[TenTec] Wrong Product - Eagle

Tue Feb 21 15:35:54 EST 2017

*As one satisfied customer who got his 14 year old Orion fixed, thank you
for the update and keep up the great work.  I can imagine what kind of
answer I would get from Icom when I want to get service on my 14 year old
7300.*

*Art WA8VSJ*

On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 9:35 AM, Wes Attaway (N5WA) <
wesattaway at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Mike .... Thanks for the update to all your loyal supporters.
>
> You pretty well covered the waterfront.
>
> Maybe the naysayers will calm down a little bit.
>
> I am sure everyone wishes you the best as you go through all the management
> decisions that are necessary.
>
>    -------------------
> Wes Attaway (N5WA)
> (318) 393-3289 - Shreveport, LA
> Computer/Cellphone Forensics
> AttawayForensics.com
>    -------------------
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mike
> Dishop
> via TenTec
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 2:28 AM
> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
> Cc: Mike Dishop
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Wrong Product - Eagle
>
>  OK, there is complaints that I don't communicate directly with you.  Let
> me
> see if I can actually post on the reflector correctly.  I'm afraid I work
> very hard each day and don't have time to make posts and things like this
> so
> I don't quite know how to reply to a thread, but here goes.  Something you
> might keep in mind is if one of you make an ass out of yourself on a
> reflector it doesn't do anything but make you look stupid. Anything I say
> however will be taken out of context and distorted by some person to try to
> shed a bad light on me or the company.  I have a number of people working
> for me who depend on this for their livelihood. Please think about what
> damage you are doing when you spread outright lies that Ten Tec or Alpha is
> out of business.  We have been open and working since I purchased the
> companies. Hundreds of radios have been repaired, including radios that
> were
> piled up and unrepaired by the previous owners.  Even the backlog at Alpha
> has been mostly cleared except for a few 87A's which are very difficult to
> get parts for.  Alpha is producing amplifiers entirely in house now and has
> nothing but satisfied owners since I assumed control of the company.  If
> anyone wants a brand new 9500, I've got one sitting on the shelf waiting
> for
> you. We are caught up on ALL amplifier back orders.  I've spent a lot of
> time getting critical and long lead components back in stock. For example,
> the ceramic plate choke and 160m coil form provider went out of business
> and
> didn't tell us.  This week we are receiving brand new designed ceramic coil
> forms which is about the last specialty item I've had to clear up. The good
> news?  We designed it in such a way that the TEN TEC roller inductor will
> now have a ceramic coil form instead of the grooved fiberglass which is the
> FIRST step to making more 238C antenna tuners!  So there are HUNDREDS of
> things happening behind the scenes you don't know about and frankly you
> don't need to know about.  We are doing what we need to do as fast as we
> can
> do it.  If I publish everything I'm doing then competitors will think what
> a
> great idea and run with it.  Think it won't happen?  I can name a dozen
> products it has happened on but if I do I'll just be accused of lying or
> sour grapes.
> First let me thank each of you who expressed well wishes for me and Ten
> Tec.  I'm sure I've alienated some of you and I apologize if I make anyone
> feel bad, but frankly you have never stopped a single time to consider my
> situation.  I want to address directly the do not contact me about service
> for your amateur radio at Dishtronix.  First off, I answer my own telephone
> unlike anyone else in the industry.  614 675 2497 is my direct line right
> to
> my desk.  So let me ask you a question -  is My job to get Ten Tec healthy
> and to get the company to a point where it can supply hundreds of radios
> again?  Or should I spend my time trying to arrange a $5 dial string for
> some obsolete radio sold to the three previous owners before you when I was
> ten years old?  Now perhaps one phone call a day I can handle.  But how
> about ten or twenty?  Especially when you want to talk to me for a half
> hour?  I'm not in Tennessee. I'm in Ohio!  I have NO CLUE if they have a
> dial string or not. It is very plainly stated to email them but despite the
> numerous postings about it you continue to call me. When you look up the
> number right there on the web it asks you to write Ten Tec but SOME of you
> just can't accept this and call anyway, and wonder why I am irritated when
> you ask me about a dial string.
> Let me ask you the same question. How many radios can the bench tech repair
> if he is on the phone with ten people a half hour each per day?
> YES, TEN TEC HAS A TELEPHONE!  Do you want to know the real reason it isn't
> published? THE BENCH TECHS SUGGESTED GETING RID OF THE PHONE SO THEY CAN
> ACTUALLY FIX RADIOS.  There -  I've just gone ahead and said it. Now you
> know.
