[TenTec] E-Ham Bad Orion Review

[al_lorona at agilent.com]

> As long as I have been using computers running
> Windows I have been annoyed by occasional 
> crashes. I have never accepted this as okay,
> although I have put up with it in order to take 
> advantage of the capabilities of the computer. 

Ken, you have put up with it because you have no other choice! What
other choice do you have? What the public has been conditioned to put up
with w.r.t. Microsoft Windows is unbelieveable. Things are better now,
about fifteen years after the first introduction of the operating
system.

Everyone likes to claim that updates made to a software upgradeable
radio are to add new features and functions, but what we have largely
seen so far is bug fixes, not new features. That's fine-- thank goodness
for updateable radios-- but I am still totally confused by what I have
read so far on this reflector.

I admitted my total bewilderment last week concerning the fact that you
can have two Orions, side by side, and one quits while transmitting (!)
and the other operates flawlessly, and the only answer I've received to
try and explain this is that "some guys don't know how to operate their
radios". I am not prepared to accept this explanation. Therefore, I'm
still baffled.

Here's another reason for my confusion. Many folks are anxiously waiting
firmware updates with lots of new features and functions in the coming
years, while other folks have stated that there is no available CPU
capacity in the Orion to support more "stuff". I recall someone claiming
that the processor is already at 100% of capacity with certain functions
turned on and that it really can't do any more. What up with that?

I couldn't agree more with everything else in your message, especially:
 
> I do not think that consistant and identical output 
> and functionality for consistant and identical 
> input is too much to ask from a machine. I 
> would say that is about where I draw the line 
> between a good tool or machine and a toy. 
> 
> If your computer or radio was an airplane, would you go up in 
> it? 

NO! And if I woke up in the operating room and saw Windows XP running
the medical equipment, I would fear for my life.

Granted, there is a difference between a 'mission critical' application,
as they call it, and a rig on your operating table listening to 20 m
phone. But, really, quitting during transmitting? That's just too much
for me.


Al W6LX