[TenTec] Band Stacking Registers - 2.038k

[Merle Bone]

George (W2YJ) said:
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"I'm wondering if the hams at Ten Tec ever try out the upgrade firmware on 
real hams before releasing it to the general public?
I would think that Ten Tec would release a beta version to 10 or 20 hams 
that enjoy the various areas of the hobby, DX'ing, contesting, rag chewing.
Maybe they aren't releasing it to the right hams that will give the new 
release a real workout and report back.
George  W2YJ "
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At one time TenTec had a "beta" test team, with about 25 members, for the Orion firmware. That test team started during the V1 release period and continued working during the early testing of the V2 firmware - maybe up through Orion release V2.052. At that point, there were still a lot of bugs in the firmware - and consequently a lot of "problems raised on the reflector set up for the beta test team. Without a very "clear explanation" the team was dissolved about 1 February 2006 - about the time that release V2.052 was released for the Orion and the first release for the Orion II came out. It takes a lot of testing to really "qualify" a major code change in something as complex as the Orion. That either takes a lot of people that use the radio in a lot of different ways, communicating with each other, or a big test plan. 

Its not clear, from the last 5 or 6 firmware releases, how much testing is done now before new firmware is released. However, this release did address a number of problem areas. Hopefully the next one will also.
73, Merle - W0EWM