TEN-TEC Announcement January 4, 2016

John -

I know that you may have, because of market pressure, to attempt to develop a receiver with 'list-leading' dynamic range. I suggest, though, that you continue to develop class-leading DSP as Ten-Tec AGC and noise-blanker performance has been superb and I think that the market is starting to realize that dynamic range isn't the only - and perhaps not the most important - key performance indicator.

 

Michael,

I completely agree. There are a lot of spec points to be reviewed and decisions to be made from the design standpoint and also from the end customers purchase standpoint, and hitting a mark on a list is just another spec point to look at and decide if it is important or not for the rig being defined. And sometimes, well, you can actually meet that spec point without much ado, e.g. look at the Argonaut VI. I think it ranks in around 10th-15th or so on that list, and guess what, it is not a $10k, or $5k rig, as almost all above it are. Or look at the KX3 and where it ended up at, 5th? Phenomenal for the price points of those rigs, proving that dynamic range is not a matter of a million dollar think tank design. (well, component wise)

As the list owner will tell you, the receiver quality of the top 10-15 arguably the top 20 are at a level where almost no one can tell a difference without measuring them in a lab environment. And, TEN-TEC does excel in the other qualities that make a receiver more appealing to listen to than MANY of the receivers higher up the list, e.g the AGC you referred to that was way ahead of it's time when DSP rigs were introduced by TEN-TEC, and then improved again later, and even now, improvements in many "sound" quality features are forthcoming.

But, as a transceiver manufacturer, one has to keep abreast of any and all indicators that customers use as a .... "I'm gonna get that one because it tops the.....".
So, where tricks can be made that help bring a unit up to or closer to the top, go for it.
If it is a HUGE major research effort, well, then there needs to be justification, just like in any spec point that is identified that will require a huge investment. What is the estimated sales volume when that spec point is met.

e.g. for the Argonaut VI, one spec point that we SORELY failed on, including all HF bands, in fact, had it not been for a bit of input before production start, we would have missed one more band also. argh.
So, a spec point that was sorely underestimated.
(uh, we do have a test unit Argonaut VI that covers all HF, so, maybe it will see the light of day when the Argonaut VI begins production again, time will tell, again, another spec point that is actually more important than that revered receiver list)
One point I need to make. I am NOT knocking the author of that or any other receiver performance ranking / list. They are all extremely appreciated, and are experts in the field and people should really listen to their presentations, and take ALL of their inputs to heart when selecting your next rig.

Thanks for the inputs, any and all are appreciated.

73, KI4JPL
John Henry

 

There are some products out there that do not provide a paper manual, only the PDF manual is provided via the website. I can see this as entirely beneficial and, in the long run, beneficial. A downloadable manual could also give the user a future benefit in that later versions, including "fixes" to the equipment and manual/s could be provided to the otherwise unknowing user. It would see that this is what should be done universally in the future except that some people using Ten-Tec equipment may not have access to computers for various reasons and some may not know how to enlarge the text to page size on the viewing screen or wish to print out the manual to their liking. but there may well be a fix for this, also.

When someone buys a product, the option may be offered that a printed copy of the manual can be obtained and added to the buyers' total price and this price can be consistent with the price/s offered for Online Manual Providers, in many cases. The comment could be that this option is offered in an effort to give the lowest price possible to the [potential] buyer. It could also give prospective buyers the option to buy a manual in the view that this may also be what convinces the buyer to get the equipment and I can visualize some who would do this in order to get the manual and consult it periodically in an effort to make a final decision. A price of, say for example, about $25 for a hard copy of the manual might be a wise venture for someone who is "almost there" buyer-wise if it is understood that the same price is offered to those who actually buy the equipment.

Take for example the way computer printers and computers themselves are sold today. There is no manual, there is a large, folded up step-by-step instruction sheet as to how to make the different connections to the printer/computer, some instructions on how to care for the printer/computer (damp, not wet, cloth only). At best there is a CD/DVD included with drivers and a form of maintenance manual with a "Hot Help" option for going to the manufacturers' website/s for further instructions and more detailed information. The advantage of this is that any information beyond that provided with the printer/computer is kept by the manufacturer/seller of the item/s and this information may be updated and improved and could even provide more updated drivers as the online facility recognizes the customers' equipment and the way it is set up. This can also be a way to give customers of Ten-Tec the option of downloading programs more up-to-date for the radios where they are based on a DSP foundation, for example, but I'd also build into the radio the option to "return to previous version" as they do with Microsoft on their computers when the updated version is not performing as expected where some other interfering program or utility has been installed as would be with computers where this "wrinkle" is not known by the known to the manufacturer, etc.

