[TenTec] Orion, the direction?

[Duane Grotophorst]

--- Larry Kayser <kayser@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Question One.
> 
> Will Orion by another "me two" high end transceiver
> with some features 
> marketed by Ten Tec to attempt to differentiate the
> new product?

Ten Tec hasn’t historically been one to do the “me
too” approach partially because they have hard time
competing production cost-wise to offer the same
touchy feelly panel ergonomics (that mimic the current
consumer electronics fad). I think partially because
the infrastructure for those kinds of components
doesn’t exist in this country the way it does in
Japan. So they have to look for other ways to try and
differentiate themselves. Frankly it was the
YaeComWoods that mimicked Ten Tec for QSK. And I think
arguably Ten Tec is the lead player in the software
defined radio design approach, YaeComWood are still
thinking very narrowly about what a radio is and how
to best use new DSP technology in a versatile way. The
Pegasus/Jupiter/RX-350 are architecturally open enough
to be changed quite significantly from the way they
operate today by firmware alone, I don’t see any
examples where that may be possible from anyone else.
What’s lacking is a high enough level of customer
demand.

> Question Two.
> 
> Will Orion have a significant unique capability that
> is real and 
> quantifiable beyond the unique Ten Tec ownership of
> the best QSK going?

Hopefully they will be the first to offer a I/O
mechanism to bring out the raw digital data stream for
outboard post/pre processing. I really don’t see that
coming from the overseas manufactures anytime soon,
they are still too busy just cramming more and more
buttons into small spaces.

> Question Three.
> 
> Will Orion avoid the recent spate of problems that
> recent Ten Tec offerings 
> have had all the way from chirp (Omni), VFO
> instability (Scout), Pegasus 
> DSP tones in the noise etc?

I can only speak for the Pegasus tone issue, while not
completely gone it has been dramatically improved in
firmware build 1.19. At least they did actually
address it, perhaps not as soon as it should have been
but it was. There have been several firmware releases,
some better than others. All that the poor Icom
PCR-1000 users get is berated for using “non approved”
third party software that may occasionally corrupt the
EEPROM, and then a big service charge to fix it if
they send the radio back (no factory
approved/encouraged 5 minute download from them). And
as far as I know none of the YaeComWood DSP radios has
ever even offered a firmware upgrade except perhaps
the TS2000, which you apparently have to go digging
for to find.

> Question Four.
> 
> Five years after introduction will the Orion be the
> radio of choice for 
> those who seek the very best?

The days of decade long production runs are over, if
properly designed the new generation radios could be
updated by changing out the components that are still
technologically evolving rapidly, the A/D and DSP
stages for example. Most every other sub systems in
today’s radios aren’t going to be changing that much
more very quickly. Ten Tec to their credit did offer
this to a limited degree with the Omni VI/VI+, I can’t
think of any YaeComWood examples of this.

> I would encourage a vigorous discussion on this
> forum of what features are 
> needed to create a new unique Ten Tec capability in
> Orion, to not only 
> identify capabilities but also to quantify the value
> to the amateur 
> community of the capability.  I further suggest a
> vigorous discussion of 
> the value of a 1000 knobs and buttons, a la FT1000MP
> Mark IV what ever, 
> versus a high level of function integration without
> the knobs and 
> buttons.  The value of a no front panel option a la
> TS-2000 etc.

I’m frequently frustrated by how so few people seem to
grasp the full range of possibilities for a no front
panel radio. I think the market could be larger than
it is but is being held back by lack of control
software variety, and a customer base unwilling to ask
for it because they haven’t thought about it.

> Ten Tec has brought some interesting new talent into
> the development 
> process, it is important as I see it, to ensure that
> the talent is guided 
> by economics but also by a commitment to make at
> least one new major 
> contribution to the art.  Equally important is that
> the talent be 
> constrained to avoid a screw up as noted above in
> recent products.  If the 
> notion of "screw up" bothers some, then consider it
> as "undocumented 
> features" of the products.

On the balance I don’t think Ten Tec has made any more
“screw ups” than their competitors, however the issues
are more likely to be discussed (frequently
contentiously) here on the TT reflector. The
reflectors for the YaeComWoods seem to generally
ignore or gloss over comparable issues. Does Ten Tec
annoy and frustrate me sometimes, of course they do,
but as of now they seem to be the most enlightened as
to where the future of radio is going but sadly being
constrained by what the ham radio buyers will actually
buy.

Duane
N9DG

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Sports - sign up for Fantasy Baseball
http://sports.yahoo.com