[TenTec] Orion VFO Knobs

Wed Aug 8 12:12:43 EDT 2018

Bob, your email is a great lead into what Rob Sherwood has been preaching for about 6 or 7 years now:  
"Consider Cost-of-Ownership (COO) when buying a new radio."

Potentially, every radio, regardless of cost, can become immediately obsolete if for some reason one of its critical components suddenly goes End-of-Life.

That is why I personally have opted to never spend more than $2K for a new radio, regardless of how good it is.
Before retirement, it was not such a big deal, but for most of us, retirement means tighten the belt.

It seems now the destiny for most radios is, keep it as long as possible, then sell it broken for parts.

With that in mind, about the only two radios that I would even look at twice are the IC-7300 and TS-590S.

I fear if Ten-Tec ever does bring out a radio, it will be above my $2K limit.

73,
Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt, Germany)

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec <tentec-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Bob McGraw K4TAX
Sent: 08 August 2018 17:59
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion VFO Knobs

In many cases, the original supplier of the parts has discontinued specific items.  The new ownership has little to nothing to do with this fact.  Some parts were custom made for Tentec while some were made in their own tool and die shop or injection molding facility.  Those of course no longer exist. Unless someone builds after market items, many parts for older radios {those 10 + years} simply won't be available.

This also is the same for many other brands as well.  I've encountered this fact with my attempted repair of Kenwood, ICOM and Yaesu products and is one of the reasons I've stopped repairing radios.  No parts available in many cases.   In other instances, the supplier has a minimum of 100 piece order.  If I have to order 100 pieces just to get one or two, this makes the repair very expensive.  Certainly is not profitable for me.

Folks, we must realize that anything older than the Omni VII {now 10+ years old}, Eagle {now 8+ years old}  and Argonaut VI {now 6+ years old}  are, in many instances, in trouble with regard to parts.    With my former company, having been in charge of repair parts for products that are no longer in production, we did forecast and purchase inventory to support products for 7 years. In most cases the supplier or vendor informed us that this was the last production run on these items.   This is inventory that takes space on the shelves, and must be paid for in advance.  Hence we have to spend dollars for parts that may set on the shelf for 7+ years.   The accountants do not like this and the facility manager may say "why do we need to use this space for obsolete parts"? 
And in many instances our "forecast" was not sufficiently accurate and we simply ran out of parts before expected.  In some cases we were forced to limit purchase quantities to prevent hoarding.

With Tentec and other brands, just be thankful you can get any service work done and parts being available.   Yea yea yea I know you're saying your 30 year old radio still works and I can get it repaired.   In general that is correct.........until one of those unique parts fail.     The Orion series has several unique parts and many to most of the PC board assemblies are no long available.    If either fails, look for a "parts only radio" and hope the part is good that you need.

This is no different than looking for a brake controller for anti-lock brakes from a junker at the auto junk yard.  Oh, the Dealer has them for $650.   That's 1/2 the value of the vehicle.    Radios are much the same way.

73

Bob, K4TAX

On 8/8/2018 10:18 AM, David J. Ross wrote:
> Sorry to hear that. I bought the parts for my Paragon just last Nov.  I had heard that service parts were drying up under the new ownership.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec <tentec-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of km4bsham via 
> TenTec
> Sent: Wednesday, August 8, 2018 11:10 AM
> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec at contesting.com>
> Cc: km4bsham <km4bsham at aol.com>
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion VFO Knobs
>
> Naturally "out of stock,  try back at a later date ". Thanks
>
>
> Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
> -------- Original message --------From: "David J. Ross" <rossdj at verizon.net> Date: 8/7/18  6:32 PM  (GMT-05:00) To: 'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment' <tentec at contesting.com> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion VFO Knobs I purchased one directly from TenTec but there was a $25 minimum order. I needed the plastic panel end ears so the ring was a price padder.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec <tentec-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Dave Beghtel 
> via TenTec
> Sent: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 6:04 PM
> To: TenTec at contesting.com
> Cc: km4bsham at aol.com
> Subject: [TenTec] Orion VFO Knobs
>
>
> Is there any source for the newer vfo knobs with the solid rubber ring?
> Thanks, Dave KM4BS _______________________________________________
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