[TenTec] The Eagle inflation costs, etc.

[Kevin Anderson]

I didn't mean any disrespect for the Eagle in my post of a few days ago.  And I appreciate Jack noticing my post and specifically replying to it.

I personally would buy an Eagle if I could afford it (and would have bought the Argo V earlier if I could have afforded it then, as I am mainly a QRP operator).  I'm partial to the wider and not so tall format of the Scout, Argo V, and Eagle.  I much prefer their smaller size and proportions to the format and size of the Jupiter, Orion, and Omni VI (and before that the Paragon II, Omni V, and Omni VI), as I've long considered them too boxy and large for my shack.  Before I got my two Scouts, I used to own an Argosy II and Century 22, which again share more similarities to my preferences.  I parted with those two older radios mainly because I grew tired of having to rebuild PTOs and wanted someone else to enjoy those radios while they had the chance.  And the PTO limitations of the older Corsair, early Omnis and Tritons, is why I wouldn't personally buy one for myself, regardless of how good they are.  While the Scout has a PTO (the last of the Ten-Tec
 PTO radios), it is a much different PTO design and one not requiring rebuilding.  My only beef with the Scout, besides the module-based band switching, is that I wish the RIT covered +/- 6 khz, instead of its very limiting 1.4 or so, because then I might be able to work a bit more DX in pileup situations; right now I'm basically out of luck for thinking about working DXpeditions and sought-after DX.  Otherwise, for its cost, the Scout was/is a decent, solid, dependable, usable radio.

I don't doubt that a cheaper or more bare-bones radio is not good in serious contesting situations.  I wouldn't want that either.  My limited experience operating at club field days and some other multi-multi situations is that Ten Tec and maybe Kenwood work well, with Icom generally being the worst and Yaesu being somewhere in between, at tolerating station-to-station interference.

And I don't deny Jack's business assessment that even Ten-Tec couldn't produce a Scout today, let alone a multi-band version of such a low-end radio, at an affordable (to me) price.  When I look at what an Elecraft K2 costs new, $699 for just the 10-watt CW-only version, which is for the kit, with assembly still required, there is no way I can expect Ten-Tec to do that or less with an assembled radio.  Nor is it fair to ask them to.  But I want them to stay in business, so I have the option of buying a well-built radio made here in the States, and more importantly still being able to get older radios repaired.

And so I will still watch the Eagle with interest, and hope that it does get bought and become successful for Ten-Tec, as at least then I might be able to buy a used one in six to ten years time (as I still hope someday I might upgrade to an Argo V).  

But in the meantime I still also sit back in amazement at how much radio buying you guys do, and the prices you can afford to pay, as I know there is no way my wife and I can ever justify it (and we are in our early 50s) -- to us, a non-essential purchase such as a transceiver at even $1,000 (or even a K2 kit for $699) is well beyond our scope of consideration.  Obviously you guys earn a lot more than I do, or have a way different set of priorities than my family.  I'm not disappointed -- just amazed.

And speaking of Tritons of old now costing thousands today if bought new - there is now way I could have afforded to become a ham then (or now) if that is what it cost to get into the hobby.  The only way I figure people were able to do it then is that we/they didn't have nearly the range of necessary expenses, at least in proportion to income.  Despite the advances in some areas economically, it does cost a whole lot more today proportionally to live, and with it our expectations on equipment performance, etc.

Cheers/73,
Kevin, K9IUA

-- 
-------------------------------------
Kevin Anderson, Dubuque IA USA, K9IUA
k9iua (at) yahoo (dot) com
-------------------------------------