[TenTec] EAGLE II Features: (?)

[Steve Berg]

Several years ago, I was driving to a conference in Charleston, South 
Carolina, and while preparing for the trip realized that I could stop in 
Sevierville and visit the Factory.  So, I did.  I was turned loose in 
the ham shack, and played around with an Omni VII, and an Eagle.  I was 
most impressed with the Eagle.  It was just what my Argonaut II could 
have had as a descendant.  During the Fire Sale, I bought an Omni VII, 
and it took about 2 months for the novelty to wear off, and for the 
Corsair II to relegate it to the shelf.  I found a home for it with a 
friend who just got his license.  I thought that the Omni VII would be 
easier to use because it is bigger than the Eagle.  Along the way, I 
bought an Argonaut VI, and had a lot of fun with it.  I suspect that the 
receiver in the Argo VI is better than the one in the Omni VII. When I 
worked T32C on 40 meter CW, I had the Corsair II on the 250 Hz filter, 
and the audio filter at max.  Some lid was QRMing them very close by, 
but with the passband tuning, I was able to make the contact.  The 
Corsair II is very easy to use, now that I know its quirks.  But, there 
is no way that it would now be considered by most hams even for general 
use, much less contesting.

I would also like a somewhat bigger Eagle along the lines that Rick 
suggests.  Something else that perhaps Mike Dishop and his team might 
contemplate is using the front panel functions of the Argonaut II/Delta 
II.  This layout has almost all the functionality of an Omni V or VI, 
and would help eliminate some of the use of menus.  It is really too bad 
that Zach Lau could not figure out how to use a variable bandpass filter 
with passband tuning, and so wrecked the chances for these radios with 
his QST review.  I can't blame him all that much because I have had mine 
since about 1992 and still find out ways of how to use it better.

But, Ten Tec needs cash flow to develop any new products, and so I am 
willing to buy a current Eagle, and even another Argonaut VI in the 
meantime.  I think the idea of having some to sell at Dayton is a great 
idea, and will help to counter all the sour grapes spread on the various 
forums.  Fixing the hangtime problem in some newly released firmware 
might also help.  But, I have ordered the parts for 3 interfaces since 
Rick gave me a useful schematic to deal with this issue.

73,

Steve WA9JML