> Someone suggested I hire someone and pay them 12 dollars an hour to answer
> the phone.  First off, get real.  You have forgotten the unemployment
> insurance, state employers tax, federal employers tax, social security
> withholding of 7.5% contribution by me. Add about 35-50 percent to that
> figure and you see it is very close to 18 dollars an hour cost to me to pay
> a man 12 dollars per hour.  Lets multiply that by 2080 hours in a year with
> no benefits. It is close to 40 grand just to pay someone to talk to you
> about service.  Now, just how many radios do you think we repair?  10 a
> week?  so spend 40K for 500 radios is $80 per service call.  So instead of
> paying less than $300 on an average repair not it cost $400.  Oh, that $25
> dial string - now it is $125.
> So you don't like my website. You don't like the grainy pictures that were
> taken DIRECTLY from the RKR website.  You don't like that I don't update
> it.
> You don't like that I don't have a professional advertising staff and a
> full
> time webmaster... Well guess what.  ALL THAT TAKES MONEY THAT I DON"T HAVE
> AND THAT YOU ARE NOT PAYING FOR.  Please make your non-charitable donation
> checks out to Dishtronix, Inc and mail to PO Box 1007 Bellefontaine, OH
> 43311.  If 500 of you each send me a thousand dollars I can hire all these
> people and get the new ham products out we are working on sooner.  All we
> need is money. We have the skilled people, the technology, the machinery -
> EVERYTHING we need but money.  Just wait until you see what we have planned
> for you.
> Now I KNOW the above paragraph is going to really stir the pot.  There are
> going to be those who are going to say why should we support you for free?
> Allow me to ask an equivalent question.  If I subsidize Ten Tec and they
> loose money, perhaps say on service, am I not extending charity to those of
> you who get your radios repaired and dial strings?  Have I made my point?
> Here are your alternatives in case you don't get it. I can close TEN TEC,
> quit answering the phone and quit repairing radios.  If I do that I will
> get
> the next radio out sooner because I won't have to deal with this sort of
> gossip, rumors, lies, slander and negativity.  I won't have to answer the
> phone about dial strings and tell you to follow the obvious established
> procedure of emailing service at tentec.com.
> So we have speech processors for sale, 612s whatever those are, all kinds
> of
> microphone cords and microphones and a whole bunch of the CW version
> Arduino
> radio in stock.  We are working on the store.  It will be just like the
> Alpha store.  We have that up and running.
> Guess what else we have working in TN?  Anyone remember the missing WARC
> bands in the Argonaut?  Well they are in there now.  I just need money to
> buy the parts.  For every radio you can plan on needing about 100K
> investment in rolling inventory of parts at all times.
> In the last year TT has gone from outsourcing all their circuit board
> manufacturing to returning it all in house under my roof. We built up a new
> surface mount facility using the income from the RX340 contracts we
> fulfilled last year that enabled TEN TEC to stay open. Please forgive me
> for
> doing what I have to do to keep the doors at TEN TEC open, no matter how
> much you disagree with me or my methods.
> What is the best website in the world and the glossiest advertising good
> for
> if the doors close for good?  Who is going to repair your radios or supply
> your dial strings then?   WHERE SHOULD I EXPEND MY LIMITED RESOURCES/
> WHERE
> WILL THEY DO THE MOST GOOD?
> Frankly it doesn't matter what I do with Ten Tec.  If I bring out a new
> transceiver and you like it you will buy it. Except of course for the
> people
> overheard saying they would never buy a TEN TEC or an Alpha again because
> the future of the company is uncertain.  Yet Rick-UFO brings out a new QRP
> radio from a group nobody has ever heard of, or somebody from China puts a
> cheap amplifier on eBay and you fall all over yourselves to get one because
> it is cheap.  Who cares that you never heard of them.  Who cares about
> service?  Witness the miracle of Baofeng and the WalMartization of America
> and the decline of Western civilization and the abundant lifestyle.  It
> doesn't matter how it sounds or how good it works, only that it is CHEAP.
> I
> wish the government would subsidize my R&D and supply me slave labor like
> SOME companies benefit from.
> How many of you have tried to get a 5 or ten year old transceiver repaired
> at IcoYasWood?  Or get any kind of satisfaction out of them of any kind?  I
> tried for a year to get through at one of the service departments for a
> certain XX-100 radio that I bought new with a problem. It never was
> resolved.  I finally got a service manual through my friend who I have no
> idea how he managed to purchase it.
