[TenTec] Fwd: Motorola MC68705P3

Thu Sep 29 17:26:57 PDT 2011

Hi Jerry - While I can understand your frustration, in Ten-Tec's defense I
don't think it's fair to publish a widespread complaint naming a specific
employee about a specific incident.  Expecting that a company will procure
and program a device that is no longer produced, possibly using a programmer
that might not exist anymore, for a 25-year-old product, (etc. etc...) might
be unrealistic, even if it's technically possible.  The company owes it to
itself, its employees and its customers to stay in business, and if it
caters to specific requirements that take resources and serve only a handful
of people, it might not be a good move.

Perhaps his opinions about the Corsair II not being worth saving or working
on are coming from the company's financial perspective, not necessarily his
personal one.

Even Elecraft, known for its beyond-belief one-of-one customer service
(which I think is similar to Ten-Tec, historically) draws the lines at
certain requests -- even for current products -- for the same reason.

Obviously these are my opinions and I don't speak for either company.

Not sure if it's the same person but the only "Paul" I ever dealt with at
Ten-Tec many years ago, on several occasions, was so knowledgable and
helpful about some specific problems that it's stuck in my mind ever since.

For a niche project, I think the recent effort with the "homebrew" or "group
buy" display board is the perfect way to go.  Fun project, great design, and
within reach of anyone who is serious about resurrecting their failing
Corsair II displays.  Personally, I think the Corsair II is the greatest -
if not the greatest - rig ever made (for my needs).

Your efforts and involvement in this project are greatly appreciated.

--Andrew, NV1B
..

