[TenTec] The Next Flagship

[Jim Lowman]

Rick and all,

I loaned my Eagle to a friend for an in-shack evaluation.
He went to Dayton, but there's a limit to what you can do with equipment 
on display there.
Here is his impression of the Eagle:

"Now on the the Eagle. It plays very nicely, the receiver and QSK are 
great, but the ergonomics fall seriously short. Not enough buttons and 
knobs to do the job. One of my pet peeves is not having a dedicated 
keyer speed control. You need to poke two buttons before you can crank 
the knob. Ditto the RIT.

I had it turned on and used it extensively in the four days before I 
left for Dayton so I did get to know it well enough. The box sure gets 
hot just receiving. If they’d put it in a slightly larger container with 
a little bigger face with a little more room for controls I think it 
would have made a big difference."

Initially he was quite impressed with the specs of the Eagle, in a box 
not much larger than the Argonaut V.

When he did go to Dayton, he ordered a K3.

I recall the test that a French ham did - a A/B/C comparison of an 
Eagle, K3 and TS-590.
For him, the ergonomics of the TS-590 won out.
So, for transceivers with fairly comparable specs, it can often come 
down to the very subjective area of ergonomics; much like the feel of a 
high-quality paddle.

As to a transceiver with limited bands, say 20/30/40, well...that 
wouldn't work for me.
I got beyond my fascination for small QRP radios that had single-band 
coverage or, at most, three bands.
That ended about the time that Index Labs came out with the QRP+ with 
160-10m in one small package.

73 de Jim - AD6CW