That's why I added the date. I got $240 per month (married) when I was in my last year of Army life in 1965 and it was plenty, had money left over. But that was in 1965 and being frugal was more normal then than it is today. That minimum charge was not only for radios, it was also for any audio equipment including cassette tape recorders which were more numerous than radios at that time. Also, the checking charge for TVs in that shop (that did over $500K annually in sales of TVs to the state) was $22.50 and I'm betting that was more like what Ten-Tec needs, taking inflation into account. But most of the TVs serviced then were small like Sony 9-inchers, only a few big-screen Magnavox fire hazard floor models which had even higher "checking charges."
GS Robeson: You obviously have not read through this thread and the posts that John Henry and I have made. If you did, you would see that the only changes to the service policy has been a 15 dollar increase for the first hour with a one hour minimum charge. The previous owners were liquidating everything for whatever they could get. They booked orders at LESS than the material costs of the radio. Let me put it this way - I can't take $1200 of parts, assemble it, warrant it and sell it to you for $800. A charlatan is someone who tries to intentionally mislead someone intentionally and maliciously. We have repeatedly tried to apprise everyone about what has been happening at Ten Tec, particularly with radios that are in for service. I interpret your remark to be hostile, inflammatory, slanderous and libelous. Perhaps there is an attorney reading this thread who could weigh in on my options for suing you. You have crossed the line, and I am personally insulted, enough so to read your QRZ bio. I'm glad I did, because I will not say what I want to say to a man in a wheel chair. I can appreciate that after a career of uniformed service the need to overcompensate and appear tough after suffering a disability and that you are just looking for someone to fight. Having certain physical issues myself I understand the bitterness that can accompany it. So what is your malfunction? Why are you trying to provoke an altercation? Do you have a radio on order or in for service? How have I harmed you, and what can I do to make it right? Rather than to respond to you in kind, I would instead offer you the opportunity to retract your unjust and undeserved commentary. I'm also going to say a prayer for you that you might find some peace and rest a little easier. S. Dishop
Feeding trolls usually doesn't work out to your advantage. You'll be a lot more serene if you just ignore them and go about your business. The results will speak for themselves.
N8WFF: Thank you for your candor & the dialog you have initiated here. I am currently off the air due to assignment away from my family. My intention is to buy a high end rig sometime in the next four years. I buy with the intent that each purchase will be my main rig for at least 5 years. For now, when I get home for a visit, my current rigs more than meet my needs. So I continue to research, try out what others at FD or elsewhere will let me operate, etc. while I gather info to guide that buying decision when it's finally time to execute. An Orion III or even IV might be just what I'm looking for when the time comes. I did come close to buying an Orion II, but it went out of production. I wish you success and I'll be keeping a close eye on Ten Tec as I am sure many others will. 73 and thanks for your commitment to bring back this ham radio icon company! Jim N3AWS
An opinion from an attorney that "just happened" to be reading this thread? That would be worth exactly what was paid for it. This is an internet site, and as such, nothing written here should ever be taken seriously... Once upon a time, I too thought that I wanted a Ten Tec radio. This came from years of reading the amateur radio press, even way before I got a license. I kept reading how great the radios were and how good the service was etc, etc, etc... Real life since then has convinced me otherwise. I have stated my reasons before in other threads. All I can say is to wish TT good luck with their future, they're going to need it...
I'm thinking I would spend my time keeping a great ham radio company great and not worry about folks who enjoy causing chaos. The end product will always overcome such chaos. ..............Bob <------------- also a lawyer who just happened to read this thread.
Thats got to be Australian dollars. And this Comment does not exactly get my motor running Q: What do I do if you decide to quit manufacturing the amplifier because not enough people buy them or if you go out of business?� Where do I get spare parts? A: This is a risk you take when you buy ANY product,
Hi Mike, Thanks for providing information to us here as well as on the web site. I appreciate you taking the leadership role that is needed to get the work done. I’m looking forward to seeing the Omni-7+ when it comes out. 73, Paul AD5SX
Mike and John, Really sorry about the flak you two are taking here. "Kill the Messenger" seems to prevail. I think you two are RIGHT ON and will bring my favorite Ham manufacturer back as a viable offering! Please keep the faith my brothers!
I also hope that Ten-Tec makes a turnaround and is more like what the company was and with what was offered in the past. I'd love to see some "nostalgic" offerings with Powermite kits, for example, which would not be too expensive to kit up and buy if there were enough people willing to buy QRP kits and see them work. I remember using QRP radio in a motel in Maryland when there for a job and coiled up the excess coax in the floor and "suppressed" the SWR but pressing the coax into the carpet and this apparently was capacitively coupling the coax to the cement floor "ground" below. I made a half-dozen contacts this way. The antenna was about 30-ft of hookup wire strung around the room. 40M was a kick in those days (early 1970's).
