Thanks for the update Mike and I wish you every success!
As far as the Eagle production, I believe it would be a tough sell at
$1699. Every indication is that transceiver architecture is moving quickly
to direct digital sampling (e.g. IC-7300) and I'd suggest pointing your
design resources in that direction or risk missing the hf xcvr boat
entirely. It is very possible Ten-Tec could leverage their previous
development in dsp firmware (Orion, Omni7, Eagle) to accelerate the design
cycle, which is apparently what Icom did with the IC-7300.
73, Barry N1EU
On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 1:36 PM, Mike Dishop via TenTec <
tentec@contesting.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings Friends and Fellow Ten Tec Enthusiasts,
>
> Iwanted to update you on what is happening in Sevierville. The
> SmokeyMountains are literally fogged in with smoke in some places as
> Tennessee hasmany wild fires burning. I was there two weeks ago and have
> never experiencedanything like it. Driving down Jellico Mountain on I75 it
> became literally IFRconditions with near zero visibility from the smoke.
> Assome of you know Ten Tec has been occupying office condominium space
> behind thesite of the former factory were now a Wal-Mart Express is
> sitting. Thissite is not appropriate for our needs. Starting last week,
> weare moving out of this location into a more industrial friendly
> space.Unfortunately this location is not zoned for commercial walk in
> traffic, so thedays of someone showing up at the factory door unfortunately
> have come toan end. After an entire year of searching for any possible
> opportunity tomove, this is all we have been able to come up
> with. Commercial realestate is completely out of control in
> Sevierville county because of thetourist industry, and unless we have about
> a half million dollars toinvest in the factory location you can just forget
> about it. Ten Tec is"too small" to receive any incentive, tax breaks or
> help from the localso called "Economic Development" office. My opinion is
> thatthe State and local government of Tennessee is about as economically
> unfriendlyto a small business or start up business as is possible. For
> example, inother counties in TN the standard is to create 10 new jobs to
> get anyincentive. Sevier County arbitrarily requires 25 jobs. By
> mycalculations, 25 jobs would be around a million dollar pay roll if the
> jobsaveraged 15 dollars an hour to the employee with a 25% more overhead to
> theemployer. Any business having that kind of payroll better have about
> 10million in gross receipts which would put it at DOUBLE the IRS definition
> of asmall business and QUADRUPLE the IRS definition of a microbusiness, so
> it isobvious that the economic development offices do not have any
> mandatewhatsoever to support or help ANY small business reason the scale of
> anindividual person's finances. The fact that Ten Tec must
> havecontributed millions of tax dollars to the local economy over the last
> 50 yearsmeans nothing. In many states, these economic development offices
> arepartially funded by the local Chamber of Commerce. It is my opinion
> theseoffices function as intelligence gathering units to forewarn their
> members ofany possible competitor entering their area. If small business is
> truly theeconomic growth engine of the United States it is apparent to me
> why we havegrowth problems if we depend on these organizations to help us
> as individuals.It seems ironic that the company named TEN TEC for Tennessee
> Technologies can'tget any assistance at all in Tennessee considering the
> state's advertising oftheir "Tennessee Technology Initiative". If you are
> wondering why I wrote all thisabove it is to head off the endless string of
> expert recommendation that Icontact TVA and the local economic
> development. I’ve done it and nobody is going to help Ten Tec in the State
> of Tennessee.
> Toget back on track, I stated above we are moving the remainder of this
> month.You all know what that means. Service will be slow this month.
