[TenTec] re Happy Orion Owners

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

>Evidence of this is post after post of hate spew against TenTec and the 
>Orion.

I hardly think anything posted to date has been "hate spew."   Leaving is an 
interesting reaction however.   I read  over the weekend that in the U.S. 
these days, people retreat into what are called "anger communities" where 
they can rant with like minded fellows and not have to face opposing 
opinions.   The reason is that supposedly, civil discourse, i.e. interesting 
conversation, is on the wane because people no longer know how to disagree 
pleasantly.   If this reflector were one big cheerleading section for ten 
tec, i for one, would find it less useful than it is.

I have a theory about why some people have problems with Orion and others 
are happy Orion owners.  When I get a new rig, I immediately attempt to get 
it to do every single thing it is supposed to be capable of doing.  I check 
it out on all bands, all modes, ...everything.  (Okay, i can't test it on 
digital modes as I don't have the equipment for that.)  If it fails 
anything, it goes back to the vendor.
Why?  2 or 3 reasons:  1.  I'm paying for a rig that is supposed to do x, y, 
and z.  Even if I don't use x, the principle of the matter is that I paid 
for that and I expect to get my money's worth, that is to say, what I 
bargained for.   2.  Someday, I might get interested in x and decided to do 
x whatever it may be.  When that day comes, if x doesn't work, the rig is 
out of warranty, and I have to pay to get it fixed.  3.  Let's say I decide 
to sell it someday.  I have never done anything but cw with my rig I bought. 
   the buyer wants to operate 10 m. FM with it.  It is supposed to operate 
10 m. FM, but it doesn't for some reason, which I didn't know about because 
I never tried that.   I sure wish I had checked out every single capability 
of my radio back when it was new and covered by the warranty.

How many of you happy Orion owners have tried to get your Orions to do 
everything it is supposed to be able to do?   Or, maybe you have found a 
problem, but it doesn't affect the mode you operate and you will never sell 
it or change modes, so you don't care?  How many of you unhappy (or shall we 
say, fault finding) owners have tested your Orions out on all bands/modes 
etc.?   Maybe you have found a problem with a mode you don't use, but it 
really bugs you that you paid $4000 for a rig that isn't doing something you 
paid for.   It boils down to how picky you want to be.

As for the flex radio, at this point, the folks who like it the most seem to 
be phone operators.   the T/R delay seems to be a problem for cw ops which 
is too bad because I have heard the receiver is fantastic for cw.  But I 
really believe whatever success flex radio has had, has been due largely to 
a more open source community.

rob / k5uj

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