[TenTec] Re: Contesting

[Bill Tippett]

W4BQF wrote:
 >Isn't SDR just a marketing term used to confused the under informed to 
make them think they are getting something wonderful?

         I think you hit the nail on the head Tom.  A more recent example 
of such marketing hype
is "DSP".  If you look at much of the marketing hype from manufacturers, 
you'll see all sorts
of crowing about 24-bit ADC's and DAC's, 32-bit floating point DSP's, 
multiple processors
running at who knows how many GHz...yada, yada, yada.  WOW...I'm 
impressed...NOT!

         What you won't see is true performance metrics such as IMD and BDR 
that are important
to contesters or low-band DX'ers who tend NOT to be swayed by hype as much 
as Joe HT.  It's
truly a sad commentary on the technical state of amateur radio that many 
hams today fall for
all this marketing hype, paying outrageous money for radios that are 
actually quite mediocre,
but it's a free country and that's their right.

         Thanks to Ten-Tec and Elecraft for demonstrating that not all of 
us are brain dead
appliance operators who believe all the marketing hype bombarding us these 
days.

                                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV