[TenTec] Being a Contrarian...."

Wed Aug 2 09:00:54 EDT 2006

William

I'm sure many reflectees will be as appreciative of your input as I am.  We 
are indeed blessed in having one so knowledgable and well versed in the 
truths of the situation, ready and willing to point us to the straight and 
narrow.

You have already identified the source of your great knowledge, as your 
relationship with a man who ostensibly owns an Orion.  Please further our 
education by advising whether you actually hold an amateur transmitting 
license.  If so, what is your call and the date of its issue.  Such 
information will be useful in establishing your credentials.

Others on this reflector will consider themselves to be entitled to offer 
critical input based upon a whole range of qualifications.

I consider myself qualified for a number of reasons, including but not 
limited to:

>30 year career in electronic engineering.
Owner of 5 Ten Tec radios including two Orions
>$12,000 invested in Ten Tec product
40 years as a radio amateur
18 months as member of TT Orion beta group

I guess you could call me a stakeholder.  I guess many of us would feel 
comfortable, referred to in that way.  How about you?

Bob, 5B4AGN

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William Addams" <wiladdamsham at yahoo.com>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Being a Contrarian...."

> Urban myths.
> Facts are:
> Doug Smith and Gary Barbour wrote the classic Orion.
> Doug Smith left TenTec under non-amicable terms.
> The Classic Orion had lots of lock up issues, a lot due to the DSP code 
> couldn't communicate well with the other microprocessors, and would lock 
> up the busses.
> Gary Barbour re-wrote ALL of the Orion II, mainly to free up processing 
> time so that the communications channels would not lock up anymore. Also 
> due to the fact that the chip was going obsolete, and then decided to add 
> a color screen and better filtering.
>
> Those are facts.
> They don't have a team of 100s doing engineering work, like Icom and Yaesu 
> and Kenwood do.
> They only have a couple of people in engineering that do design work, and 
> only a couple of people that do testing internally. They do a lot of their 
> user testing by having their service group and others take sets home and 
> test on the air.
> This is a "Ham" engineering team, who try to make the best products 
> available at a cost that most can afford. They are not a team of hundreds 
> of engineers, otherwise you would see more and more products coming out. 
> This team of engineers also has to deal with obsolete parts issues, 
> problems in the factory, answering hundreds of service questions posted by 
> people who are using the radio "in a different way" than anyone else on 
> the planet.
> Being new to this, I would love to see a radio that has ALL bands 
> available for ALL modes, including 6m and 2m. Maybe that isn't possible, 
> but it would be nice to have something all rolled up into one.
> However, given that they are constantly getting barraged by arguments on 
> how NR should work, we may not see something "new" from them for quite 
> some time.
> Maybe the people on this board are part of the problem.
> A lot of people start yelling before they have found out that the problem 
> is really in their shack.Next time, ask if someone else has seen this, you 
> will be surprised, most problems are answered right on here, but people 
> ignore the answer, only to find out that later, the original answer by one 
> of your fellow hams was actually correct, and it was your mic, not your 
> Orion SW.
> A lot of people praise the new NR scheme, and a lot of people condemn it. 
> Some call for them to make a menu item so that you can pick which way it 
> works. Imagine, taking the time to do this, takes away time from fixing 
> other bugs, and from introducing new things.
> So they have to weigh the benefits of the changes, and then weigh the 
> consequences of not having a new product that would compete with their 
> competitors on 6m, or on the internet, or ........
> I do not envy them.
> I just wish everyone would be more supportive, and not so immediately 
> condemnative.
> TT is a great company, best service my bud has ever seen, and I'm afraid 
> that some day they may decide that it is too much hassle to stay in the 
> amateur market, and go with nothing but commercial products. Afterall, 
> commercial probably pays the bills, and they have exacting specs on how 
> things should work. Whereas selling to the amateur market is like selling 
> to a thousand different customers with a hundred thousand different 
> requirements, often varying from day to day from the same person. So many 
> times I've seen where one person says something, then contradicts 
> themselves the next week just to keep an argument alive.
> Remember what you got into amateur radio for in the first place.
> Helping others learn more about it
> adventure
> working together.
> That is why I started into the hobby, but I could see some who would read 
> this list, and drop out because ... too much bs... it should be easier... 
> the sure don't live up to their credo...
> This will be my last post, as I too am getting disheartened for now.
>
>
> Grant Youngman <nq5t at comcast.net> wrote: > Doug Smith's leaving TT was NOT 
> an 'urban myth'!
>
>
> But the notion that the Orion somehow died with him is.  Positively.
> Absurd.  Of course he left.  Last I heard he isn't the last living guy 
> that
> knows stuff.  That he had the mojo and the rest is history -- that's the
> mythololgy, which has now become dogma.  If Gary B did do the Orion II
> single handedly (maybe that's just another piece of mythology), how many 
> of
> the whiners (and I've been one, too, at times) could even come close?
>
> Come to think of it, this whole series of threads is absurd.
>
> I don't understand why all the guys who think that they could do a better
> job, don't get together, throw in their savings accounts, and just build a
> radio.  Then we'll see.  Nothing is perfect for everyone.  Not the Orion, 
> or
> the II, or the 7800 or the 9000 or ....  Nothing is perfect.
>
> The whole business is just filling up disk space in my DELETED folder,
> including this useless contribution.
>
> Grant/NQ5T
>
>
>
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