A lot of very true stuff there, but TT is not immune.
Seems to me that I have already determined that if the microprocessor in my
TT HT goes that's the end of the HT.
Only if TT does not use microprocessors, SMT, ASIC's, etc. will they be
immune.
-----Original Message-----
From: AL_LORONA@HP-USA-om33.om.hp.com <AL_LORONA@HP-USA-om33.om.hp.com>
To: tentec@contesting.com <tentec@contesting.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Monday, August 23, 1999 6:45 PM
Subject: [TenTec] The Last Radios
>
>
>
>
> Hi, Everybody,
>
>
> Reading about the various fixes that Ten Tec owners apply to their
> radios always gets me thinking: The current Ten Tec rigs in
> production-- which would include the Scout, Omni VI+, and kits-- may
> be the last radios which are user-serviceable. That is, we are moving
> into an era where transceivers, either because of surface mount
> construction or because of the increasing role of software, or due to
> other reasons, may no longer lend themselves to the kind of
> troubleshooting, repair, modification, experimentation, and alignment
> that so many of us value and enjoy.
>
> Evidence: The top-of-the-line Kenwood transceiver belonging to a
> friend of mine developed VCO problems within a month of his buying it.
> To extract and repair the board, which was loaded with nothing but
> tiny, unmarked surface mount devices, took him weeks to do. (Kenwood
> would not replace it under warranty, but that's another story.) It's a
> good thing that my friend is an electronics engineer with 20 years of
> experience building satellites at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and felt
> confident enough to tackle the job, isn't it?
>
> Evidence: I just read a newsgroup message from a ham whose Icom IC-730
> went on the fritz. He was soliciting help from other hams. The
> shocking answer was that the internal battery went dead, which sounds
> like it would be an easy fix, except that the rig's firmware was
> stored in *volatile* RAM which was lost forever with the battery
> failure! I guess Icom figured no one would still be using their
> IC-730s in the late 1990's; the "throw-away" rig concept. This poor
> guy is hosed if he can't find a way to re-load the program into his
> few-year-old transceiver.
>
> Evidence: How many mods for the Kachina/Pegasus do you think we are
> likely to see in the next few years? How much experimentation with
> filtering, keying, front end, audio, aftermarket components, etc., so
> much of which you see on this reflector? Will all of the modification
> involve software only? (Way cool, how did you get the S-meter on the
> lower left of your front panel? Oh, I just wrote, compiled, and linked
> a new GUI...)
>
> Hang on to those Omnis, everybody, we may be witnessing the final
> phase of a fix-it-with-a-paper-clip-and-chewing-gum approach to
> amateur radio which has proved so rewarding for so many of us.
>
> What say you?
>
>
>
> Al W6LX
>
>
>
>--
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>
>
--
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