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Reviews For: Ten Tec 1254 General Coverage Receiver Kit

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Ten Tec 1254 General Coverage Receiver Kit
Reviews: 23MSRP: 195.00
Description:
A compact PLL-tuned general-coverage receiver that tunes 100khz to 30mhz, AM or SSB. 15 memories and you build it yourself.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.tentec.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00233.5
W2RBA Rating: 2002-07-07
Good radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've seen one put together by a former neighbor and think they are fine little kits. KL0XK is disappointed that his didn't sell -- but for many (and most hams, I would suspect) the real fun comes from putting a kit together, which would not be the case if you bought it from someone already assembled. And the tuning method he complains about: sure, it would be nice if all radios could be like most ham gear, but the idea that you tune in 5 Khz and use a "clarifier" to tune in the station if need be, well, that's been pretty common on most SWL/general coverage radios for quite a while now. All in all I'd say this is a good little radio for beginning and intermediate SWLs and by putting it together, you hone whatever skills are required. Are there better SWL receivers available? You bet! Do they cost much more? Yup! Are they kits? No way. Ten-Tec fills a gap.
KL7KN Rating: 2002-07-07
Good - but could be better Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Put this together as a fun kit, Ten Tec makes nice kits, so it was something to do in the winter. The tuning is goofy for SSb, 2.5 KHz steps & then use "Clarifier". Not so fun. On AM for SWL seems OK. If I had to make a choice an ATS 909 would be better than this kit. FWIW I am an USAF "Master" ground radio maintenance tech and ham for over 20yrs, so I'm sure it went together the right way...
Not as sensitive as I would have expected from a Ten Tec rig, but as they say, your mileage will vary. Tried to sell the one I have on the net and got no takers - says a lot there as well.
KG7RS Rating: 2001-07-14
A good little receiver and a great kit building experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having built several transceiver kits, three different solid-state RF power amp designs and a few other homebrew gadgets, I decided I wanted to build a nice little receiver. The Ten Tec 1254 has fit the bill for me.
First of all, it's hard to find a nicer bunch of folks to deal with than the Ten-Tec crew. I ran into some trouble on a 1315 transceiver I built some time back, and the crew rendered friendly assistance quickly. There were, however, no problems experienced with building the 1254. It worked well during each progress testing step, and provided the all-important sense of accomplishment upon completion.
The 1254 is a PLL-controlled circuit tuning 100khz to 30mhz in a very compact little set. Although, not feature-rich, it sports just enough features to make it a competent SWL receiver, while not breaking the bank. Tuning is accomplished in 5khz steps in the AM mode, and 2.5khz steps in SSB. The bandwidth between steps is covered by a "Clarifier" control, something likely familiar with most SWL's. 15-memories with mode are supported. A "Fast" tuning rate may be switched in to whiz across the spectrum quickly. Frequency read-out is on a 6-digit LED display. The unit includes both a built-in 3" speaker and a headphone jack. The circuit is an honest-to-goodness dual-conversion superhet with a 45mhz and 455khz IF. While there is no input RF stage, there is a bandpass filter before the mixer. The circuit employs two separate shielded VCO's which are quite stable. There is a Murata ceramic filter employed at the 455khz IF providing about 4khz bandwidth on either mode.
How's the performance? Quite good for a receiver in the price range. It easily out-performs any of the common portable receivers I have ever tried. It's an excellent SWL rig, providing good audio fidelity, sensitivity and selectivity. SSB performance in the amateur bands is comfortable, although the 4khz bandwidth is a bit wide in crowded band conditions. On CW, an outboard audio or DSP filter will add the needed selectivity here. This would be a neat receiver to use alongside your favorite three-transistor crystal-controlled transmitter! The receiver is exceptionally quiet. Listening to SSB signals against a quiet background is a pleasure. Two noteworthy shortcomings: First, the tuning steps are encoded into the PIC-series firmware chip. I would prefer Ten-Tec provide an additional 1khz tuning step on the SSB mode (c'mon Ten-Tec...easy improvement that will put this receiver in a whole new class). Although the clarifier control covers well between steps, SSB tuning is a bit awkward. Secondly, the receiver suffers from display multiplexing noise if used with anything other than a coaxially-fed outdoor antenna. The manual clearly states to use an antenna fed with coaxial cable and at least 15-feet from the receiver. This is accurate. For those of us that like to use a simple wire plugged right into the back of the set, forget it. 40-60 feet of wire dipole fed in the center with 50-ohm coax does perform nicely though...no noise observed.
Building should not present any problems to those who have practiced proper soldering and is willing to follow the detailed directions to the letter. There is quite a few parts on the main circuit board and the entire construction required about 12 hours for me, an experienced but meticulous builder! I'd suggest this as a first kit, but would advise to take one's time and enjoy the building process. The finished product is compact, attractively designed and performs quite well. For those SWL's interested in building their own receiver, this product comes highly recommended. It's no toy gadget you build for fun and goof around with occassionally. It's a serious receiver that will perform as well or better than most portables while providing the tremendous pride of something you built yourself.

73 and happy listening,
John, KG7RS