[TenTec] Updating Radios...

[John Clifford]

I for one would like to see Ten-Tec go to a subscription base for their
software upgrades.  Purchasers would get one year of free upgrades, after
which they could pay a nominal annual fee ($25 or thereabouts) to get the
privilege of updates.  Of course, bug fix updates would always be free.  I'm
sure that every radio does/could have a hard-coded serial number, so Ten-Tec
could easily prevent unauthorized updating (pirating).

A fee of $25 isn't very much (less than annual ARRL dues), and yet a couple
thousand radios sold will pay the wages of a GOOD software developer and
motivate him.  Of course, tie in his salary/bonuses to the quality of his
work!  (Don't forget that this guy will get paid from Orion/Argonaut/RX-350
upgrades too!)  If we really want Ten-Tec to be successful, then they have
to make money... from us.  After all, the Option 1-to-3 upgrades for the
Omni VI weren't free (and shouldn't have been).  I'm thankful that Ten-Tec
offered the upgrade AT ALL... when was the last time YaeComWood offered
upgrades to recently obsoleted products (besides the upgrade of "buy a new
model")?

I would also like to see Ten-Tec separate the radio's user interface (screen
display) from the rest of the firmware, and allow users the ability to
rewrite this.  I wonder why the RX-350's display looks better (more
aesthetically pleasing) than that of the Jupiter, when the same hardware is
behind both.  I see this as being a great market for freeware (like visual
front panels for the various web-based multimedia players)... set up a
website that allows users to swap display layouts so they can pick the one
they like best.

As an aside, one difference I see between Ten-Tec and my other favorite ham
radio company (Elecraft) is that the latter really tries to put an extra
touch on a product before it is released (integration-wise).  Case in point:
the KAT2 tuner versus the Jupiter/Pegasus internal tuner.  Now... these two
tuners work very similarly, with one exception: the KAT2 is much more
tightly integrated into the radio.  You can get a very good idea of SWR and
actual power out fom the KAT2 thru the K2's front panel... not so with the
Ten-Tec.  Why didn't/doesn't Ten-Tec take a little more time and update this
by allowing the tuner and rig to communicate?  Sometimes better ISN'T the
enemy of "good enough."

Re totally SDR's... why not let hardware do what it does best, and software
do what it does best?  I'm not convinced that an advanced DSP chip hooked up
to the SO-239 jack would give me better performance (that I could use,
versus measure in the lab) than some solid-state analog circuitry that
brought the basic signal into the DSP, and it would be a lot more
susceptable to failure from static/HV/lightning/etc.

 - jgc

John Clifford KD7KGX

Heathkit HW-9 WARC/HFT-9/HM-9
Elecraft K2 #1678 /KSB2/KIO2/KBT2/KAT2/KNB2/KAF2/KPA100
Ten-Tec Omni VI/Opt1

email: kd7kgx@arrl.net