[TenTec] Software / Firmware Upgrades

[Jim Brown]

On 4/10/2014 3:47 PM, Mike Stricker wrote:
> There are still some known hardware and firmware issues with the K2 that haven't been addressed since they shipped their first unit.

The K2 started out life as a QRP CW kit, that demand from owners caused 
to be gradually expanded to be a 100W SSB rig. Design decisions made for 
a 10W CW rig, and using parts available c.a. 1999 when the rig was 
designed, placed limitations on performance on SSB and at higher power 
levels. I owned a pair of K2s that I used for contesting and general 
operating, and I was well aware of those limitations.

The K2 is also quite different from the K3 and KX3. The K2 is an analog 
radio with a microprocessor as a controller. When you want to 
upgrade/update the firmware, you must program a chip and ship it, and 
the user must install it. That's hardware, and while you may not realize 
it, it costs the business owner to do all that. When you need a part for 
your car, the dealer charges for it. And when you want your car to do 
something it wasn't designed to do, you sell it and buy a new one.

The K3 and KX3 are SDRs with knobs. It's my understanding that the 
Orions are also SDRs with knobs. With these radios, the user can update 
firmware by downloading it from a website and feeding it to the radio 
via a serial port. Elecraft has a simple software utility for each of 
their products that makes that process nearly automatic.

In both of these upgrade scenarios, the vendor still has the engineering 
costs of writing the firmware updates, but both Ten Tec and Elecraft 
have made the business decision to consider that cost a part of customer 
support, and not pass it along to the customer.

73, Jim K9YC