[TenTec] Wrong Product - Eagle

Mon Feb 20 19:07:43 EST 2017

I guess that my career path was a lot different from some of those on 
this list.  My first real job was working for a swindler, as it turned 
out.  He took a lot of people for a great deal of money.  Some of these 
individuals had some major clout, as we say in Illinois, so I am amazed 
that he lived to die a bitter old man from emphysema.  This was long 
before OSHA, but that was fortunate because that worthy regulatory 
agency would have closed them down ASAP.  The last person to cash their 
paycheck usually had it bounce.

Then, I worked for a number of startups, the most memorable of which 
shall remain nameless.  We worked in millimeter waves, and also did some 
R&D work for some legit firms, and then designing items like the Disco 
Medallion for a cokehead commodity trader...  I wound up working for 
them some years after selling them a NARDA GaAs FET amplifier.   I had 
to sell it to them COD, because they had one of the worst D&B ratings in 
the Galaxy. After getting blindsided by being laid off from another 
small engineering firm, I went to work for this outfit.  I remember the 
response of our book keeper when an irate vendor announced on the phone 
that this invoice had remained unpaid for an entire year. She sang Happy 
Birthday to them and hung up.  To say that this firm was a shoestring 
operation would be a great understatement. The one founding partner 
stabbed his fellow founder in the back and took over the company.  At 
least the paychecks didn't bounce all that often.  This was before 
websites, so we didn't have one, and at least we answered the phones, 
but the place certainly didn't pay its bills!

In contrast, Mike Dishop has taken on a very tough project of 
resurrecting two companies that had fallen on very hard times.  He has a 
skeleton crew that is doing some remarkable things.  He is investing 
with his own money to get the companies back into production.  Service 
has been restored, and is, at least from my perspective, doing a great 
job with an acceptable turn around time.  I sent my Argo II back to them 
when RKR owned the company, and then found out that it was sold to Mike 
with only the assets and not the liabilities.  I contacted them via 
e-mail, they found my radio, and fixed it up so it runs like it did when 
it was new. I never expected to see it again, and thanks to Robert, I 
got it back nicely repaired.  They have sold me PTO kits and some other 
accessories.  It just takes a while.  I am delighted in the progress 
that they have made so far, and look forward to buying some new radios 
from them as they come into production.