> Robertdecided not to have you send in radios this month so we wouldn't have
> to movethem. There is no cause for alarm or speculation. Service
> willcontinue just as soon as we are moved. I hear and read all kinds of
> gossip andcomplaints and this and that about our service, and none of it
> even close toaccurate. We have serviced hundreds of radios this year and
> have a bunch ofhappy customers. You will see in the reflector some guy
> complaining orsaying he is worried and then five people saying everything
> was fine. I'mso sick of it. Really it is so frustrating, especially when
> some of youcall or write me up in Ohio about your twenty year old radio. I
> can'thelp you. I'm not in Tennessee. The people there run things and do
> their jobessentially under Boyd's supervision. I don't want to sound
> condescending oraloof or unreasonable or unfriendly but please see this
> from my perspective.There are thousands of you and one of me. I am
> responsible to run thiscompany and pay the people who work here whose
> families depend on me. Iam an electrical engineer and my time needs to be
> spent getting the newproducts developed and out the door, not with a dial
> string for your old thingthat I neither sold you or received any benefit of
> selling to you. Canyou directly call the president of Icom? Does Eric
> answer the telephonewhen you call Elecraft? It is just not possible for me
> to answer everyemail and every telephone call about service issues. If you
> call me atDishtronix and leave a message asking me to call you about your
> Ten Tec I'm notreturning your call. If I answer I'm going to tell you we
> have put up theprocedure that you email service@tentec.com. Yes, I have
> a telephone atTen Tec and no, you can’t have it. We are short staffed
> because we do nothave sales volume at this time to support a large
> overhead. This way,Robert can go through all of the email and respond at
> one time in the morning,then spend the rest of the day shipping radios and
> parts orders without beinginterrupted. He is there three days a week, so
> you don't get answers onMonday or Friday. Sure, I know some of you don't
> like it. There is no needto tell me about it. I don't like it either, but
> until we start having alot more cash flow that is the way it has going to
> have to be. For those thatcomplain about how long it is taking, please
> understand this is a milliondollar endeavor and money like that just
> doesn’t grow on trees, at least forme. Of course any of you wealthy
> gentlemen looking for a good cause to donatesome money too - I would love
> to have the cash on hand to turn thingsaround tomorrow. Until then I’ll be
> working 16 hours a day seven days a weekwith no days off and scrimp and
> save and spend carefully and build up slowlyjust like every other hard
> working guy has to do.
> WhatI am going to try to do next is set up sort of an email hotline for
> critical caseswith Bob if he will do it. I just thought of this and have to
> talk to him aboutthis.
> OK,enough about that. Let’s get on to some better stuff. Many of youknow
> that under RFC and RKR Ten Tec quit doing their PCB assembly inhouse.
> Those of you who have known me over the decades at Dishtronix knowmy shop
> suffered heating issues that made it tough for the machinery to run inthe
> end of January to February artic blasts. Well, I have a new and verynice
> double insulated, heated and cooled free span metal building where
> I'vemoved my PCB assembly operation and this is something I'm very
> excitedabout. The building has a metal skin totally covering the inside
> withgood overhead fluorescent lighting and conduit encased electrical
> outletsevery 12 feet around the perimeter. I have retired the older
> ContactSystems placement machines in favor of newer MYDATA (Micronics
> Sweden)placement machines. I installed the first MY9 machine this last June
> and havebeen using it to build boards for the RX340 commercial orders we
> have beenfulfilling. Ten Tec did have a MY9 when they were building boards
> inhouse. The MYDATA machines are the choice for high mix medium
> volumeproduction, especially when equipped with the Agilis quick change
> feedersystem. Feeders usually cost more than the machines in this business,
> and I'vebeen growing my collection all year. I am about a third of the way
> tohaving the collection of feeders I would like to have. Earlier this month
> I gotlucky and was able to purchase the bar code software which will allow
> me toload and unload components from the machine by just scanning with the
> barcodereader, and it is done offline. It will help with inventory control
> andcomponent management which is a real nightmare considering Ten Tec has
> over7000 different line items.
