[TenTec] Orion aesthetics, just an opinion

[Mike]

This thread has been very interesting to say the least.  It is very easy to
see what the TenTec faithful do and do not like.  An antenna tuner as a
built in, or as an option.  A 150 watt final amplifier, maybe and then again
maybe not.  Gold trim, a black face panel, RCA jacks, the lack of a keyboard
connector and one nobody has even mentioned.  A 4 pin microphone plug versus
an 8 pin connector.  It would make a lot of interconnections easier to have
audio on the mic plug.

I think the only thing that is set in stone right now is the basic "bells
and whistles" as listed on the Orion website and the front panel LAYOUT!
That front panel layout involves a VERY expensive mould.  The color of the
front panel is the easiest one to change, just change the color of the raw
material being used in the injection moulding process.  The knobs and
buttons are the same, as far as I can make out in the jpegs, as the Omni VI.
The finish of the outside rings for the knobs being a gold is also an easy
manufacturing color change.  I can't believe that TenTec has purchased
thousands of pounds of raw material, plastic granules already...when the
Orion is still in the developement stages, as far as fit and finish.

Operationally the developement is probably a lot further along.  We all know
what is involved, cost wise, to change circuits, boards and components.

I for one don't care for the black face plate.  It just makes the TenTec
Orion look way to much like the Japanese radios.  The display, I don't
know....don't have a radio with such a display.  I know the one on the Orion
looks "plain Jane" but other than that....I don't care for it the way it is.

Only time will tell what the finished Orion will look like.  I just know
that I like the Hercules II, the 238 and the 253 just like they are.  It
sure would be nice if the Orion would fit on the bench with these other
accesories and not look out of place.  TenTecs are different...They
shouldn't look like just another radio

Do any of you remember EDSEL FORD....?  The Edsel was really a pretty good
car....just one UGLY creation!  Oh, by the way, I am NOT old enough to have
owned a new Edsel, but my father did.  He always said he liked the car, but
said it was the ugliest thing he ever saw.  He said he liked it, but didn't
keep it very long either....he traded it in on a 1961 Plymouth Bevedere
station wagon, from ugly to a real BOAT.....go figure!

Mike - KC8WR