It is pretty sad to see that news that affirms some positive news looking forward for Ten Tec's future has been turned into a pissing match of miss-quotes and innuendo by the Ten Tec haters. We even have a few clowns who have always hated Ten Tec who are chiming in just to prove how much of an ass they can be. If you are an Icom fan, whatever happens to TT, or how ugly their radios are (in your estimation) is pure BS and vindictiveness. Go play with your imported radios, some of us support the US, whether it be Ten Tec, Elecraft or DZkits. Hams expect unlimited FREE telephone support? Really? Mike's post suggest that an owner will be allowed up to FIVE minutes of a tech's time. If you can't get a clue in five minutes, I feel sorry for you. 15 bucks more a hour for service, and everyone has their shorts in a wad. GIVE THEM A CHANCE to turn Ten Tec around. Dishtronics is the white knight. You guys with rigs in for service just might consider that if Mike hadn't stepped up you may have never seen your radios again. If you don't like Ten Tec, or have never owned one, move on. And I do own three Ten Tec rigs: Omni VI, Omni VI Plus and an Paragon II. They work flawlessly, and I will support future Ten Tec products that offer more than I currently enjoy. All the best to Mike Dishop. Pete K1ZJH
This is an open comments thread. As long as they are not personally offensive or intentionally offensive in content as to language and intent, then I am not offended. I can read what I like and skip what I do not want to read. The only way to avoid comments as a company (Ten-Tec) would be to advertise or inform the [ham] community by mail or by posting the advertisements in a traditionally-printed magazine or an online-type magazine that does not provide comments. Considering that this is "news" regarding Ten-Tec, it is how I take it, and seeing that the range of comments can serve a good purpose, as long as the comments are direct and relevant, because comments are people's personal views and opinions. Many of those views and opinions are from Ten-Tec past and present users and this makes them even more valuable. The useful/beneficial purpose is for Ten-Tec to get a view of how the company has been seen in the past and how hams would like for it to be in the future. This can be character-building, as far as Ten-Tec is concerned. Any perceived negativism need not be considered negative advertising as long as the company makes it clear that it will not only be a resurrected Ten-Tec but a better Ten-Tec in the long run. Taking comments as productive feedback can indeed be of great usefulness if accepted as "new growth information." Decisions made in the dark are the worst kind because it requires a period of evaluation and calculation before new decisions can be made. With a wide range of comments, a lot of unhappiness can be avoided if the comments are taken in the right way. And it does no harm to remember that some comments are not works of literary art but are from people who have enough education to pass an FCC exam and, in some cases, little more beyond that. What the commenters mean is sometimes more important than what is said. I prefer to keep in mind that we are all Radio Amateurs here. We can contribute in many ways to the growth and continuance of the hobby-art. What may seem negative can also be seen as a [hopefully] small place in the hobby that needs to be scratched, sometimes. Even the negative can be turned into a positive — in the long run.
Hey Steve K4YZ - No matter what it is the operator's responsibility to be legal. You can legally have a 10KW but still have to throttle it to 1.5kW PEP . There is hardly a full capability amp out there that cannot pump out more. Now if you want to go down the rabbit hole to never come out, what is PEP and how do we measure it? To truly do a PEP measurement is quite an exercise and still is only what the system produces, not what the end transmit power is (which is what the regulation speaks of). @STEVE K4YZ With the previous owner setting a liquidation price on products what any orders unfilled from the old stock are unfilled because the selling owner couldn't afford to produce new product at that price point. In other words any unfilled orders were unfilled because there never was going to be any product to fill them. The old owner's last sale pricing was unsustainable and was limited to stock on hand (they would stop taking orders when a product ran out). I don't know if anyone has come forward saying that they even have an unfilled order, but IMHO if they do their expectation could be that the selling owner purchase from Dishtronix product to sell to them at the order price. Remember Dishtronix never offered liquidation priced product, only RKR did and presumably they filled all their orders. As for bench rates the Dishtronix rate is neither high nor low. Professionally we have a lot of complex induction plate welders and seam welders, and the rate is in the middle of what competent tech charge for that work. You are certainly right it is high if the techs are rubes, but in a world where the geek who does software updates on a client's server is billed at $150/hour pimples and all, (and usually doorstep to doorstep, so you end up paying for their travel) the rate is in the pack. For legacy TenTec gear if other techs see an opportunity to sell this same service cheaper that the new TenTec, we should see a lot of offers by other techs to do service down the road. But of course we only saw a limited amount of that with RKR so maybe the aggregate marketplace is fine with this price level. I would grant you that Mike's announcement might be so straightforward as to offend, so to rephrase for those with sensitivities: TenTec under Dishtronix is unable to honor orders and prices made with RKR. You may chose to contact RKR about your order, but orders placed with RKR are not part of Dishtronix's TenTec Asset Acquisition. TenTec under Dishtronix has set a new schedule of prices, including an new minimum bench charge. Additionally a telephone service