[TenTec] TT (Orion) Future improvements!!!

[John Clifford]

> Unfortunately, I have to agree with WA4OEJ and several others 
> that in hindsight, it appears that making the Orion screen 
> monochrome was a mistake.
> 
> I know it was a cost-driven issue, and that a "color Orion" 
> would probably have pushed the cost for the rig up another 
> $500 - $1000.

How can a color screen on an Orion push the cost up $500 or more? I can buy
a brand-new Palm PDA with a 320x160 color LCD with thousands and thousands
of colors for less than $500, and you really only need 8 or 16 colors. If
you're pulling out the monochrome display and controller and adding a color
display and controller, the cost should be around $100, so the rig should
cost $200 more. Better yet, put a VGA controller in the rig and have it talk
to a VGA screen or an external monitor - and let specialized hardware do all
of the fancy bit-setting display stuff for you. I'd even add a Digipan-like
waterfall display on the monitor instead of the bandscope.

Re additional complexity in programming... yes there would be some. But if
they were really stressed about it, make the display mono for the first
firmware releases and then add color as the firmware evolves. And, give
people free upgrades for a year and then put them on a $20/year firmware
licensing program to generate additional revenue to cover programming
additional features. I'd pay $20 a year to keep my firmware up to date, and
a couple thousand users will easily pay for a programmer's time, especially
if it's a couple thousand per each model (RX-350, Jupiter, Orion).

 - jgc

John Clifford KD7KGX

Elecraft K2 #1678 /KSB2/KIO2/KBT2/KAT2/KNB2/KAF2/KPA100
Ten-Tec Omni VI/Opt1, Centaur, 238B
Alinco DR-605TQ, DJ-V5
Icom T90A

IRLP #3978

email: kd7kgx at arrl.net