Serial Number Information
What's in a serial number?
Recently, two slightly different theories had been put forth regarding exactly what information is encoded into the Ten-Tec serial number. When the thread resurfaced for the third time on the Jupiter538 Yahoo! Group, I contacted Ten-Tec for some clarification. The table below summarizes the information, and Ten-Tec's entire reply is reproduced below for your reference.
My thanks go to Scott Robbins W4PA of Ten-Tec for allowing me to post this information for your use.
| Position | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| Digits BEFORE the letter | Pre-1992:Week or month of manufacture, either correct or reversed depending on model and year. "72" could be either 27th week or 2nd month (ignore the 7.)Post-1992:Month of manufacture. Could be represented as single digit.NOTE:Dates indicate when the radio was scheduled to be manufactured, not when it actually was ... the actual date of manufacture could be one or two months later. | |
| Letter | Separator. "C" from 2000 on. "A", "B" or "H" before. | |
| First digit AFTER the letter | Production run number within the month (or week in early SN's) | |
| Next three digits | Sequence number within the production run. | |
| Last digit | Last digit of year of manufacture. | |
| So that means... | ||
| 12C10480 means: | Scheduled to be manufactured December 2000, Run 1, #048, but may have been built a month or two later. | |
Update: April 13, 2004 (Courtesy Scott Robbbins N4PA, of Ten-Tec)
I looked at the page you referenced. The description listed as "old e-mail" is approximately/mostly correct. We switched from consecutive serial numbers to date encoded ones in 1988. Some rigs used both if they were in production then, like the Paragon, Corsair II and Titan 425 amplifier. Consecutive numbers were earlier, then encoded ones after.
The early encoded serial numbers read something like 72A10829, the 72 being the week or month of the year of manufacture either correct or reversed. 72 could be 27th week. It could also be February with the "7" being equivalent to "0". 40 would be either 40th week or 4th month - it depended on what model and what year it was built in the late 80's or early 90's. We stopped the week or reversed week or month or reversed month mixed designations around 1992 and went to only the month. So serial numbers would read then 01A10823 or 1A10823, which would mean January.
So 01C10823, for a Jupiter is January 2003, production run 1 for the month (the 1 after the C), 082 is the unit number. C is a separator. Almost everything in the late 80's to 2000 used "A" for the separator but there were occasional exceptions (some rigs used "B" - and when the Hercules II went to 2000 we used "H" for them). We started using "C" as the separator in 2000 and we did that to separate decade.
Here's the rub, though, just because the serial number reads 01C10823 doesn't mean it was January 2003 when built. It was either January 2003 or near-term later, but never earlier. The serial number actually refers to when the radio was *scheduled* to be built, but it may not have actually happened then for any number of reasons. But to keep track of it internally, the best way is to use serial numbers for the scheduled run to keep everything flowing smoothly regardless of the date it actually gets built. An example of this were first production run Orion radios. All the serial numbers for the first run are 09Cxxxx2. We scheduled them to be built in Sept 2002, but delays took us out to March 2003 before they were actually built and shipped. Most common is to build them when they are scheduled to be built, or perhaps within one or two months after they were scheduled.
73
Scott Robbins
W4PA