> TheMY9 machine has a capability to hold up to 96 different components and
> has asingle mounting head. As I write this, an air ride big rig is getting
> closerand closer to Ohio hauling a MY19 machine in from San Francisco which
> can hold anadditional 160 different components (total 256 8 mm tapes) and
> has 8 mountingheads! Hopefully this machine will be brought online
> successfully and notbe damaged or in bad shape as I've bought it sight
> unseen. I've alsomoved the 8 zone, lead free capable, pin chain conveyor
> equipped ElectrovertBravo 8105 oven to the new building last weekend. This
> gives us thecapability to process double sided surface mount and the
> ability to reliablyprocess BGA chips. I've also purchased this summer but
> not yet installedan X ray machine to do 100% inspection of the BGA reflow
> solderingprocess. With the existing equipment (stencil printers, board
> washers,etc.) this will give us what I believe is the most well equipped
> and modern PCBmanufacturing of any amateur radio manufacturer in North
> America. Ibelieve the other guys outsource their board assembly. It may
> be thesmart thing to do, but I personally prefer to buy and house my own
> componentsin house and to have total control over my assembly process. I
> find itrequires more time to outsource and get constant bids for things
> like this thanto just own the equipment and do it myself. I think you get a
> better product atless cost. Of course the best reason in my opinion for
> doing it all in house isI can do as small of a production run as I want, IF
> I am willing to spend thetime to set up and do it. Hence the decision for
> the quick change capability ofthe MYDATA system. So, all in all what this
> means is the Phoenix isrising. I am rebuilding Ten Tec and preparing to do
> some serious manufacturing,which brings me to my next point.
> Mostof you know we have been bogged down and overwhelmed with the
> commercial sideof our business this last year since I officially assumed
> the helm in January.With trying to replenish the hard to get / long lead
> time / lasttime buy / obsolete parts, rebuild the PCB assembly
> operations, moving,and so on we just haven't had the horsepower to build
> any amateurtransceivers. Well, the good news is we have caught up on our
> commercialcontracts. Be glad we did this. You know all the stuff I wrote
> aboutabove? The commercial contracts paid for that. Without this TEN TEC
> wouldnot exist right now. We are at a very important cross roads right
> now. What do we do next?
>
> Someof you know we are developing new products. Those are still off on
> thehorizon. What I need to know is how many of you would purchase Eagles
> ifthey were available? I'd like to do a run of 100 of them next. It is
> agreat radio. I like mine every bit as well as my Orion II. The
> DSPfunction is superb.
> Wehave to talk a little bit about price. When the Eagle was launched it
> wasa $2100 radio with no accessories. You all know the story of the blow
> outsales and the liquidation as the previous owners sold everything that
> wasn'tnailed down on their way out. Some of you got fully loaded radios
> for$1299 or whatever. You know they didn't even cover their assembly cost
> onthat, right? Some of you got real bargains. Of course only the last
> 35radios or something were sold at that price but you get the point.
> Youwill never see a price like that again. If I have to sell and Eagle
> atthat I will close and lock the doors and be done with it. A strip
> modelneeds to sell at 1699 at least. The more you are willing to pay for
> aradio the faster the new radios can come out. We want to build radios
> andsell them so we can keep the production team in place so we can meet the
> demandwhen the new radios come out. Everything we do tomorrow depends on
> how much yousupport us today.
> I'mcertain some of you have heard that I and two partners acquired Alpha
> and thatI've been officially at the Helm since August. It is a separate
> companyfrom Dishtronix / TEN TEC. Of course I will be building the
> circuitboards for those products as well. I'm after something business
> peoplecall economy of scale, essentially having enough product flow through
> the doorsto totally occupy the machines and infrastructure. I'll be making
> apost on that reflector as well to update those customers also.
> Bythe way, we do have RX340s available to build on short notice now.
> Letme close by wishing you all a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving holiday, one
> of myfavorites and of course the reason I see my dentist in November for my
> prefeast tune up. The Sevierville team and I appreciate your support for
> TenTec, where we believe we are once again Making America Great - One
> Radioat a Time.
> VY73 DE MIKE N8WFF
>
>
>
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