[TenTec] re happy orion owners

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

I'm sure there are happy Orion owners.  I am reasonably sure there are many 
former owners who have quietly returned their Orions and said nothing 
publicly, fearing the barrage of oppressive email from Ten Tec fans that 
would result.  Their desire to control public opinion of the Orion is 
noticeable.  Whenever a bad orion review is posted on eham, an alert is 
often sent to this list and two or three reviews are put up on eham to 
counter the bad review.

Sure, it's easy to talk about how great a product/service is.  Everyone 
likes praise and everyone likes to give it.  But the few who speak up with 
critical comments/reports and offer balance, and take  it on the chin for 
doing so, offer valuable information also, for those of us with a low 
tolerance for problems.

"Why is everyone trying to break their Orions?"

This was a question posted to the reflector a few months ago when one Orion 
owner was repeatedly testing his rig to see when it would crash.

It epitomized a difference among owners I see.   Some are apparently easy 
going and accept problems and don't mind doing a master reset once a week.  
Or maybe they simply use the rig to do only one thing and for that it works 
okay.  If all you ever do is 40 meter cw at 15 wpm and you have not tried 
anything else with it I have no doubt that Orion is working fine for you.    
Others get theirs and immediately test every single feature and function and 
if it doesn't work as advertised, send it back.  I think for $3300, that is 
a reasonable position.

I have a new TS870S that, on 10 meters, experiences a PLL unlock condition 
on a few frequencies.  Now, I never operate on 10 meters.  I could easily 
never do anything about this problem and be happy for years, but mine is 
going back to the dealer.  The reasons are that:  It is supposed to work and 
I want it to because I paid for that.  I may someday decide to operate on 10 
meters.  I may someday have to sell it and I want to be able to say 
truthfully that it works perfectly okay.

Based on what I have read, I have no doubt that if I had bought an Orion, I 
would have sent it back too.  For that reason I feel like I have dodged a 
bullet and am grateful to those who have posted factual reports of problems 
as I would find such solutions as a weekly master reset and unreliability 
unacceptable.  I think the difference is also in expectations.  Some of you 
consider Orion ownership an adventure, an experiment and an opportunity to 
break ground in the area of SDRs.  Others just want a box that can be 
depended on to be hooked up, plugged in and operate.  Again, as someone with 
a busy life, who usually isn't in the mood for troubleshooting and surprises 
when he walks into his shack at the end of a long day, I'd probably not want 
to be one of the Orion pioneers.

BTW, yes Microsoft's products have problems but I don't think anyone in 
their right mind thinks Microsoft's programs are wonderful and perfect.  
They are widely used simply because they have managed to dominate the 
marketplace.  OTOH, I know for a fact that at Apple, there have been times 
when Steve Jobs has looked at a new machine in development and, with the end 
user in mind, ripped it apart and sent it back to his engineers for an 
overhaul.  If we are going to hold Ten Tec up to a computer software 
operation for comparison, I would use Apple as the yardstick to measure them 
by.

Rob/K5UJ

p.s. anyone tired of Orion as a topic better beg ten tec to produce 
something else.  I have a hunch that's the only way the topic is gg to 
change, hi.

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