[TenTec] Re: Omni's of many flavors

[Ten-Tec Inc. Amateur Radio Sales]

Wow, what a lot of mail generated by the Omni-VI/VI Plus discussion
over the weekend.  A few brief notes from the factory, I'm not intending
to stir this up again.  I'm posting this because I know it will be
archived and someone off in the future may find it useful when 
considering the purchase of a used radio. 

1)  We intentionally did not put Omni-VI Plus front panels on radios
that were factory upgraded to prevent any confusion over whether or
not it was a production line Omni-VI Plus.

2) That being said, we (at Ten-Tec) make no distinction between a 
upgraded radio and a production line Omni-VI Plus.  We sell them used
at the same price, same trade-in price.  (My own personal rig is a 
5 year old Omni-VI that has been upgraded.  If I thought I was missing 
something by not having a production line VI Plus I would have traded 
it and taken a VI Plus home). 

3) The back panels are different.  The original Omni back panel reads
"OMNI VI MODEL 563 AMATEUR RADIO TRANSCEIVER".  The Omni-VI Plus 
reads "OMNI-VI PLUS 564 AMATEUR RADIO TRANSCEIVER".  There will be a 
sticker by the serial number indicating it has been factory upgraded.  
There were 2 different factory upgrades.  The first was "option 2",
which was merely installation of the DSP and LOGIC chips for the 
Omni-VI Plus, and rearrangement of a couple of buttons on the front 
panel.  The "Omni VI Plus upgrade" is "option 3".  The appropriate
sticker will be on the back panel.  Another easy way to tell one from
the other is the filter buttons above the main tuning knob.  On an
option 3 radio they read "1.8 500 250 N-1 N-2" - on an option 2 radio
they read "2.4 1.8 .50 .25 NAR".

4) There also was an "option 1"; installation of the DSP and LOGIC
chips from the Omni-VI Plus into an original Omni-VI, and stickers
to cover three buttons on the front panel.  This was user 
installable. 

5) The print fonts on the buttons for the Omni-VI and Omni-VI Plus
are slightly different.  It's subtle, but if you have an original
VI and a VI Plus next to each other you'll see a slight difference
in the font.  Reason:  We had simply worn out the original button
screens right around the time we changed models.  New rig, new font. 

5) Unfortunately, I have spoken with a couple of people over the
last two years that bought Omni's that either were not upgraded at 
all, or didn't have the full option 3 upgrade and the rigs were
represented as being an "Omni-VI Plus".  My advice, as always, would
be to ask the seller some questions.  If you're *really* not sure,
just call us at the factory and we'll tell you what questions you
should be asking, always happy to do that. 

73,
Scott Robbins, W4PA
Amateur Radio Product Manager 




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