I'm a recently retired ER/Shock-Trauma Nurse, so I am well aware of what's BILLED for most surgeries. What's BILLED, and what's actually LEGITIMATE are two different things. The loco temens ER Docs I worked with usually clocked anywhere from $150 to $300 an hour. The agency they worked for billed SIGNIFICANTLY more than what the docs received. The main reason for those 6-digit surgical bills are for grossly inflated consumables...For example, a basic IV line (the tubing that goes from the bag to the patient) costs the hospital about $3.75 to $15.00 in bulk, depending on the manufacturer. (blood product tubing was considerably more) The cost billed to the patient is usually $75 to $300, and that's JUST for the tubing. And those ubiquitous plastic urinals that each male patient gets on admission? Unit cost is generally $0.75 (yep...seventy five CENTS) to $3.00 each in bulk to the hospital. HMA and Columbia hospitals were billing them to the patient at $17.50 as of 2010. You can actually buy a durable (heavy weight plastic with a lockable lid) style from "Sporty's Pilot Shop" for under $10 each. My next door neighbor recently had a trip to the ER for a broken leg which, due to her age and other health issues, required surgical repair rather than a "simple" setting and casting. Initial hospital costs were just over $22K. Since the insurance was taking a coon's age to pay it, they sent her a "one time offer" to settle the bill for just a little over $9K if she paid cash within 90 days. Many hospital conglomerates hope you'll take them up on this offer, then NOT notice when the insurance DOES pay. You'll NOT get a refund unless you catch them doing it and request the refund in writing, and then only if done within a certain time limit (courtesy of certain laws forced onto the books by a certain First Lady when she was her husband's "Health Care Czar" in the mid 90's...She's now trying to be president. Imagine what she'll do for us if she succeeds...) So yes, I have a VERY specific and intimate awareness of what health care costs are, how they are determined, and what part of that is reasonable cost and what part is "paying for someone else's deadbeat healthcare needs by hijacking the money from those who do pay." Nes pas? Steve, K4YZ
I hope they can too. I just think the cancelling of outstanding orders and refusal to Honor the contracts of the previous owners was callous and insulting. Imagine the GOOD press they would have gotten if they'd said "We're going to need to increase these prices to fix the balance sheets, but we'll Honor outstanding purchase orders and contracts already executed." There can't have been THAT many out there already that making good on them would have hurt THAT much. But look at the flak they have generated. Someone at Dishtronix screwed the pooch. 73 Steve, K4YZ
No doubt they couldn't do that. But as I said earlier, if Dishtronix wasn't aware of the condition of the company when they put their signature on the line, then that should have fallen YOUR shoulders, not the consumers who made the purchases in good faith. And what is the "GS" before my last name supposed to represent? I'm not a governmental employee, so I do not hold a "GS" rating. If you choose to not use my first name (Steve or Steven, as you prefer), then "Mr." is the typically accepted salutation. If, on the otherhand, it was an attempt to refer to my retired military grade, then you truly failed. The appropriate abbreviation for Gunnery Sergeant is "GySgt". "Gunny" is the familial reference, but is usually only appropriate between the person addressed and fellow Marines or paygrade peers of the other services. And while the other services may refer to any person in an E-5 or higher grade as "Sergeant" or "Sarge", the Marine Corps does not. You may find it simpler to just call me "Steve". Thank-you, Funk and Wagnalls. First of all, who's in a wheelchair? Nothing in my "bio" says "wheelchair". Since when is exercising one's freedom of speech "overcompensating" or "bitterness"? Really? I hate pulling out one of this generation's really over-used and tired adjectives, but it sounds as though you're just butthurt and intolerant of negative criticism. You made a decision. It's not universally popular. Also, since you're insinuating that you're considering "suing" me for my comments herein, you might get your definitions correct. Slander is a verbally spoken statement, whereas libel is written. Since we're dealing with an online forum, your allegation would be "libelous" if it were adjudicated so in a court of law. To be slanderous, I'd need to get up on a soapbox and speak it out loud in a public forum. And "what is my malfunction"...?!?! My "malfunction" is seeing the Amateur community being told, in no uncertain terms, that one more legacy manufacturer is caught up in corporate wrangling, especially when it tarnishes it's good name. Imagine, for a moment, the great respect and dignity that you would have reaped if you'd said "We'll honor outstanding orders, but after these have cleared, prices will be going up". You didn't, and here we are, debating the wisdom of that choice. As for what "harm" you may have caused me to suffer, it's nothing more than my sense of propriety. Nothing I could recover in a court of law, and certainly no more than YOU'D recover for "suing" for comments expressed in an open Amateur Radio discussion forum infamously known for its tirades and tribulations. I don't think our judicial system has sank that low yet, but in this day of "political correctness" and "safe zones" established so sensitive ears don't have to run the risk of hearing something that "offends" them, you never know. And I closing, may I suggest that your offer of a prayer, as considerate as it was, be redirected to your own needs? It certainly seems your plate is a lot fuller than mine, and an imposition on the diety of your choice ought to be put to more effective and productive use. Your mileage may vary. 73 Steve, K4YZ
Yeah...I went ahead and read yours too, Mike. And I'm wondering...You mentioned a 'legal limit (2.4KW)' linear amplifier called the Prometheus in your bio. Unless I misinterpreted part 97, that's an ILLEGAL amplifier, to wit: §97.313 Transmitter power standards. (a) An amateur station must use the minimum transmitter power necessary to carry out the desired communications. (b) No station may transmit with a transmitter power exceeding 1.5 kW PEP. Or is this just one of those "Sly grin, wink wink" kinda things where you tell us the amplifier is CAPABLE of 2.4KW, it's just up to the operator to ensure that you don't exceed that limit...?!?! Again referring to your own "bio", Mr. Dishop, you state that you go by "Mike" (I assume your middle name since that initial appears in the header), yet you SIGN your posts "S. Dishop". The point I am making in both references is that you seem keen to say one thing, but do something else. (I saved a screen shot of your QRZ bio for future reference, should you seem keen to pursue that lawsuit you were insinuating earlier). 73 Steve, K4YZ
It's pretty clear who has skin in the game concerning Ten-Tec's future, and who does not. Also, concerning defamation, actionable or not, I know it when I see it, and it's low. Says more about the defamer, than the defamed, ultimately. I hope Mike D. Will continue to provide useful info on his company's page, and with the user groups. That's where I'll be looking for it, as there's gotten to be a bit too much QRM on this thread. Hoping all the best for Ten-Tec and it's new owner . . Sam
