I think bringing back the Corsair would be even more expensive. The
enclosures and all those controls and knobs cost serious money. Three
enclosures: transceiver, external VFO, and speaker/power supply. And
these were nice enclosures and knobs compared to what is typical on an
HF transceiver these days.
Also every ham has a slightly different take on what would make their
Corsair III what they would want. I would not want DDS, but a PTO and an
external VFO with that wonderful A-B balance control for dual receive.
As some have pointed out, the Corsair II had some deficiencies, such as
the audio hiss. There is also the less than stellar sidetone and noise
blanker. These would also have to be addressed in a redesign.
I would say keep the fundamental building blocks of the Corsair II, just
redesign to accommodate obsolete parts, and deficiencies. The only
additions I would want would be the 60 and 6 metre bands. No computer
port! No additional digital electronics!
With the high cost of bringing a Corsair III to market, and the
splintered requirements of the prospective buyers, I would say there is
a very low probability of this being a profitable venture for Ten-Tec.
73, Darrell VE7IU
On 16-11-24 12:42 PM, rick@dj0ip.de wrote:
Which parts are no longer available?
Silly question. DOES NOT MATTER.
You can substitute just about anything for that stuff. This is not the
problem.
Redesign cost peanuts. A dozen members here could do that. ZERO COST.
We could not use the same circuit boards but circuit board design with all
of the current software available is peanuts.
The cost is in building the prototype and testing it.
Cost: With $800 of filters required, I suppose the $2K price tag is hardly
achievable. The radio, fully loaded, will cost $2500.
The VFO question is excellent. My brain says go with DDS because PTO is too
expensive, too inaccurate, and too maintenance intensive. But the analog
VFO did not have the distortion PLL has.
Throwing in extra bands doesn't cost much. I don't need 6m in such a radio
though I suppose most do. 60m is a must.
No external VFO. The 2nd VFO must be built in.
Serial ports are Fred Flintstone. USB are better but you will find
rejection to this to.
Instead use a NIC.
Computer Control: sorry, stupid question. YES.
IMO, you would easier get 100 hams to buy this as get 100 hams to buy an
Eagle.
Is this something we want them spending their time/money on? IMO, if you
wish they stay in business, NO!
Agreed Ron, I just don't see it happening . . . though I would love to own
this rig.
73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt, Germany)
How much redesign would be recquired to accommodate those parts?
Do the design specs for the circuit boards still exist? Even if they do,
would putting in different components require a complete redesign?
Would the costs of this redesign work exceed the point where building the
rig for sale circa $2K is profitable?
How much do you 'tinker' with the basic rig? And I don't mean putting in
'factory mods' or fixes that came along during the initial production runs.
Do you keep it at 100 W out? Or would 'beefing it up' to 200 W or so make
it more marketable?
Do you keep the PTO mechanical VFO, or do you go to a DDS type digital VFO?
And if so, how does that affect the 'noise floor' of the rig?
Do you throw in 6 meters? 60 meters?
Do you retain the external VFO, or the capability for one? (I would make
the argument that slightly higher costs from a dual digital VFO is offset by
no need for an external VFO) Do you put on a serial port (that includes USB
port(s)) for feeding a computer logging program?
If you go that far, do you give a computer some control over the VFO, and
possibly some other functions?
None of these questions, or many others like them, are deal breakers or
insolvable in and of themselves. With that in mind, my educated guess is
that if someone could produce a limited run of a Corsair II or modern
equivalent for a sale price between $2000 and about $2500, and not lose
money on them, you might be able to get at least 100 hams to buy it.
Whether or not you could get 200, though, well, that remains to be seen.
If the price goes higher, the number of nostalgic hams goes down. And maybe
I'm underestimating the number of hams who would actually pay hard money (or
at least use a good credit card!) for such a rig, as economies of scale
would help bring the net per-radio cost down a little.
But even if this COULD be done... Considering the challenges that Dishtronix
and Ten Tec are facing right now to get back into the market, an start
producing rigs again... Is this really something we want them spending their
time, energy, money, and effort on? Or do we want them to put all that
design work into the next generation of rigs to come?
I know. That's why the original suggestion was to have the 'resurrected'
Corsair II built in China. Even if Mike was interested in this, and I don't
know but I suspect he isn't, at best it would have to be done 'under
license'. And there would still be a ton of issues to address.
So I just don't see it happening. Pity.
73, ron w3wn
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Reed Krenn
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 7:16 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Bring back the corsair 2
Here's a thought: How about making the production run a special limited
edition? There is precedent, when TT had the limited edition Vibroplex keys.
Maybe call it the 'Phoenix' series, representing Ten Tec's rise from the
ashes. Perhaps there could be some unique new feature that would
differentiate it from earlier production runs, and that would heighten its
'cache'.
Thoughts?
Reed / WW3A
On Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 7:05 PM, Steve Ellington <steven4lq@gmail.com>
wrote:
I tried an Eagle at the factory and didn't like it. Too small, noisy
TR QSK relay, menus etc.
For some reason everyone including TT stopped using those quiet little
reed relays and now use those noisy metal encased relays. I really
can't understand why unless it's something in the manufacturing
process. So there's no reason for me to want one.
On Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 6:59 PM, Barry N1EU <barry.n1eu@gmail.com> wrote:
Actually, I think several of us answered Mike's question saying that
$1699
sounded too high.
73, Barry N1EU
On Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 11:51 PM, Steve Berg <wa9jml@frontier.com>
wrote:
Well so far none of us has answered Mike's question about buying
his
first
lot of 100 Eagles. I am willing to commit to purchasing one, but
that
is a
grand total of 1% of what he needs to sell to make the production
run viable.
I ran an Eagle at the factory station some years back, and was
very impressed. It was like someone took my Argonaut II and
greatly
improved
its performance.
Dreaming about Chinese built Corsair II's is very nice, and
pontificating
on how Ten Tec really should produce a software defined super rig
is
fine,
but Mike needs to have some cash flow to stay viable.
My $0.02 worth...
Steve WA9JML
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VE7IU
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