[TenTec] Ten-Tec rebranding

[Rick - NJ0IP / DJ0IP]

Geoffry, you bring up an excellent point.

Our choices are:
1. buy an unknown radio from an unknown supplier in china, cheap
2. buy that same radio for more money but from a US distributor who burns in
their radios and has renowned service.

I think it would be foolish to choose #1.

I'm anxious to hear users' feedback on these rigs.

73
Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]
On Behalf Of geoffrey mendelson
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 12:51 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Ten-Tec rebranding


On May 25, 2010, at 1:30 AM, Susan A Walker wrote:

> I've often wondered why Ten-Tec didn't keep its engineering in
> Sevierville and outsource production to the east. Certainly the build
> quality and QC of its locally-produced transceivers are nothing
> special.

This is something completely different. The original radio was  
designed and manufactured in China. It was first sold as a kit via  
mail order. Then they were sold fully assembled. A relative of the  
factory owner lives in Canada, and started selling them in on Ebay.

TenTec is taking the radios as they are built in China, slapping their  
name on them and selling them. In the computer business this is called  
OEM'ing, with TenTec being the OEM. (OEM in automotive terms is the  
exact opposite).

There were complaints about a firmware bug limiting receiver  
performance, I expect they have been fixed by now.

The big difference between is the TenTec is 2 band, the original is 3.  
I don't know, but I expect there will be a firmware patch on the  
internet to make it three band unless there is a hardware limitation.  
So far they are using the same schematics in their manual as the 3  
band version, so I doubt it.

My expereince with Chinese manufactured goods is that they do not have  
the quality control the US consumers demand. If you watched the Orion/ 
factory tour video, TenTec burns in their radios for 24 hours before  
they are released for shipping. I expect that they will do the same  
with the Chinese rigs. If not at first after a few months of a 5%-10%  
return rate, they will.

>
> Perhaps slapping a Ten-Tec logo on a radio made in China is a first
> tentative step in that direction, although in the past Ten-Tec has put
> its label on Astron power supplies, I believe. Don't know where
> they're made.


Who made their 2m HT?

Geoff.

-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge  
or understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the  
situation. i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found  
in the Wikipedia.






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