George (W2YJ) said:
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"I'm wondering if the hams at Ten Tec ever try out the upgrade firmware on
real hams before releasing it to the general public?
I would think that Ten Tec would release a beta version to 10 or 20 hams
that enjoy the various areas of the hobby, DX'ing, contesting, rag chewing.
Maybe they aren't releasing it to the right hams that will give the new
release a real workout and report back.
George W2YJ "
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At one time TenTec had a "beta" test team, with about 25 members, for the Orion
firmware. That test team started during the V1 release period and continued
working during the early testing of the V2 firmware - maybe up through Orion
release V2.052. At that point, there were still a lot of bugs in the firmware -
and consequently a lot of "problems raised on the reflector set up for the beta
test team. Without a very "clear explanation" the team was dissolved about 1
February 2006 - about the time that release V2.052 was released for the Orion
and the first release for the Orion II came out. It takes a lot of testing to
really "qualify" a major code change in something as complex as the Orion. That
either takes a lot of people that use the radio in a lot of different ways,
communicating with each other, or a big test plan.
Its not clear, from the last 5 or 6 firmware releases, how much testing is done
now before new firmware is released. However, this release did address a number
of problem areas. Hopefully the next one will also.
73, Merle - W0EWM
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