I own an Orion II among other radios. Of course it is upsetting to learn of
the and the production of that radio. In my case, I am more concerned about
repair ability in the future. But I think it is useful to realize that
situations like this are not unique to amateur radio. I have worked for many
years as a part-time board operator and announcer at the local public radio
station. Several months ago when I came in on a Sunday for my shift, I
discovered that the digital audio board had gone crazy. Lights were flashing
all over the place, there was no audio and it did not respond to any control
inputs. I called the chief engineer whose comment was "it's broke." And it
surely was. Subsequent investigation showed that the EEPROM's had blown.
Although new EEPROM's were available, the manufacturer swore that the coding
had been lost when the company was sold to another firm. Whether that was
true or merely a ploy to force stations to buy new audio boards is, in my
mind, an open question. The board was only 10 years old which is not
terribly old for broadcast equipment. As a result of all of this, the
station had to purchase a new board for $30,000. That never used to happen
in the tube days or the early analog days when the equipment was loaded with
discrete transistors. But the new stuff, which use a lot of proprietary
parts, are both a blessing and a curse. They are a blessing in the sense
that they work very well with less heat and smaller size. They are a curse
when something vital blows and the equipment becomes unrepairable because
the parts are no longer available. I really don't know how long amateur
equipment should be expected to last. I do know that I have a Yaesu FT 1000D
which is working just fine but which I understand is no longer easily
repairable because some of the parts have been discontinued. I also have an
icon 756 Pro which is also working quite well but which I understand cannot
be repaired if it's display screen goes bad because that part is no longer
available. I understand that a company does make a black and white display
which apparently works, but no one is making the color display. So it isn't
just TenTec.
What does upset me is that some companies appear to obsolete equipment for
primarily marketing purposes. I think Flax Radio may have done that. They
have ceased production of the 5000A in favor of the new 6500 - 6700 radios,
which aren't even widely available yet and are somewhat of an unknown
quantity. What is known is that they have substituted a radio which sold for
approximately 2700 to 4000 fully loaded for a new radio in the 4500 - 7000
range. It will be interesting to see how the market responds to that. As of
now, I certainly do not plan to get on that list.
Bruce-W8FU
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of John
Occhipinti
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 11:02 AM
To: John Henry
Cc: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion 2
"THE ORION II STILL LIVES ON", by K3UR
The Orion II still lives on, in spite of production ceasing, don't hold a
funeral for it yet, I say it's popularity will be increasing, as an owner of
this fine radio, there's nothing really to fear, it's time to keep our heads
up high, because TEN-TEC will always be here, many radios have come and
gone, as a far as production is concerned, keep operating your Orion II ,
don't act as if you've been burned, some seem that it's the end of the
world, I say do not fret or fear, it's just a matter of time, when a new
radio will appear, don't hold a funeral for it yet, don't give up whatever
you do, this radio is still one of the best, just keep active with your
Orion II.
John D. Occhipinti, K3UR
Net Control, TEN-TEC SSB Nets
John Henry <jhenry@tentec.com> wrote:
>Regarding obsolete parts, as Jim/Stan drafted in the announcement
>letter, the Orion 2 has components that are obsolete which we can no
>longer get in production qtys. We have sufficient quantity in house to
>handle repairs for failures related to these components for at least 8
>to 10 years. The number we have in house and the number of years we
>think that they will cover is based on the current failure rate of
>similar parts in the Orion. So we should be covered for Orion 2 repairs for
quite some time.
>
>Regarding firmware updates, well, discontinuing firmware updates for
>the Orion 2 is not in the plan. In fact, unlike our competitors,
>discontinuing firmware updates for it's predecessor, the Orion 565 is
>also not in the plan. As you will see soon, we have an update in the
>pipeline for the original Orion 565 firmware. We will soon release it
>to the beta testers, and as soon as they thrash it completely, and we
>have ironed out any issues, we will then release it to the public. Once
>we are through with that release, we will assess the requests for all
>of the other rigs, including the Orion 2. Schedule the software changes
>to work on next, and follow a similar release path. Let the beta
>testers thrash it, then again assess the next rig to work on. Including
>the Orion 2. I still want to address specifically the "Smeter affected
>by AGC or not" issue, and also work with experts on the ability of
>extremely fast impulse noise spikes loading up the AGC attack.
>Addressing Rob's concerns on the Orion 2 and our other rigs regarding this
same issue.
>
>There is no exact specific plan yet for a real high end Orion 3 type of
>a rig, but there is always "something" in the works for new rigs, and
>various other products. I cannot divulge yet what these are, but as I
>have always tried to tell this and other TEN-TEC
>reflectors/yahoogroups/etc.... TEN-TEC is working on new products,
>TEN-TEC is not sleeping. We are going to continue to address
>traditional user interface type rigs, and also going into open source
>where we can to let the rigs themselves take a life of their own, etc.
>We aren't sleeping, and yes, MANY in TEN-TEC read this reflector, and
others.
>
>Thanks, and 73,
>John Henry, KI4JPL
>TEN-TEC Engineering
>_______________________________________________
>TenTec mailing list
>TenTec@contesting.com
>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
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