[TenTec] The future of The Orion I

[Toby Pennington]

Ron, read this post, it just came in.   Toby


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chuck Gerarden" <cgerarden at atomix.com>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 11:22 PM
Subject: [TenTec] The future of The Orion I


> I was very disturbed when Ten Tec decided to discontinue the Orion I. 
> Normally I would expect this from any other manufacturer, but over the 
> past 2 years Ten Tec has been telling us it is upgradable. False 
> advertising? I think so. I have been waiting for the software fixes that 
> resolve the various problems. I doubt they will ever come. I bought the 
> Orion only because it was advertised as being upgradable.
> 
> So now I am being asked to shell out another $1700.00 for O II with new 
> filters that I could not even use from my old O I.  Got to hand it to 
> TT, they got this right from the American Corporate Greed Handbook. 
> Everyone remember the Classic Coke debacle? TT is either acting out of 
> sheer ignorance, desperation, or with complete disregard of their 
> customer base. Have they forgotten the type of hams who buy TT? Talk 
> about being a disenfranchised TT customer.
> 
> While Scott of Ten Tec has indicated there is a 2.0 release coming. I 
> would bet this new code is really aimed and supported for the new Orion 
> II. No doubt there will be a token attempt to provide a 2.0 release for 
> O I, but as a software engineer I know how easy it is to slap a new 
> release number on code and "ship it" anybody really think the developers 
> for the O II processor and platform really cared enough to make it 
> backward compatible for the O I, a soon to be discontinued product. 
> Don't be naive.
> 
> I now have my TT Orion up for sale, a month ago it would have sold for a 
> good price in a day. after 3 days, no inquires, and no sale.
> This boat anchor will probably go down in history as the rig that sunk 
> TT. There will be TT sales for the O II but it won't be enough and not 
> enough people will upgrade. Despite what .gov says, our economy is not 
> that great and guys who whipped out $3300.00  for the greatest rig on 
> earth most likely will not whip out another $1700.00. How long before 
> the O III comes out? 2 years, because they forgot to make the O II 
> upgradable!
> 
> All you guys who talk about cars, consumer electronics, and  computers  
> being discontinued, it is not the same with the Orion. TT clearly laid 
> out a  path for as to follow, they just slaughtered us at the end of 
> it.  I have been a big TT fan for  years, but now will buy  amps from 
> Alpha, Tuners from Palstar and look into SDR-1000 and other 
> alternatives. The Orion I is a great radio, but perception is stronger 
> than reality and it will be thought of as the radio TT could never fix. 
> Watch the classifieds on Eham and QTH,  We will be flooded with Orions 
> nobody can sell.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> W0DLE
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