Some of the ideas I've given may seem an end-all to be-all but they are merely ideas. If they prompt anyone to see them as somewhat advantageous, I recommend that they be accept with the idea of "How can I/we make this better?" and I may give an example of this:

I worked for IBM's Engineering Development Laboratory where I with two others worked around the clock on two 8-1/2 X 11 printed circuit board layouts for the Selectric Composer for the Mag Card Selectric Typewriter. This was in during 1965-67. We got it done with the vertical-horizontal wire-wrapping concept but on printed circuit boards. It was done in about two months because they were using IBM's version of integrated circuits that were made in a square block with 16, 100-thousandsth grid pins, four on each side. One module was the FTX, for exampe, which meant Four Transistors. Other versions had RTL and DTL inputs. Overall, it worked and for its time, it worked well. Anyway, we finished the boards, put the robot machines together and it did the whole thing for the Selectric Composer including justification, etc. It was a trend-setter for it's time. MS Word, of course, dances circles around such device designs and we all know that Word has ooodles of options that are not even known to most users. But the significance of this is that after taking two months or so to lay out those boards, the final product was not what we did.

A team of three IBM engineers came down from Endicott and in one week made a few changes and the board design was retaped and by going from positive logic in some parts fo the logic to negative logic in others, they reduced the boards to only one board. However, back in the 1970's, Heath made an iambic keyer that did exactly what IBM did: They took the logic of another popular keyer that used 14 DIP IC's and by jumping from negative to positive logic, and vice versa, on parts of the board, the reduced the number of IC's to half.

Ideas are not usually the final concept. They are more often platforms for going into new areas and, at the same time, presenting open-minded people with even more ideas, some good and some that deserve to be further improved. Without this concept, much wider opportunities are sometimes not presented to the designers of modern equipment. Just as important, in some cases, are the trash cans in the engineering development area for those things that maybe the baby of some self-made, local or even actual genius consider their baby but could be much better. As a popular writer's guide advises: "Those things you think are novel and outstanding and even "cute" may only be so to you, the writer. Others, the readers, may not see it your way. Write for the Readers' benefit, not for yours." This is a parallel to development in other areas, also. None of us want to buy a Mystery Radio that has a surprise ending. Spelling out exactly and precisely what it is designed to do and show what others have done with it is key to selling more of them.

 

Very good links. Thanks. If I find another 505 and pick it up, I will find those websites very useful.

Thanks again.

 

You would do well to include a sentence containing such things as "NSA" and "Secret Service" in them so certain search engines will pick it out and alert potential users to the existence of such items. But other "services" could also be interested. Keep in mind, though, that most ideas along this line and the decisions to try out equipment and recommendations to buy usually come form some department or agency so the end user may well be unaware of such offerings until they actually receive them. The Goobermint is famous for this kind of activity. The only quick and easy way around this is for someone in the system to submit a suggestion which is often kept under wraps until some "long brain" in the organization can figure some scheme to make it look like it was his idea.

 

I had a Swan 100MX in years past and for its time, it was a real Honey. The boards were made in a first class way and most discrete components were available at the then mother of all parts houses: Radio Shack. What impressed me was that the Noise Blanker was on a separate receiver board, an RF noise blanker. Where most radios' noise blankers will cut out harsh ignition noise, the NB on my 100MX would also cut out QRN (static) except in the worst of atmospheric conditions.

Another radio I wish I had not let go. Probably, in my mind, the best offering that Swan gave us for size and capability. Filled to the lip with electronics, though. As long as it was working, .... you know the rest.

As for Ten-Tec, I still am looking into getting the high-level speech processor that provides dB's of effective gain that cuts through QRM and DX hot-spot activity. Missed a change to buy one offered on the qrz.com swap page but it was too hot to keep for the seller. I think some people set their clocks for 3AM to pick up the best goodies while everyone else is counting sheep or goats or something.

 

FYI, all new products (at least when TEN-TEC, RKR, RFC) did provide printed manuals.
The manuals were also kept on the website for one very important reason.
Prospective customers want to see how will the xxx function operate, they want to see what features are included, etc.
One reason this is also very important for TEN-TEC to have online is because TEN-TEC doesn't sell through distributors.
So this is one way for a customer to "see" a TEN-TEC rig.
We do have a lot of ambassadors in every state though that would be more than happy to show you their rig in their shack, some will let you borrow it for a while, and others will even mail one to you to play with.
And, given that TEN-TEC is not in dealers (to date), the best way to get word out about how good they are is by word of mouth, over the air, one owner to another, and of course advertising, but advertising usually doesn't make a sale to someone who has never had a TEN-TEC. Using one almost always makes a sale, (I wish, lol)
I know, I rambled around on different topics, but to me, these are all interrelated....

73, KI4JPL
John Henry

 

This is not directly a response to a "receiver performance ranking / list" but, instead, a comment that compares the FT-450 and the IC-718 that might be useful to remember regarding DSP...

The notch filter on the 450 is usable but only if the "insulting" heterodyne is constant and undrifting in frequency. The "lowly" 718, in contrast, has a much better notch filter and, in fact, can automatically lock onto three or more "offending" heterodynes, tracking them as they shift. As you tune across a carrier with the 718, you hear a momentary burp as the signal is sensed and then suppressed. Another problem with the 450 notch filter is that it has two stages of "notch wiindow" and then you get to play with a umpteen-turn pot to try to find the signal. It works fine if the offender is constant in strength and frequency but it may take up to a minute to do this and sometimes when you turn it off, you come to the conclusion that the benefits do not balance out the time and effort to set it up. And then, when you move to another frequency, for example, you have to go through a few button pushes to undo the 450 DSP settings. Compared to the 718, this is the bear in the room, to me. Therefore, I pretend I am back in the old HW-7/8 CW days and try to ignore the other signals rather than set up the notch filter on the 450. I begin to wonder if this was provided because it looked good in the advertisement piece...