diagnostic service is offered on a rate much less costly than having a technician come to your shack or sending your gear in. From January 1st 2016 all new sales and service are handled by TenTec under Dishtronix at the new scheduled rates. It really is as simple as: TenTec(RKR and before) is Dead, Long Live TENTEC(Dishtronix) And it is also as simple as, if you don't like all this you could make Mike an offer for TenTec, you can of course not buy what he has to sell based on any reason you want, but you do yourself a disfavor imagining he works for you personally (he doesn't) and that picking an online feud has any merit (it doesn't). I was different branch, but when we had someone who got into a bad place we used to tell them to take it to the Chaplain and also we would go to the range or blow stuff up to blow off steam. After reading the rants being picked over close to nothing I kind of want to do both! I'd love to explain to you how a component purchase price is built up into a bill out rate. I know you would find it interesting and enlightening. All best & 73 Steve K9ZW
None of the negativism does anyone any good. So, let's move forward past this, and watch TEN-TEC, and see how well it does, or doesn't. I'm going to do what I can to stay positive, stay focused, and keep an eye on the prize of making TEN-TEC as successful as it was back in the days of 130+ employees. I already see signs internally that it is in more of a positive cash flow state than it has been in maybe 5 years or so, so, I think it is in good hands. Time will tell. OK, off topic, and a bit of fun.... A local Knoxville radio station has a skit they run once in a while, maybe weekly or two weeks or....., touting the "indestructible Mic". They beat the crap out of it, doing whatever they can think of to try to destroy it. They have driven over it in the parking lot. They have dragged it behind a car on the Interstate. And then, when done trying to destroy it, they plug it in, and it works. It just works, still great audio, sound, etc. Oh, what mic is it? An Electrovoice from the 60s. Funny For those of you that don't know, Al Khan's first company was Electrovoice, along with co-founder Ken Burroughs, from 1930? Al Khan went on later to found TEN-TEC in 1968. And, one last bit of trivia, where did the name Electroivoice come from? (I may be mistyping it, Electrovoice vs Electro Voice....) From a rather well known college football coach that Al Khan developed a rather new / innovative PA system for. The coach called it his "electrical voice". oh, who was it? Knute Rockne...... And that my friends, is the .... rest .... of the story. 73, KI4JPL John Henry
Nice shot at an end run, Steve. Part of the "sly smile, wink wink" to which I referred. It's not that big of deal at all. Now, if you want to change that to figuring ERP, Effective Radiated Power, well, that's some math I wouldn't want to play with once you determine transmitter output, cable losses, velocity factor, HAAT, any one of several different methods for determining antenna gain, f/b, s/n, etc etc etc. Good luck with that. Then there was no need to come out saying they wouldn't fulfill those orders then, was there? Are the TenTec bench techs actually getting those rates...?!?! Anything CLOSE to those rates? Even 25% of those rates? Actually, I know of two off the top of my head...Neither of them pimple-faced that I can attest to, and neither charging anywhere near the TenTec rates. I guess the fact that they actually own the gear they are working with figures significantly in that formula. And I dare say that the market will expand, albeit marginally, as TenTec gear tends to not suffer that significant of a failure rate. TenTec needs to put you on the payroll in their customer relations / public affairs section. "Mike" is the one taking this personally and making insinuations of law suits. Until he interjected his name and call, I hadn't shared a single word with him. Thank-You for that service, which ever branch it was and in whatever capacity you served. I'm sure you would. Back at ya..... Steve, K4YZ
Army - 8th Infantry (108th MI Bn) And likewise thank you for your service - it matters! 73 Steve K9ZW
What comes to mind here is the old Audio Amp analogy where some amps are advertised to have 120W, for example, but they are talking about Peak power and not Actual RMS power. In fact, the old 50L6 amplifier stage provides at most 5W and usually it is set up for about 2-3 Watts. But in a normal-sized living room, 3-5 Watts will drive you into the walls, unless your hearing has deteriorated from earbuds that are driven too hard. The underlying idea is that if you have an amp rated for higher power than needed and it's turned back to a normal range, the distortion also goes down significantly and often in proportion. For example, 5% distortion at 100W is five Watts of unwanted power. Make that 10W and the same distortion turns into 1/2W and this starts smelling good. My FT-450 and IC-718 are advertised and set up for 100W output but I know there are some who go into the workings and get 150W out of them. But, what does this do to the distortion not to mention the ratings of the antenna tuners they are hooked up to? I'd rather have an amp that is much higher rated and driven at a lower level if it means longer amplifier component life and lower operating distortion. SWR and related equipment failures also get into the mix when every ounce is pulled from an amplifier. The cost of 572B's and the limited number of replacement RF transistors are sometimes a significant factor, also. My four 572B's running at 1200W is a better situation even if I thought that they might go to the full-blown 1500W because of the trouble and cost of replacing the tubes. In like manner, I believe I can safely assume that if you ran a 10KW amp at one-tenth its rated output, it would last years longer. However, as witnessed on 7200 and 3810, and no doubt it happens on other frequencies, some "hams" seem to have no compunction in "turning up the juice" and acting like they are not real hams.
