>My guest op was blown away with the efficency,receiver
>selectivity,and the user friendliness of the Omni 6 in a contest
>environment. It all comes down the Stereo mentality, that if it
has alot of
>Knobs it must be better.
>
>73, Chris KB3A
>
>
Chris (et al),
That's my feeling exactly.
It's a paradigm thing. People are so oriented (no pun intended)
to looking first at the Japanese rigs and all the bells and
whistles, they don't even include Ten-Tec in their thinking.
Just the other day, one of the movers and shakers on the local
ham club reflector commented about and waxed poetically on the
IC-706 (is that the one with 160m-2m or 160m-70cm?). The club is
mostly VHF/UHF oriented, with a sprinkling of OT's on HF (me,
included). It's amazing to watch their enthusiasm about added
bells and whistles on the little handhelds and other radios. I
look at my old Ten-Tec handhelds and think about the bells and
whistles on it that I DON'T use (scan, memory storage/recall, TT
pad, and a couple others).
It's a tactile thing. Japanese rigs are probably more dense than
Ten-Tec radios that it concerns them that the Ten-Tec cannot
stand up to the use/(abuse?). The design of their cases, the
colors they use all imply ruggedness in the face of adversity. I
guess hams like that...look at the war surplus boat anchors we
used to buy years ago. We grew up wanting/demanding that radios
be able to survive and thrive in tanks/landing
craft/destroyers/bombers, etc. I think that still pervades the
hobby.
I also think the immediate sense people get of the logic and
simplicity of the front panel layout tells them it's a 'simple'
radio and not really worth further, serious investigation. If it
ain't complex, it's not worth the time.
Last year (I had to miss this year's) at Texas DX Society Field
Day, we used my Omni VI (pre-Plus by about 2 months) at the CW
station. Every operator who sat down in front of it and operated
for a few or many minutes raved about the radio. They all,
without exception, liked the radio. They were also amazed that
they could be on the same band with the SSB station further up
the hill and not be getting wiped out by them (however, the same
couldn't be said for the SSB station...their Japanese radio
wasn't so forgiving).
We even had a couple of the hardcore SSB folks come down and sit
down with the Omni, albeit on CW (there are certain things we in
the CW station will not do..besides, I didn't bring the mic).
They liked it very much.
So, it's simply, I think, a matter of (1) exposure--get the ops
in front of the radio and let them see firsthand what it's like,
(2) shifting their paradigm regarding radio choices/biases when
they are making their purchasing decisions--Japanese radios are
not the ONLY radios to be considered in a purchase; Ten-Tec
deserves serious consideration, and (3) we Omni VI owners need to
continue making nuisances of ourselves at club meetings, etc.,
regarding the superiority of our radio's to the others'. If we
can do (3) (mine's better than yours') to the degree that the
other ops press for (1) (oh yeah? well let me try it), then (2)
(hey! You're right) will be taken care of.
and finally.....
an Omni VI+ as a second radio.....that's my dream....or, one of
them
Way to go, Chris.
73,
dale, kg5u
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