[TenTec] Orion II a different thought

[Pete Juliano]

Thanks Scott for announcing the Orion II. This reflector was getting a little stale with talk of vertical antennas. In one short message you have revitalized the whole area and tone of discussion. A much welcomed relief!

I do not own an Orion so have no axe to grind. But in all fairness guys, Ten Tec is in business and needs to remain competitive. The Orion II is part of a competitive business strategy. Those with Orion I's you are being included not excluded. How would you feel if TT didn't care about their customer base and simply announced no backward compatibiity with the software? It would have been a far simpler task to just write all new software and not worry about compatibility with the prior model. The heart of the Orion in addition to some excellent engineering is the software --that is the whole concept of SDR. 

Orion II responds to market pressures --many wanted a color display and to do that meant a different processor. Would have it been nice to have a hardware upgrade --probably? But those involved with engineering design know well that it some point the cost to retrofit does not make economic sense.

If TT does what they stated,  one should be able to have a blindfold on and listen to the two versions of the radios (albeit possibly some diffrences in hardware filter capablity) and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. There will be visual differences but most of us listen to our radios!

TT is still the small group of hardy souls who challenged the marketplace with the Orion I. They now need to take those steps necessary to remain in that marketplace. Perhaps a more fruitful discussion is: does the Orion II just meet the competition or has it taken the next leap. I remember when Swan came out with so many "new" models --it mostly was a response to the unavailabity of certain sweep tubes. The output tubes changed and we got a new model; but the basic receive capability was just the same. Today we are all hungry for improved receiver performance -- does Orion II bring anything new to the table. Now that is a worthwhile discussion.

Pete W6JFR