K4YZ said: ↑ Thank-You for that service, which ever branch it was and in whatever capacity you served. Adding a positive note to this forum is a great improvement. I also add my salute to both of you. Steve, meet an old ASA throwback.
Thank you for your service! Elint/Sigint or? I was in West Germany when the 108th MI Bn came out of some sort of ASA to CEWI thing - lucked out end in a distant CI Field Office and just kept away from the reorganization after reorganization they seemed to be into. With live threats to actual deal with staying out of the Battalion seem the most prudent and mission effect thing to do. Awesome folk the ASA folk. Check out the book Damian and Mongoose: How a U.S. Army Counterespionage Agent Infiltrated an International Spy Ring by Danny L. Williams - interesting read from that period of time that came out of groundwork folks I knew were involved with. Back to radios - as I hadn't already a start in Amateur Radio when I found myself stationed in W Germany, I wasn't able to get licensed until back stateside some years later. First real radio (one that I made lots of QSOs with) was a TenTec Pegasus, which I still have somewhere in storage having switched to a Jupiter when I decided I wanted to a lot more mobile. Quite like the current Omni-VII and the recent Orion-II - both I've a good amount of operating time with. Good gear and it is awesome to see a good outfit take on the TenTec line. 73 and thank you, Steve K9ZW
I was briefly trained as a Morse intercept operator because I maxed the CW test in Basic Training but was soon converted to a Spanish/Portuguese linguist when the Missile Crisis broke out. Wanted to be a glider pilot in Vietnam but they said they needed me more at HAFB. Ha... Was at the Big House for almost a year, too. And that's all I'm gonna tell ya about that... I'm sure you can grasp that by its meaty import. I had, after an HW-7 and HW-8, several models of the Powermite and then got an early Argonaut. Was a good radio but not much power. Then got the 50W power amp with leveling audio amp/power supply and liked that, also. Saw this arrangement for only $50 in a ham shop in Sacramento in the late 80's and I passed it by. So, OK — I'm stupid... Hope there are more Argonaut type radios in the future. Making plans to get an X1M Pro soon that is somewhat the same without all the knobs, etc. DSP-driven. That's what is going on in my 450 and 718 and once they are set up, all is fine and no more tweaking. Too bad the little radios are not so common anymore. Even the Western Radio transceiver had its place although by today's standards, it was a curiosity/oddity that needed special care to make it work. Pretty, though, very much like the Conar Twins.
Anyone else have a problem reading this color?? Not easy on my eyes at all . . . Must be getting old!!
John, I can't imagine anyone expecting to be able to call their car dealer service department on an unlimited basis with questions on how to repair their car themselves. What would the service department say?? "Why, bring it on in, sir, and we'd be happy to check it out for you." At $150/hour. And no one thinks that is unfair. I think people got used to getting the result of an unsustainable business model. That being said, though, I believe charging a little more palatable $75 fee for evaluation may make it more likely hams will send in their gear for evaluation, thus spurring more (profitable) service business. This is similar to what many auto repair shops do, so it is a fairly routine practice. Service isn't sexy, but a steady service business helps pay the bills. Now, I also know that there may be hams with TT gear in foreign locations for which it is impractical to ship back to the USA, and who would (should) be willing to pay the tech time for phone support to diagnose/repair themselves. Just like the computer companies do.
That is not actually what your temporary web site says. By my math, 60 minutes is one hour. Might want to make an edit there. As Red Green said, "Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together." Eric
