet he went ahead and did a full service of this little jewel that I use exclusively on 40 meter CW. I later determined that I had an intermittent cable problem. Great customer service; Steve kept me informed of his work progress.

I have been hoping to find an alternative to TenTec service center, and Steve is it! I am recalling my Omni VII from TenTec repair (busted display) so I can send it to The Radiosmith.
KO1C Rating: 2020-07-06
Corsair II Back On The Air Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Steve did a wonderful job repairing my Ten Tec Corsair II.

He realigned it and repaired/rebuilt the PTO. Other's had attempted to rebuild the PTO but they did it incorrectly and some components were broken.

After the warmup period, the radio is VERY stable. I get great reports with the stock Ten Tec hand mic.

Steve communicated often during the repair process, I appreciate that because I could make approvals when he was about to repair something.

David, KO1C
KU4RP Rating: 2020-07-06
Tentec Corsair II Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had a problem and emailed Steve. I emailed me right back with a "fix". He was right on the spot. The man knows his stuff and is great to deal with.