[TenTec] Jupiter taking a beating?

[Joe Malloy]

I know what you mean, Brian, if I didn't have a Jupiter already (for the
better part of a year), I'd wonder whether or not I should buy one.  I
especially liked the "review" of it that some fellow made who  had had one
on his bench (it was his friend's) for a scant 8 hours (or so he says).  I
mean, if we're going to allow reviews from people who only have a passing
acquaintance with a rig, well I've got some things (both good and bad) to
say about other manufacturer's rigs!  I don't know why Ten-Tec get such
"reviews" but perhaps it's basically envy -- they emphasize the negatives to
make up for it.

My favorite one is, as you note, the "one button band selection" -- haven't
these guys ever heard of programming a rig for the frequencies you want?
I've got my Jupiter set for the frequencies most often used and then for
each band (both cw and phone sub-bands, where appropriate, with filter and
sideband selections too!).  I still have about 100 free spots in which I
could store additional frequency information.  Yeah, yeah, you have to press
a button (for gosh sakes, it's just a button!) to use this option, but,
c'mon, how hard is that?

It would be very nice if Ten-Tec gave you a microphone with the rig, but
it's hardly a deal-breaker.  I swear, I thought hams were more resilient
that this -- take one of the mikes you already have and use *that.*  No,
people want to have everything handed to them these days and Yaecomwood
(some of whose gear I have and enjoy) is very good at giving you that.  I
wonder what the present crop of hams would do if we were suddenly put back
in the age when radio was new.  Probably take up stamp collecting, I
suppose.

Using my "deaf, mute, microphone-less and inconvenient" Jupiter, I am
happily working all the stations my little ole G5RV can hear on cw and
phone.

73,

Joe, W2RBA