[TenTec] TenTec Digest, Vol 157, Issue 5

Wed Jan 6 11:24:28 EST 2016

 True, as far as that goes.

But a one man shop may not have the parts in stock, or be able to easily get them (especially those that require bulk purchases) without resorting on an online site that charge high retail prices for those parts.

A one man shop may not be able to get an available-from-factory-only part... or be able to get one made or fabricated.

A one man shop may not have all the technical manuals and write-ups and mod announcements (etc etc etc) for a given model.  Or for that matter, any of them.

A one man shop has no backup.  If the one man falls ill, or has another life priority taking place, or just feels like going fishing, their is no one who can step in and pick up the slack.

A one man shop may not have the expertise to work on the newest radios from a manufacturer.  Or for that matter, the oldest.

A one man shop may not have the insurance (primarily liability, amongst others) coverage that the factory shop will have.  What happens if there's a break-in or fire or other disaster?  The factory can replace the damage/destroyed rig.  A one man shop may not find that so easy.

Let's keep things in perspective here.  

And with that in mind, and with all due respect to all... c'mon, can we give Steven Dishop & Dishtronix a break?  He has (directly and through John) repeated said that he doesn't have everything in place yet, but (as you can see from his comments in the NEWS forum thread on QRZ.COM) he IS working on it.  This isn't like walking into your local sandwich shop and taking it over from the founder, it is a LOT more complicated.  

The man was quiet, and wanted to remain quiet, until he had all his ducks in a row.  But people wanted some answers (and in some cases, they had a point) so he broke his silence.  Now he is being raked over the coals because his plans were announced before they were finalized.  In other words, shot if you do, shot if you don't.

Enough nit-picking!  Let him finish getting his new house in order first.  

OK.  Rant off.

73, ron w3wn

On 01/06/16, Jose F Ballester wrote:

Paul, there are a number of one man shops that don’t have much of an overhead to speak of and could handle radio troubleshooting and repairs for less than TenTec or any other manufacturer could.

73 de Pepe WP3HW
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

On Jan 6, 2016, at 9:57 AM, Paul Gates <kd3jf.paulgates at gmail.com> wrote:

I will never pay $140.00 an hour for in the first place I cannot afford a
$3000.00 radio. I had a lot of TenTec radios in the 70s and 80s and never
paid more than $600.00 for a radio. Right now I have a Delta 580 which
probably was manufactured around 1979. I have never sent it in for repairs.
4 years ago I sent it in to be checked over and it sounds good as ever. I
paid around $150.00 to have it checked over. The ssb sound is beautiful and
is as good as my Drake TR4 did! <g> My wife and I are retired and our
yearly income would buy a $3000.00 radio! So I have to be satisfied with my
Delta. I well remember all the complaining and swearing when the first
Orion came out.

Paul Gates, KW4BD
Leesburg, Florida

On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 6:20 AM, Amateur Radio WB8NUT <duffy at wb8nut.com>
wrote:

> That rate is very high.
> 
> If you pay your bench techs $40 an hour, then add burdened labor rate of
> 50% on to that, it is $60 an hour. Then add another 50% for overhead and
> profit, you arrive at $80. So that is some massive profit percentage being
> charged to a customer.
> 
> Now many customers like me in the past paid more for their radio from
> TenTec because of the former legendary service and support. Now that
> support and service is going to be very costly, why do I want to pay more
> for the radio? So if service pricing is going up dramatically, then the
> cost of the radios needs to come down to be more competitive with the
> Japanese brands.
> 
> At this point, we are no longer dealing with the old TenTec. What was
> TenTec is largely gone. We have someone who owns the name, and designs, but
> other than that, TenTec is pretty much starting from scratch so it is
> really going to be a new company.
> 
> JMHO
> 
> Duffy
> www.wb8nut.com
> 
>> 
>> Message: 4
>> Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 09:35:10 -0600
>> From: Dalton <w4wuq at att.net>
>> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec at contesting.com>
>> Subject: Re: [TenTec] TEN-TEC Announcement January 4, 2016
>> Message-ID: <795E4C93-332F-44E3-BD50-1A383A9F69CA at att.net>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>> 
>> I agree, seems high. Even higher if tax is added on top of that. Maybe
> we all need to revert back to the days of the Heathkit SB series
> equipment. For the most part those can be repaired at home. None of these
> surface mount components in them. They had room to get around circuits.
>> 
>> 73,
>> Dalton - W4WUQ
>> w4wuq at arrl.net
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On Jan 4, 2016, at 8:46 PM, Jim Vohland <n9vo at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Sounds like reasonable repair policy except for one thing. Don't most
> repair facilities charge a "repair estimate" fee but only if you don't have
> unit repaired. 265 minimum plus shipping just seems a bit high. But guess
> I could be out of touch.
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> ______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jan 5, 2016, at 10:30 AM, John Henry <jshenry1963 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Regarding the inputs from 73, Jim K9YC
>>> 
>>> I believe you said it better than I ever could.
>>> People that don't run a business with overhead forget all of the
> ancillary
>>> costs of just doing business itself. Let alone whether that business is
>>> repairing cars or manufacturing and repairing transceivers.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for your inputs,
>>> 73, KI4JPL
>>> John Henry
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TenTec mailing list
>>> TenTec at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>> 
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
> 
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