Steve WA9JML

On 2/20/2017 5:29 PM, rick at dj0ip.de wrote:
> Louis,
>
> All of your points are fair points.  No question.  (Except for one).
>
> Mike picked up the last few glowing coals from the fire that was almost
> extinguished and is trying to re-kindle it, paying cash as he goes, out of
> his own pocket.
>
> I retired from the computer industry where I was a marketing VP for many
> years.
> I can assure you most of what we talked about was futures and vaporware.
> If you don't do that, you're toast.
> All companies do it.
>
> Half of the products I spoke about never came to fruition.
> The other half did.
> But I was paid to talk about all of them.
>
> Ten-Tec is currently shipping nothing.  Nada; Zip.
> If they follow your suggestion to the letter, all a prospective customer
> will be greeted with is a blank web page.  At that point Ten-Tec would
> really be dead.
>
> I now work for Spiderbeam, in fact I run the entire company.
> The owner and MD pays me to keep customers away from him.
> Sounds terrible but he must do that.
>
> He owns 2 other companies and has manufacturing facilities in other
> countries.
> He travels all the time, and rarely has time to answer customers...and
> certainly not on their timeframe.  But he has people in each business that
> do that for him.
>
> THIS TOO IS STANDARD PROCEDURE IN BUSINESS.
>
> The boss can't do everything himself so he delegates tasks to reliable and
> capable people.
> Your expectation level here is totally unrealistic.
>
> It would indeed be nice if Ten-Tec could have a contact telephone, but they
> are not ready for that yet.
>
> 73 - Rick, DJ0IP
> (Nr. Frankfurt, Germany)
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Louis
> Ciotti
> Sent: Monday, February 20, 2017 11:11 PM
> To: terry foskey; Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Wrong Product - Eagle
>
> Here is the problem with Tec Tec right now.
>
> Most people go to websites to look for information.  I am looking for
> information on TenTec, I go to the site.  I am met with a home page that
> shows photos of 6 possible transceivers, and 2 receivers. Some of the photos
> are OK, but they all are grainy, one is down right bad. It looks
> amateur-"ish".
>
> OK so lets get past that, let try and buy a radio... ooopps.. it goes to a
> under construction page. No mention of the production "pause", future
> production plans, nothing... hmmm
>
> OK.... lets get more information... how about the About page... Well at
> least this has some information, but it appears dated, and with this recent
> news coming via a third party to an e-mail reflector, that the first
> production radios will be "eagles" with basically no updates.  The site
> states differently, it talks about an Omni 7+, then a "Super Eagle" then an
> Orion III... Wait... this all is familiar, oh yea that same text was
> published 1 year ago, so that is dated, and obviously wrong.
>
> OK lets go further... I have a tentec, and they are repairing radios, lets
> get that out for repair... Go to service, click the contact us link...
> ooopps now I am at mirror of an old site and have a 404 error...
>
> Grrrr.. maybe there is something in the news section... Nope, just a check
> back regularly notice...
>
> OK lets go to the contact page.. Hey some useful links finally... but what
> is this??  All over the site there are comments about not contacting
> Distronix about anything tentec related, but it looks like if you are a
> commercial company or government customer you get to call Distronix..  Well
> I guess we know who they care about....
>
> All of this adds up to people thinking TenTec is gone... or at least no
> longer viable long term option
>
> My thoughts:
>
> 1) if the radio is not in production, DON'T put it on the products page
>
> 2) If I can't order a radio, DON'T even have a products page, because lets
> face it, if I can't order a radio, you are not producing radios, are you a
> radio manufacture?
>
> 3) If you do have service available, have the service page actually work,
> and oh have a phone number that people can call, even if it just goes to
> voice mail, and oh BTW check the voice mail, and respond. If you can't have
> someone to answer the phone, again that leaves an unsettled feeling with
> people. After all you are trusting people to send in their radio for repair,
> it would be nice to talk to someone about it.  I am not saying you have to
> have a tech man the line, it can just be a person who documents the problem,
> and files the RMAs, a pretty low skill position that can't cost that much
> money.
>
> 4) A lot of the website talks about how much better new management is doing,
> seems sort of thing someone would say in house, not to customers.  Really we
> do not need to hear how much better you are than the last guy, prove it with
> actions not words.
>
> 5) Post company news via proper channels, not via a e-mail reflector through
> another person.  Company information should come from the company and nobody
> else. TenTec needs a face and a voice for the amateur crowd, and right now
> all they have is an "OK" website, and second hand forwarded e-mails..
>
> 6) If TenTec is going to make a radio, then fine, figure out the production
> time line, price point etc. internally, and then ounce that is locked down
> and you have committed to doing it the post it publicly, and promote it, and
> oh BTW don't count on a limit run of radios to keep you afloat, that will
> never work, it is just kicking the can down the road. The eagle was released
> when 2010/2011??  your going to save the company with 7 year old tech?
>
> I give Mike credit for taking on this beast, and I had hoped he would have
> been able to turn things around by now, but I am left feeling like he is in
> well over his head.
>
> Just my $0.02 take it for what it is...
>
> On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 3:58 PM, terry foskey via TenTec
> <tentec at contesting.com> wrote:
>> You will never sell eagles at the proposed price point.  I was not
> proposing an OMNI VII only the form factor ie user interface of a box
> similar in size or between the Orion and the Omni VII.  What i propose uses
> the Eagle receiver and perhaps transmit sections but in a different package.
>>
>>        From: Ron Notarius W3WN <wn3vaw at verizon.net>
>>   To: 'terry foskey' <n5tf at yahoo.com>; 'Discussion of Ten-Tec
>> Equipment' <tentec at contesting.com>
>>   Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2017 2:48 PM
>>   Subject: RE: [TenTec] Wrong Product - Eagle
>>
>> Terry,
>>
>> I would respectfully disagree with you in part.
>>
>> Considering that the Omni VII is the older of the two designs, it
>> makes sense to bring back the Eagle first.  Less chance of parts
>> suddenly becoming unobtanium, one of the hottest receivers on the
>> market at the time (remember the upgrade to the Orion/Orion II second
>> receiver was the Eagle receiver design, as I recall), and a relatively
> compact design.
>> If were Mike to ask for my input, which he has not, my only quibble
>> would be to make the "bare bones" Eagles all with the antenna tuner.
>> You can achieve a bit of an economy of scale that way, and it would be
>> a good selling point when compared to the imported rigs for less money
> that come an AT installed.
>> Now, with that said...
>>
>> I would agree that, if I were asked, which I have not, that the first
> "new"
>> rig would logically be an updated Omni VII.  Take the Eagle design,
>> bring it up to date with technology from the last few years, possibly
>> add either a second receiver or the capability to add one later (a
>> simple add-in board, perhaps).  Use the larger rig form factor of an
>> Omni VII or an Orion for the purpose of ergonomics (I've used a K3,
>> and I really dislike the small knobs and the relatively crowded front
>> panel... But I don't wan an all menu driven rig, either).
>>
>> Once that's done, if I were asked, which I have not, I'd then suggest
>> updating the Eagle.  So the two primary HF rigs would be the 'updated'
>> Eagle and the 'updated' Omni VII, whatever names/numbers end up being
>> hung on them.
>>
>> Oh, and I would also (if asked) suggest bringing the Rebel & Patriot
>> back sooner than later, and yes, I know that the old CPU is out of
>> production and this would require a small redesign.  They were selling
>> quite well for a while, and it looked as though they were a big hit
>> with those interested in Open Source and similar 'mod' projects.  Both
>> were essentially single board rigs, as I recall, with a simple case.
>> Should be easy to put back in production (oh, sure) compared to the other
> rigs.
>> ...and if at all possible, I'd hope Mike can have rigs with him at
>> Hamvention (I guess we can't call it Dayton anymore, can we?  Xenia
>> Hamvention just doesn't have the ring to it though).  I think it would
>> be a huge postitive PR step to not just SAY that the gear is back in
>> production, but to SHOW them, and display them ready for sale NOW.  If
>> Mike were to ask my opinion, that is, which he has not.
>>
>> Back to the contest!
>>
>> 73. ron w3wn
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of terry
>> foskey via TenTec
>> Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2017 11:58 AM
>> To: TenTec at contesting.com
>> Cc: terry foskey
>> Subject: [TenTec] Wrong Product - Eagle
>>
>> I personally believe the Eagle is the wrong product to hang a radio
>> restart on.  Piggy back on the OMNI VII and Orion 2. Take a form
>> factor somewhere near the Omni VII box, slap two eagle receivers in
>> it, nice pad adapter screen  with an output for a larger screen, IF
>> Out and you could compete with elecraft and others.  The user
>> interface alone on the Tentec will run circles around the Elecraft.
>> Perhaps Im wrong but I don't believe the Eagle has the demand.
>> N5TFTerry
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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