The official public announcement from Ten-Tec can be found here. Note the statement: "Ten Tec is not out of business. We are developing new products and will introduce them if and when we can obtain components."
Maybe a Group ( 10-12 ) effort spread across the USA to make it happen. Surely we have enough Smart Guys who could perform this Service & make a Buck or Two on the side.
I have many hundreds of hours restoring and working on Ten Tec equipment. I believe it would cost more than a fancy new unit to do the shipping and repair of something like a transceiver. Recently, something happened to the final amplifier in my Triton IV/540. I don't know how many hours and dollars I've spent for obsolete parts to repair it. I'm far from a novice. I worked as an RF design engineer for over 40 years. I have good test equipment. I suspect the problem is from parasitics. Applying power in graduated stages vaporizes about $150 worth of transistors faster than I can capture on a good 4-channel digital storage scope and other equipment. I'm awaiting an assembled 100 watt Chinese amplifier with heatsink to replace the original amp. Other issues are things like trying to find replacement rotary switches, software, and much more. In recent years it has become almost impossible to find custom made mechanical/molded parts without trying to find skeletons. Skeletons have also become extremely rare and expensive. I love all my Ten Tec products, but ... Ken W4KJG
Unfortunately working on Boat Anchors is not a real profitable endeavor. For many people it's a labor of love and difficult to justify the cost. By the time you purchase the parts and expend the labor you usually have more 'in it' than the set is worth. WQ4G
Nobody is ever going out of business, even if they actually are. Except for Oriental rug dealers, who are always going out of business, even though they aren’t.
The answer is right here on the page, ten tec - Search (bing.com) Under the big red "Permanently Closed" banner, click on the website button and see where it takes you. There is no component shortage, it's just more foot dragging.
From the Ten-Tec website online store: "Attention Ten Tec Customers. Effective June 18, 2022, the online store is closed until we finish moving inventory to Ohio. There is no one in Tennessee and there is no support available whatsoever at this time. We should be open again at the end of summer. Thank you. Mike President Ten Tec / Dishtronix / Alpha RF Systems" They state they should be open at the end of summer, but summer of what year? Tom K5TEE
When SGC rolled over, going toes up - the remnants of the company kept the site alive for folks to access to product manuals. Even that is gone now - and no surprise. TENTEC - or at least what is left of the outfit is doing the same - Product Documentation Archives - (tentec.com) at least - for now. If you have a TENTEC rig, you should download all the technical data while you still can.
I wonder how much longer that website will be up there. If you look at it, it kind of gives the impression that they are a going concern, but then again, there is nothing listed as "for sale" so it's like a zombie web site.
So Tom, have you noticed that Alpha is also MIA? They are keeping very quiet about not having anything to sell, but yell really loud when anyone questions if they are still in business. I don't understand why the owner doesn't just come clean and tell people that Ten Tec and Alpha are dead in the water if that is the case.
