I have owned my Orion 1 for about three years now. My K3 experience is
so far limited although I have another one coming shortly for a lengthy
review. At that point I'll address the performance issues between the
two designs. I find the physical ergonomics of the Orion's larger design
more to my personal liking due to the K3's very close control
positioning to the main tuning knob, etc. On the other hand I am not
likely to transport my Orion around for portable operations either due
to its bulk.
Product evolution wise... I find my Orion has reached about 98% of what
it is capable of doing... and it does all that very, very well. I don't
think there is ever a 100% perfect design... so I am just hoping for 1%
more. :)
Customer support differences? T-T went through a very aggressive support
cycle for the Orion's first year, at which time they had an internal
change in software engineers which somewhat changed the nature of future
firmware development for the Orion. This changeover created some user
community contention with two camps evolving from that point... those
who claim that the original version 1.x firmware is superior and those
who moved comfortable to the final versions of the 2.x firmware (I am in
the later case, although it took me a while). The Orion II uses only the
version 2.x firmware. Anyway, Orion firmware releases halted about one
year ago just before T-T introduced the Omni-VII. Once the Omni-VII's
firmware reached a reasonable level of 'stability' and 'functionality'
T-T moved their programming resources to a high-end receiver product
that is very important to their 'commercial' product line. With a recent
firmware release for the Omni-VII it appears that the receiver project
may have reached a point where Ten-Tec can move developers to existing
products. It is not clear (a sad communication's issue) whether there
will be any future firmware improvement support for the Orion but as I
expect there will be support for the Orion II... at least one more Orion
2.x firmware release should be coming (I am not starting a rumor... just
an opinion).
Elecraft has evolved a strong user community with very active Elecraft
participation in reflectors. This has been mention numerous times (I
read the reflectors daily). T-T has maintained great 'hardware' support
for almost everything they have released over that past 40 years (there
are some exceptions... the original Hercules, Delta II... I am
nitpicking here). And there accessibility via the phone is excellent...
call them and they will connect you to an engineer (not software) or a
tech who will spend what ever amount of time you require to get you
though a technical hardware issue... and on occasion a firmware
operational issue as well. My personal experience with email support has
been divided over those issues as well. I've kept every email I have
ever received from them and while most are very supportive and
informative... far too many discounted my inquiries as 'unrecognized'
issues therefore unique to my experience and not reduplicateable by
them. I certainly did not feel supported in those instances, especially
since I had access to three Orions that demonstrated the same behavior.
Sometimes these issues I had expressed were eventually discovered and
corrected... a few have not.
I have seen Ten-Tec put into place a number of internet-based solutions
with their new website and support pages... but these new tools have not
evolved with content... merely languish with a lack of it.
Sometimes my irritation level reaches a high point and I write off
another 'what's going on' email. To their credit I always receive a
courteous reply and on occasion I have received an 'eye opening'
suggestion that was greatly appreciated. Frankly, I like the folks at
Ten-Tec a lot. I have been using their equipment for over 40 years...
and even though my Orion has at times irritated the heck out of me (for
what it could do but wasn't )... it is still there.. the center of my
station.... and is likely to remain so until it becomes functionally
unreliable.
I don't see my personal issue with Ten-Tec as one of equipment design or
quality but rather in how I have been handled... or perhaps
unintentionally mishandled... due to their somewhat guarded procedures
regarding communications with customers. I chalk it up to their having a
pretty small development and support team, especially where
software/firmware development is concerned. I know that T-T will not
release their source code to the public as the intellectual property
value of that code is too important to their product line uniqueness. I
also know that it is unlikely for T-T to increase staff size unless
future sales growth provides the financial resources required. So for
now it seems what we experience as Orion owners varies from user to
user. Comparing T-T with Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, or Alinco? I'll take T-T
support any day. Comparing with Elecraft.... I'll let you know when I
have more time to play with the K3.
73,
Jerry, KG6TT
KG6TT
Ralph Jerald "Jerry" Volpe
ARRL Member, VE
FISTS Member 12304
Solano County
CM88xg
788 Chestnut Drive
Fairfield, CA 94533
USA
kg6tt@arrl.net
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