I've been following these various threads on
the Orion and 516, and now feel it is time to
put in my $.02 worth and give another perspective:
I personally hope that T-T continues through
with the 516. As a 99% QRP operator, I would
think seriously about purchasing this new rig.
And there are quite a few T-T owner/operators
that are also QRP folks (I recognize several
of the posters here as also on QRP-L), so
sufficient market is likely there. I would
certainly buy this radio before the Yaesu FT-817
(I am one who personally thinks VHF should not
be part of an HF radio), although I would
seriously consider the K2 instead.
However, I am not sure T-T can successfully
market this many rigs at once. If you look
back through their history, rarely have they
had this many models out, although a low,
mid-sized, and high-end model at once certainly makes sense and has been done
by them before.
A question is whether there would be
enough differentiation between the 516
and Jupiter to have them both survive.
I am sure that the IF-DSP "core" is largely
similar, so that likely works in their
advantage for having multiple rigs at once.
But it wouldn't surprise me that they drop
the 516 again (although it would disappoint
me).
The Orion sounds neat, but at $3300 I can't.
It is for me to cry in my own beer, but I for
one cannot afford that amount of money in this
hobby. Even $695 for the basic 516 w/o PS will
be stretching it for me and will take a big
blessing from my wife. But I guess there are
plenty of folks who can afford $1,000 and above
on radios. This is one major reason I've been
able to buy only used radios to this point --
I am just about at the point where I might
consider a used Corsair I/II or Delta II. A
used Omni (V or VI) is still way beyond my
means for some time yet (although I would buy
one of these before I would buy the Jupiter
or the new Orion).
Which brings me to my last point for the day:
"software defined" radios come 20 years from.
A beauty of TenTec radios has been their ability
to hold value AND be fully functional 20
(even 30) years after manuafacture. All of
us have witnessed the number of Argos,
Centuries, early Omni's and Triton that are
still on the air. The radios now being built,
heavily dependent on processors and now
software flashrom to even operate, have me
nervous. I doubt a manufacturer thinks that
far down the road, although the service dept.
of TenTec must certainly do so! I hope that
TenTec is keeping that in mind when choosing
processors, DSP chains, ROM chips, etc.,
for future servicing. We have all witnessed
the rate of change of computer manufacturing
and how hard it is to find chips, let
alone software, for older equipment. It is
possible that I might not buy the 516 for
just this very reason -- i.e., that I would
be able to operate it 20 years from now.
And I refuse to think of an amateur radio is
just a "consumer item", to be pitched when
broken or out of date -- IMHO it goes against
the grain of ARS.
Now back to your regular contributors...
Cheers/73from Iowa.
Kevin Anderson, K9IUA,
who operates a TenTec Argosy II, Century 22,
and a Scout (all used!) as his only radios.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kevin Anderson, K9IUA, Dubuque IA
k9iua@juno.com - Opinions all my own
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
|