[TenTec] Orion 2 Situation

[Mike Stricker]

Several people that I know, including myself, were very happy with the O2 for quite a while.  We became disenchanted with the upgrades because they added features but also broke things along the way.  The time to fix the broken things began taking longer and longer.  On repeated occassions, I had to develop a test so that the problem could be demonstrated to the Ten Tec team because they couldn't reproduce it.  Once they received my results, they had an AH HA moment.  I was also told that some of the lingering issues were very easy to fix....2 years ago.  They still haven't been addressed.

A recent HAM discovered my antenna and came over with a broken Ten Tec Delta that he wanted my opinion on.  I told him I did not have time to even look at it but Ten Tec's service department would have no problem at all with it and they have a stellar reputation.  He sent it in and after waiting more than 6 weeks for an estimate, he requested that they send it back.

I liked my O2.  I had it and a K3 in my shack and the O2 gave superior performance while operating in close proximity to W1AW.  The noise reduction capabilities were also superior.  After moving from THAT qth, I had a chance to reevaluate the radio and I became very bothered by the problems that weren't getting addressed.  The death knell for me, however, was the incredibly long wait that my friend had with his rig and seeing the ad on their website for a technician (that is still unfulfilled).

So, whil I am sure that the O2 will be a rig in demand for a while for some, I sold mine and took it as an opportunity to get back to the spirit of the hobby and build and modify equipment.

Mike, WA1SEO