[TenTec] IC-7800

[Ed Tanton]

Hello all... I said it then, and I'll say it now: not using a color display 
was a major marketing mistake. Kick me off here if you want to, but... 
given the major bucks these things cost, given their marginal performance 
differences, I'd buy the IC-7800 in a heartbeat-over a monochrome 
display-and I'll wager the majority  of the chosen-customers in this 
high-end market will vote (with their wallets) in the same way (my wallet 
is-by necessity-abstaining, since dollars cannot vote in absentia.)

I buy things not because they LOOK better, but because they WORK better. 
Yet, at this level of performance, there is very little difference between 
choices, performance-wise. Certainly, in my own pre-purchase inspections, I 
would LOOK at Ten Tec first, long, and hard. But I would look and compare 
everyone else as well. Only a total dummy wouldn't. That monochrome display 
is a deal-killer. I was told at the time I raised a lot of questions about 
the display, that to go to a color display would have added $500 to the 
price of the rig. I don't question the veracity of that statement-but with 
entire color laptops down to $700, perhaps it needs reevaluating? Maybe 
just add a VGA port? I used the phrase "deal-killer" very seriously... 
monochrome is utterly NON-competitive.

IMHO, the OMNI VI was THAT much better than its competition, but nothing 
top-of-the-line currently offered by anyone is much different from its 
competition, RF-wise. The photons don't care whether it's my EFJ Ranger II 
or my Argonaut II that 'made' them-much less a multi-thousand-dollar 
whiz-bang. That leaves ergonomics and what I'll call 'other features'. Two 
things stand out on the '7800: COLOR and dual-freq receive. Color has been 
proven time and again in efficiency studies to improve the human-machine 
interface-especially when the operator is tired or harried. The very 
definition of contest-operating.

Time (and sales performance) will certainly tell.



73 Ed Tanton N4XY <n4xy at earthlink.net>

Ed Tanton N4XY
189 Pioneer Trail
Marietta, GA 30068-3466

website: http://www.n4xy.com

All emails <IN> & <OUT> checked by
Norton AntiVirus with AutoProtect

LM: ARRL QCWA AMSAT & INDEXA;
SEDXC NCDXA GACW QRP-ARCI
OK-QRP QRP-L #758 K2 (FT) #00057

--------------------------------------------------
"He that gives up a little liberty to gain
temporary security will lose both and
deserve neither".
--Benjamin Franklin

"Suppose you were an idiot ...
and suppose you were a member of
Congress...  but I repeat myself."
--Mark Twain
--------------------------------------------------