> We have repaired over FIVE HUNDRED transceivers and amplifiers this last
> year.  Out of production Omni VI, Orion, Orion II, and supplied dial
> strings, PTO rebuild kits, etc.
> This is my 18th year in the ham radio business.  You can't find ONE person
> who says I screwed them over or did not deliver what I guaranteed I would
> do.  How many times do I see on this reflector someone complains about TT
> service and ten people respond that their radio was repaired promptly, the
> price was reasonable and the radio works?  Granted we don't get it right
> every single time. Factory techs miss things too. We are all human and
> prone
> to error.
> If you don't like how I'm handling things quit being part of the problem
> and
> be part of the solution.  I hear all of this about how I should do this and
> that. It is real easy to say that I should do this and this and that.  Or
> that "all" I need to do is put this feature and this feature from that
> radio
> over here and BINGO, there is the new product.  Speaking as a degreed
> Electrical Engineer with about 45 years experience building electronics I
> can tell you quite frankly if you make a statement like that you are
> telegraphing to the world loud and clear that you have no idea how things
> work and that you have never commercially taken an electronic product to
> market. At the performance level we expect in modern equipment NOTHING is
> trivial.  These high IP3 numbers don't happen by accident.   I can tell you
> that for every circuit board in my Prometheus amp there were sometimes two
> dozen previous circuit boards that worked 99%.  99% is easy. It is the 1%
> that kills you.
> Good is not good enough if you intend to be great.  Leave the engineering
> decisions to the engineers is usually a good practice.  You wouldn't want
> me
> to operate on you if you needed a kidney transplant would you?  Wouldn't
> you
> want a real doctor?  Maybe even a specialist?
> Discussion of features and wants are welcome as long as the discussion is
> constructive and positive.  If I communicate through third parties it MIGHT
> be because they can say things that I can't.  I've got twenty bucks that
> says at least one person is going to take what I've said out of context and
> try to tear me to shreds for it.  This is exactly why I don't post in these
> things.
> I would greatly appreciate those of you who when you hear some jackass
> spreading lies saying TT or Alpha is out of business to set them straight.
> these people are nothing but vicious trolls. It is called libel and it is a
> civil offense.
> Ten Tec is making radios. Alpha is making amplifiers. I offered to bring
> back the Eagle because it is a good receiver that doesn't make your ears
> bleed. It sounds good and you can listen to it for hours. It gives the
> production people something to do and keeps them busy until the next great
> radio is ready.  Maybe it enables us to build a supply line of parts that
> may be used in the next great radio. Maybe we have a strategy and a reason
> for doing things the way we are.
> As to the price, I tallied up what it takes for a K2, which uses the Jones
> filter incidentally, to do full featured 100W 160-6 all modes and it is
> over
> 2K.  So the Eagle which is also a single conversion receiver and comes
> fully
> assembled and is also designed and made in America, and in my opinion
> sounds
> better is priced less.  So please criticize my wonderful competitors
> equally.
> Here might be a reason for buying a radio.  Those who have Eagles keep them
> because they like how they sound and how they receive.  That is why you buy
> one, not because of the price.  You can drive a Rolls Royce or a Beetle.
> Beetles are fun if you don't mind being cold in the winter. Frankly if the
> difference between $1300 and $1700 is a major decision for you and you
> can't
> spend $400 to have what you want, well maybe you should find a hobby you
> can
> afford.  If you really can't afford that extra $400 you better dig deep and
> buy the radio that the company will still service even after it has been
> out
> of production just like we do every other Ten Tec because everything breaks
> eventually, and when it does you will be thankful you bought ours because
> we
> will still be here.  How many 40 year old Icoms are still on the air?
> I challenge any one of you to do better. Put your money up and purchase the
> company from me and you can do what you want with it. Until then I am very
> sorry but somebody has to pay the bills and make the hard decisions and be
> criticized for it. If you want that job you can have it. I'll come to work
> for you. I'd love to have a steady paycheck and not have to deal with
> negativity and vicious liars.  It isn't going to be cheap however.  Oh yes,
> you know I can just give it all to the Chinese right?  They could probably
> get you Eagles for $500.  What do you think that would do to the industry?
> Why would anyone want to invent anything better if you can get it for
> free? Hello Baofeng, anybody listening?  If money is all you judge a radio
> quality by I can fix that.  Of course you'll have to say goodbye to dial
> strings and PTOs forever.
> 73 de N8WFF
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>