[TenTec] Orion II has ended production

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

Mike,

My take is, it cannot be done for less than $1K.
The only radio that even comes close to being good is the TS-590.
For many people the FT-950 is also good enough but certainly not for me.
I kept mine one month.  And even it costs $1300.

The problem is twofold.
First what we all see in Rob's list.
There simply isn't a large enough dynamic range to cope with heavily crowded
bands on weekends, especially contest weekends.
Worse yet are the transmitters of ALL of the rigs costing less than $1K.
They have noisy synthesizers and generate too much broadband noise.

Even the TS-590 suffers from this TX noise problem to some extent.
The Eagle does not have this problem.
It is interesting to note that although the IMD of the TS-590 is better, the
Eagle does not generate this broadband noise, so in my books it is far
superior than the Kenwood.

73
Rick, DJ0IP

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Michael
Cheponis
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 8:33 AM
To: rmcgraw at blomand.net; Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion II has ended production

The question I have is:

Can you make a $1K radio that is, say,  90% of a $10K radio's performance?

Those that demand the "very best" are willing to pay for it; the
performance-vs-dollars curve is not linear.

With today's superior tech, it would seem at least possible to build a
market-successful radio at the $1K price point with "pretty darn good"
performance -- let's say "KWM-2" level.

The ARRL has had at least a couple of homebrew contests where they kept the
total parts cost fixed, and the contestants had to design and build to the
spec as best they could; seeing what they accomplished makes me believe the
"$1K modern KWM-2" is probably possible.

-Mike  K3MC / 6

On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 8:47 PM, Robert Mcgraw <rmcgraw at blomand.net> wrote:

> I agree!   Now lets look at this:
>
> (a)  How many hams are willing to spend $4K to $7K for a radio?  I 
> view an item like the "Orion III" would like to be in this range.
>
> (b)  How many hams are willing to spend less than $2K for a radio?
>
> (c)  How many hams are willing to spend less than $1K for a radio?
>
> Now for all of the above lets assume 160m - 6m, 100 watt radio.
>
> I'll give you a clue (c) will be the big winner regardless of what's 
> packed into the radio.
>
> 73  "A cheap ham"
> K4TAX
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Let's face it: the 566 hardware platform is 8 years old, and nearing 
> > the end of its new-product life cycle.  That said, I have to agree 
> > with Barry
> >  --
> > bringing out an Orion III with state-of-the-art hardware wouldn't be 
> > too difficult, if sufficient customer demand exists.  Does it?  I 
> > don't know...
> >
> > 73 Ray W2RS
> > _______________________________________________
> > TenTec mailing list
> > TenTec at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
> >
>
>
> --
> Disclosure:
> I am a Tentec Ambassador and compensated according to the Tentec 
> Ambassador plan. I serve as a volunteer beta test person for the Omni
> VII, Eagle and Argonaut VI products.   Otherwise, I hold no business or
> employment interest with Tentec.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
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