Ten-Tec
| Ten-Tec | |
|---|---|
| Type | Subsidiary of Dishtronix (since 2016) |
| Founded | 1968, Sevierville, Tennessee |
| Founders | Al Kahn, K4FW, and Jack Burchfield, K4JU, among others |
| Headquarters | Dayton, Ohio (Sevierville, Tennessee, until 2022) |
| Amateur radio | |
| Known for | American-made HF transceivers; QRP rigs and kits; receivers |
| Well-known models | Argonaut, Triton, Omni, Corsair, Paragon, Orion, Eagle |
| Amplifiers | Titan, Hercules |
| Status | Brand continued by Dishtronix; new SDR transceiver announced but not confirmed shipping as of October 2026 |
| Today | |
Ten-Tec (styled TEN-TEC) is an American maker of amateur radio equipment, founded in 1968 in Sevierville, Tennessee. For more than four decades it built HF transceivers, receivers, amplifiers and kits in Tennessee, and many of its radios, from the small Argonaut QRP rigs to the Orion, were designed with CW operators in mind. After a series of ownership changes in the 2010s, the brand belongs to Dishtronix, an Ohio electronics firm, which in 2025 announced a new software-defined transceiver.
History
Ten-Tec was founded in 1968 by Al Kahn, K4FW, and Jack Burchfield, K4JU, who had both been connected with the Electro-Voice company; some accounts also name a third founder, Tom Mitchell. Kahn bought land in Sevierville and put up the company's first building there. Burchfield, an engineer with a strong interest in CW, designed the first product line and many of the radios that followed, and he led the company as president for many years. He died in 2023 at the age of 88.
Ten-Tec's first products, advertised in QST in 1969, were small circuit modules and the Power-Mite PM-1, a low-power transceiver built from them. The first Argonaut followed in 1971. Over the next decades the company added full-power transceivers, antenna tuners, amplifiers and kits, and it made receivers and other equipment for commercial and government users as well as for hams.
The company changed hands several times in the 2010s. In January 2014 Burchfield, who was preparing to retire, handed day-to-day control to the company's president, Jim Wharton, NO4A. In May 2014 Ten-Tec and the Colorado amplifier maker Alpha Amplifiers announced a merger under the name RF Concepts. The following year RKR Designs acquired the Ten-Tec and Alpha assets, and the remaining stock was sold off at reduced prices. In January 2016 Dishtronix, an electronics design and manufacturing firm and maker of solid-state amplifiers, then based in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and owned by Mike Dishop, N8WFF, bought Ten-Tec's assets. Production continued in Sevierville, where the company resumed building the RX-340 and RX-331 receivers and an updated Omni VII, the Omni VII+.
In February 2022 Ten-Tec halted its Sevierville operations, citing severe shortages of electronic components, and stopped accepting repairs. Its inventory was moved to Ohio later that year, and the company now works from a facility in Dayton.
Amateur radio products
- QRP radios and kits. The Argonaut line of low-power transceivers ran from the original Argonaut of 1971 through the Argonaut V and VI. Later small radios included the Rebel and Patriot, open-source QRP transceivers whose software owners could modify, and the company sold kits for builders.
- HF transceivers. The Triton, Omni, Corsair and Paragon lines served home stations from the 1970s through the 1990s. The Orion and Orion II of the 2000s were the company's high-end models, and the Omni VII and Eagle followed.
- Amplifiers and accessories. Ten-Tec made the Titan, a vacuum-tube legal-limit amplifier, and the solid-state Hercules, as well as antenna tuners and other station equipment.
- Receivers. The RX-340 and RX-331 are communications receivers designed for commercial and government use.
In the hobby today
In 2025 Ten-Tec showed the Model 594 Phoenix, a new software-defined HF transceiver to be built in Dayton, at the Dayton Hamvention. The company took deposits for a first production batch of 100 radios, and the target date for shipping moved from late 2025 into 2026. Ten-Tec exhibited again at Hamvention in May 2026. As of October 2026 the company's website still listed the Phoenix as "coming soon."
Many older Ten-Tec radios remain in use, and owners share repair and modification information through online user groups.