Doug said:
"I was told (no names) that tentec didn't read the reflectors as they got tired
of all the whiners who could never be made happy."
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Actually I really don't think much is lost if Ten-Tec has stopped reading
comments from their Orion customers. It certainly seems that they have stopped
trying to fix the remaining problems with the Orion - like losing the main
receive audio if you transmit with the subreceiver in the AM mode - and others.
Anyone in business who thinks "their customers are whining" really should be
looking for work in ....... I don't know where.
It has been quite a learning experience, seeing how Elecraft interacts with
their customers on their list-server. Not only do they answer questions and
provide understanding, they listen to issues and sometimes change the firmware
in near real-time to resolve issues/requirements.
I recently communicated with Ten-Tec Service, via e-mail, about an issue with
my Orion - winding up in a state where neither the main receiver or transmitter
would work but the subreceiver worked just fine. After I described the problem
I received the following comment via e-mail:
"Sounds like it needs to be sent for repair. This is too complex a problem to
solve by remote control."
I sent the Service department a note saying that I was working on a theory that
the problem may have been caused by a software program polling the Orion for
frequency data - I was using that to drive the interface for a STeppIR antenna.
I didn't hear anything from them about whether they had seen that before or
not. I turned the polling off and have not seen the problem for 10 days - the
problem had been occurring after 5 to 8 hours of operation. And although I am
running the latest firmware, this issue apparently was not resolved by the
software rewrite. Of course, the faster scalar processor in the Orion II may
obviate such issues. I certainly have learned that how you use the Orion
definitely affects what problems/issues you see, or don't see, with the radio.
Straight CW, using just the main receiver, seems to use very little of the
Orion's capabilities.
Engineering and servicing a software defined radio is very different from a
radio built in hardware. Many manufacturers have had issues with their software
defined radios in the last couple of years and I don't think Ten-Tec is any
exception. There have been a lot of companies/industries where the "critical
success factors" changed dramatically with a significant change in technology.
What was true about a company's performance with the old technology is often
not true about their capabilities with new technology.
Merle Bone - W0EWM
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