My suggestion is then that with DSP, it would be an advantage to make it as easy to set up and operate as possible. Also, where it can be done automatically, then do it, even if it's left to the operator as an option. In fact, some DSP functions could be buried in the 450 menu (but I have not found them) but if they are placed in a menu for the Ten-Tec radios, then this is not a big problem with me because after setting up the menus on the 450 and 718, I rarely go into them, anymore. Usually it is to set the output power level or to evaluate a new mike but this is somewhere between seldom and rarely.

 

TEN-TEC has a LOT of contacts in SIGINT and a lot of other intelligence community areas, NSA, several 3LA, and not just in the US, several foreign ally governments, militaries, etc.
But sometimes you find a customer, just by listing a "did you know?" that did not know about TEN-TEC.

Not every potential customer of an RX331 and an RX340 and an RX400 know about TEN-TEC, but, one "potential customer" who had a need for such a receiver was made "purchasing customers" by overhearing a conversation by two people in line behind him ... Never know who is watching or listening....

Of course it does pay off to have TEN-TEC involved in a lot of behind the scenes government / commercial meetings where a LOT of the real customers discuss xxx and yyy. Meetings in rooms where no phones are allowed, searched before entry, etc. etc.

73, KI4JPL
John Henry

 

I don't know of a TEN-TEC transceiver that has items buried farther than one or two key presses at the most.
That is one major selling point of TEN-TEC products.
e.g. the Jupiter and the OMNI-VII, has only one menu button, and it is a scrollable list that may be 2 screens in length, everything else is accessible on the front panel buttons. Only items that you set once and forget went into it's menu.
The Eagle has a couple of "scroll through" menus of just 3 or 4 items that only pertain to the main button you see on the display.
The Orion(s) have several menus, but they are all accessed by hitting the appropriate button (one press), and then you are there.
That is one MAJOR selling point of TEN-TEC - ease of use, not menu after menu after menu deep, and no short tap vs long tap vs long long tap vs double tap.
Either you want to do something, or you don't, that simple.

73, KI4JPL
John Henry

 

I also love to download construction/assembly manuals because I often KNOW I want to buy something and want to get in mind beforehand how to put it together and align it. For me, this is a shortcut and gives me a deeper feeling for a wise decision about buying the item.

 

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I'm not sure if I posted it here, but... here it is again.... sorry if it is a duplicate.

Al Khan, founder of TEN-TEC, was going to college and the football coach had a need for a PA system where he could be on one field and the other part of the team could hear him on the other practice field. He enlisted Al Khan to create such a device.
Knute Rockne nicknamed it his "electrical voice"
That "naming" stuck with Al Khan, and when he founded his first company, he named it "Electro Voice". Back in 1930s.
In 1968, Al Khan created TEN-TEC.
Now, you know... the REST .... of the story

 

With the 450, you need to keep a copy of the manual, paper or PDF, handy if you want to get into the "inner workings." After a few journeys into the menus, though, you quickly learn that there are some you "might" use and others that once set up, you avoid.

With the 718, there is an initial, Turn-On menu that sets up the radio for most occasions and then is left alone. There is also button push menu access that once in the neighborhood, you can explore with the main tuning knob to your heart's content.

The 450 has many lurking advantages that make it nice like the DSP/Sel knob is also a push knob that changes some things like frequency selection. If you want to move 10-15 KHz (depending on Mode) at a step, then this is the knob to use. If you push it in first, it goes at a higher tuning step and makes it much easier to make frequency excursions. Any movement of the tuning knob, though, removes the DSP/Sel knob's priority and brings the radio back to normal.

There is an AGC button on the 450 that moves from slow to fast but I recently found that you could push it in for a couple of seconds and actually turn off the AGC. Then you turn the AF control to Max and use the RF Gain for overall volume control. This works better in some extreme situations.

What you tell me of the TEN-TEC menus is nice to hear. Just as some auto dealerships have salesmen and service department people that don't talk to each other, in some cases I think the Far Eastern providers have some very good minds designing radios but depend on feedback to make any major changes to design. As they say in engineering development: "The Anticipation Circuit has yet to be designed."

Have to go for a spell but..."I'll be back!"

 

There is a general rule, not always followed, that the preference is to "Buy American" for the Government. If an item is much more advantageous from an overseas source, then the buy can be justified.

The Buy American principle is a plus for American producers but you have to stay on top of it lest some slickster in the purchasing department got the Sweet Wink from a manufacturer's salesperson at a convention and does a document maneuver to get around the Buy American rule. I won't get into the way some "influence" can be pressed on a government employee that has the "until I'm caught" attitude. But you can challenge some government activities/decisions but make sure it is a quick and true movement that does not send anyone to jail or they will put you under the microscope.

Gone, again...