[TenTec] The Eagle

[Rsoifer at aol.com]

There is something to this issue about QST reviews.  As I recall, the  
reviewer of the Orion II said something like "I don't like the feel of this  
radio because I'm used to Icom and I can't operate it the same way."  In  
addition, QST and other magazines that publish reviews still haven't come up  
with a way of dealing with SDRs.  The 2006 review of the OII was  necessarily 
based on 2006 firmware, which was far inferior to today's  version.
 
73 Ray W2RS
 
 
In a message dated 9/27/2010 11:40:16 P.M. GMT Standard Time,  
RRBunn at cox.net writes:

Too bad  the reciver specs are not up to other Ten Tec radios.  .5uV????
73  Rick  
N4ASX

-----Original Message-----
From:  tentec-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]
On  Behalf Of mike bryce
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 11:52 AM
To:  Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] The Eagle

This  has been an interesting thread. It got me out of the shadows.

I haven't  looked it up but in 1978 the triton was someplace around $700
stripped with  no noise blanker or cw filters, analog version.

today that's about over  two grand.

take all the stuff  out of a a radio that is so common  like dual vfos,
memories, and the other controls and dohickies is like  shooting yourself in
the foot while standing in a room full of gasoline  fumes.

the IC 718 is priced around $600-$700 (Before you shoot me. I  didn't look 
up
the prices on line, but I'm close)

Even if Ten Tec  could hit the $500 mark, make a few few bucks, the 
reviewers
would rip the  rig apart simply because it DOESN'T have the thingiees and
dohickies we've  come to accept as 'normal.' 

Can't you just hear the QST reviewer  saying something like. "The new entry
radio from Ten Tec disappointed us  because it lacked the basic dual VFO
design of its competitors. To market a  radio that won't allow split
operation on the HF bands is beyond our  thinking."

Especially, if the competition had all those features and  was only $100
more.

Sure Ford could come out with a automobile  without power steering, power
brakes, power windows. No radio. A three  speed manual tranny, no AC and on
and on. You'd get four wheels a steering  wheel and three cylinder engine. (
I don't recall the name of the car, but  it's being build in India. That car
is so stripped down, it only has one  windshield wiper.)

All the engineering costs have already been done.  Just slap it together in 
a
old Pinto body and sell that sucker for $5k less  than anyone else.

Would ford sell any? Sure I'd bet they would-until  Motor Trend did the
review.

As for the cost driver? I don't know. I  do know that with less than one
million hams in the usa, we're just a  pebble along a creek bank. Out of 
that
many, how many buy new radios? And  with the slice of pie so thin,  and your
competitors all trying for a  piece of that  slice, a company has to make
money quickly.  

besides actual production cost in labor, parts, engineering   (someone still
has to prove the whole shebang works together even with  other proven
designs) there are test jigs, burn in time, spare parts have  to be 
purchased
and money spent on getting the okay from the  FCC.

And after you do all that. One crappy review will doom the radio.  All
together now, let's say 'Argonaut II' (To refresh your memory. QST  ripped
the argonaut II because it didn't have the I/O port (among other  problems
they sited ) that the Delta II had. Ten Ten added it later. That  review
killed the Argonaut II)


Mike, WB8VGE
SunLight Energy  Systems
The Heathkit Shop
http://www.theheathkitshop.com/
J e e  p
o|||||||o 
Note: No trees were killed in the sending of this message,  but a large
number of electrons were terribly  inconvenienced



On Sep 26, 2010, at 9:12 PM, Louis Ciotti  wrote:

> I say yes this can be build... if you strip the eagle down  to bare
minimum,
> and have only a the simple controls that the older  rigs, how can it not 
be
> built.  Strip off the DSP, and have fixed  filters.  Most of the circuitry
> has already been designed.   The Output PA is done, the VFO is done, Audio
> portion is done, all  that is really needed is to repackage it.  I am
talking
> about  a basic HF transceiver here.  No Split, no memories, to dual  VFOs,
no
> fancy multi color display, no IF port, just something  simple to get 
people
> on the air.
> 
> The Tentec Triton  has the following controls:
> 
> Band
> AF gain
> RF  Gain
> Drive
> ALC
> Resonate
> Offset
> Mode  (SSB, SSB-R, CW 1, CW 2, Tune)
> VFO
> 
> With the modern  designs this can be dropped to:
> 
> AF Gain
> RF  Gain
> ALC
> Mic Gain
> Offset
> Mode (Same  modes)
> VFO
> 
> That is 7 knobs.
> 
> How can  this not be build in a production environment and be sold for
under
>  $500 and make a profit?  Like I said most of the electronic design  work
has
> been done already, so where is the real cost driver  here?
>  

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