On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 5:21 PM, Glenn <wa4aos at aol.com> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Jerry,
>
>
> Sorry you had a bad experience with Paul. He is a very talented and
> trustworthy man and a [ersonal friend.. Without going into any detail, I
> spoke to him at the TT fest and he has some pressing things on his plate
> now. Not making excuses but we all have good and bad days. God knows my fuse
> has been short on many occasions; Just ask my wonderful wife.
> BTW, you can see a pic of Donna my XYL if you pull my call up on QRZ and
> scroll to the bottom of the page. I really did marry up. Hi..
>
>
> I know where Paul is coming from. Their labor rate is about $65 per hour
> and it does not take long to eat up a lot of money working on Corsairs. As
> the Service Manager he has to manage the time of his tech's and can't keep
> them on projects for long periods of time. Well, I guess he can but then the
> customers are going to bitch when the invoice has $300 to $400 in labor
> fees.  Not to mention that they try to service about every thing they have
> made with just a few exceptions and every year that list get's longer. The
> other issue is they have to have talent in many arenas. RF, Audio, Digital,
> TTL, regular Solid State, Dip, SMT and point to point wiring technologies.
> It is hard to find people who are decent in all areas and he probably does
> well to keep that kind of talent in house.
> Honestly, Paul does a pretty good job keeping it all together and putting
> up with us cranky hams.. Hi Hi
>
>
> I think the future of the Corsair rigs is bright for those of us in
> particular who can do some of the repair work. Often, if I am talking to a
> client who knows which end of a soldering iron to hold, I'll get him to do
> some of the work before he ships an item in. In some cases, cleaning
> connectors with DeOxit or doing some simple test will either resolve the
> problem or give enough information to get started once the unit comes in for
> repair.
> At least the owner will become a little more knowledgeable of his unit
> before it's shipped in for repairs.
>
>
> Ten Tec use to be real good about sending out boards for guys to swap out
> and then let them send the defective board back. Back in the 80's I dealt
> with Larry Worth before Paul took over the Service department and on several
> occasions  He sent parts to me without any charge, the honor system. If that
> resolved the problem I would send in the old part and in a week or three, I
> would receive a very modest bill for the part.
>
>
> Now with the boards being more expensive and sensitive to static damage, I
> suspect Ten Tec would rather the average Ham send his unit in for service.
>
>
> With regard to the MC68705P3 I bought 100 of them for a dollar each. The
> guy I bought them from has a burner for those that he trying to find to ship
> to me. However, this chip is not like an EPROM where you can easily read an
> IC store the code in a file and burn a new one; the code is tricky do catch.
> There is at least one fellow who figured out a process. I hope to get the
> burner and figure a way to get a file with the code so I can burn new code.
> But that's another project.
>
>
> If there is anyone on the list who is familiar with reading these IC's I
> would enjoy learning the technique.
>
>
> 73,
> Glenn WA4AOS
> DSM Labs (dot com)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry Haigwood <jerry at w5jh.net>
> To: 'Glenn' <wa4aos at aol.com>
> Sent: Thu, Sep 29, 2011 12:28 pm
> Subject: Motorola MC68705P3
>
>
>
> Glenn,
>     Earlier this week, I spoke with Paul the manager of Ten-Tec’s service
> department about the new Corsair II Display Logic Board.  He was not
> interested in it.  First he stated that he never sees any Corsairs II that
> have a failed U10 (MC68705P3) so he didn’t see the need for it.  He also
> stated that he doesn’t believe the Corsair IIs are worth saving or even
> working on.  He states that since they are 25 years old that the heating and
> cooling over the years have probably deteriorated the solder joints bad
> enough that they are probably failing.  He also said that the band switch is
> probably shot by now.  I questioned him about why Ten-Tec doesn’t buy more
> MC69705P3 controllers.  He said he can’t find them.  So, I told him I know
> of a person that recently purchased a number of them but didn’t have a way
> to program them.  He says that they (Ten-Tec) could still program them but
> since the part is not available it is not worth the effort looking (again
> Mr. Negative!).
>    Glenn, Paul was as negative a person as I have ever spoken with.  His
> attitude does not make me want to buy anything new from Ten-Tec.  He was
> down on everything I had to say about the Corsair II.  I know you guys think
> Ten-Tec is the greatest company in the world but you could not prove it by
> me.  If you know Paul maybe you can convince him to program the MC68705P3s
> you have.  If not, at least he may give you a copy of the HEX file so you
> can do it yourself.  It is obvious Ten-Tec doesn’t really care about the
> Corsair II.
> Jerry W5JH
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Glenn <wa4aos at aol.com>
> To: jerry <jerry at w5jh.net>
> Sent: Thu, Sep 29, 2011 1:14 pm
> Subject: Re: Motorola MC68705P3
>
>
> Hi Jerry,
>
>
> Sorry you had a bad experience with Paul. He is a very talented and
> trustworthy man and a [ersonal friend.. Without going into any detail, I
> spoke to him at the TT fest and he has some pressing things on his plate
> now. Not making excuses but we all have good and bad days. God knows my fuse
> has been short on many occasions; Just ask my wonderful wife.
> BTW, you can see a pic of Donna my XYL if you pull my call up on QRZ and
> scroll to the bottom of the page. I really did marry up. Hi..
>
>
> I know where Paul is coming from. Their labor rate is about $65 per hour
> and it does not take long to eat up a lot of money working on Corsairs. As
> the Service Manager he has to manage the time of his tech's and can't keep
> them on projects for long periods of time. Well, I guess he can but then the
> customers are going to bitch when the invoice has $300 to $400 in labor
> fees.  Not to mention that they try to service about every thing they have
> made with just a few exceptions and every year that list get's longer. The
> other issue is they have to have talent in many arenas. RF, Audio, Digital,
> TTL, regular Solid State, Dip, SMT and point to point wiring technologies.
> It is hard to find people who are decent in all areas and he probably does
> well to keep that kind of talent in house.
> Honestly, Paul does a pretty good job keeping it all together and putting
> up with us cranky hams.. Hi Hi
>
>
> I think the future of the Corsair rigs is bright for those of us in
> particular who can do some of the repair work. Often, if I am talking to a
> client who knows which end of a soldering iron to hold, I'll get him to do
> some of the work before he ships an item in. In some cases, cleaning
> connectors with DeOxit or doing some simple test will either resolve the
> problem or give enough information to get started once the unit comes in for
> repair.
> At least the owner will become a little more knowledgeable of his unit
> before it's shipped in for repairs.
>
>
> Ten Tec use to be real good about sending out boards for guys to swap out
> and then let them send the defective board back. Back in the 80's I dealt
> with Larry Worth before Paul took over the Service department and on several
> occasions  He sent parts to me without any charge, the honor system. If that
> resolved the problem I would send in the old part and in a week or three, I
> would receive a very modest bill for the part.
>
>
> Now with the boards being more expensive and sensitive to static damage, I
> suspect Ten Tec would rather the average Ham send his unit in for service.
>
>
> With regard to the MC68705P3 I bought 100 of them for a dollar each. The
> guy I bought them from has a burner for those that he trying to find to ship
> to me. However, this chip is not like an EPROM where you can easily read an
> IC store the code in a file and burn a new one; the code is tricky do catch.
> There is at least one fellow who figured out a process. I hope to get the
> burner and figure a way to get a file with the code so I can burn new code.
> But that's another project.
>
>
> If there is anyone on the list who is familiar with reading these IC's I
> would enjoy learning the technique.
>
>
> 73,
> Glenn WA4AOS
> DSM Labs (dot com)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry Haigwood <jerry at w5jh.net>
> To: 'Glenn' <wa4aos at aol.com>
> Sent: Thu, Sep 29, 2011 12:28 pm
> Subject: Motorola MC68705P3
>
>
>
> Glenn,
>     Earlier this week, I spoke with Paul the manager of Ten-Tec’s service
> department about the new Corsair II Display Logic Board.  He was not
> interested in it.  First he stated that he never sees any Corsairs II that
> have a failed U10 (MC68705P3) so he didn’t see the need for it.  He also
> stated that he doesn’t believe the Corsair IIs are worth saving or even
> working on.  He states that since they are 25 years old that the heating and
> cooling over the years have probably deteriorated the solder joints bad
> enough that they are probably failing.  He also said that the band switch is
> probably shot by now.  I questioned him about why Ten-Tec doesn’t buy more
> MC69705P3 controllers.  He said he can’t find them.  So, I told him I know
> of a person that recently purchased a number of them but didn’t have a way
> to program them.  He says that they (Ten-Tec) could still program them but
> since the part is not available it is not worth the effort looking (again
> Mr. Negative!).
>    Glenn, Paul was as negative a person as I have ever spoken with.  His
> attitude does not make me want to buy anything new from Ten-Tec.  He was
> down on everything I had to say about the Corsair II.  I know you guys think
> Ten-Tec is the greatest company in the world but you could not prove it by
> me.  If you know Paul maybe you can convince him to program the MC68705P3s
> you have.  If not, at least he may give you a copy of the HEX file so you
> can do it yourself.  It is obvious Ten-Tec doesn’t really care about the
> Corsair II.
> Jerry W5JH
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>