lundi 18 septembre 2023

Ten-Tec Founder Jack Edward Burchfield K4JU Silent Key

Jack Burchfield K4JU, 88, last surviving founder of Ten Tec, passed away on 15 July 2023

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Jack began his career at Electro-Voice in Buchanan as an acoustic engineer. In the late 1960s, with Albert Kahn and Tom Mitchell, he founded Ten-Tec, a manufacturer of amateur radio equipment in Sevierville, Tennessee. Jack designed the initial product line and most of the radio equipment that followed. His radios were on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History for many years. He was an amateur radio enthusiast and was inducted into the Amateur Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.

The TEN-TEC name was coined from Tennessee Technology. The company was founded in 1968 with the goal of designing and manufacturing amateur radio equipment. The first products were simple, low cost QRP (low power) transceivers. The more advancedArgonautQRP series was introduced in the early 1970's, staying in the product line with successive models until the early 1980's. TEN-TEC pioneered solid state, no-tune 100 watt H.F. transceivers with the Triton II and IV in the mid 1970's. These early designs spawned development of 16 different H.F. amateur rigs over the next twenty years. TEN-TEC has produced linear amps for over 15 years. Most receiver hobbyists knowTEN-TEC through their model RX-10 or RX-325 models. However, their most successful receiver is the RX-330A commercial, DSP model enjoying wide use in commercial and government markets. TENTEC currently offers two affordable "regen" shortwave radio kits. Expanding several times, TEN-TEC currently has a 40,000 square foot plant with 100 employees. They are active in three businesses today. The largest division is the combined amateur, commercial and government electronics division. TEN-TEC has a tool and die division making molds for the die casting and plastic injection field. The third division makes standard and custom sheet metal for other manufacturers.