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[TenTec] My Mea Culpa re: Orlando Hamfest

To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: [TenTec] My Mea Culpa re: Orlando Hamfest
From: jimr.reid@verizon.net (Jim Reid)
Date: Tue Feb 11 16:07:01 2003
Acknowledgement of my personal  fault and error!

Yesterday,  I sent a post containing the following:


> Have heard that the first impression was.... not
> very great.  The demonstrators of the Orion ...
> couldn't get the menu  to  work and they had to reboot 
> the rig several  times. Was told the crowd watching 
> began to heckle then started laughing....

Most of the above is NOT fact.  I have now heard directly
from TT about the situation in Orlando.  As follows,  the
true facts:

Point 1.

"> A recent firmware update (that I temporarily forgot!) causes 
> ORION to display the beginning screen containing version 
> and date information for the radio when the operator holds 
> the MENUS button in rather than pressing and releasing
> it.  I discovered the error of my ways within the first half 
> hour and everything went well after that.

> I honestly do not recall any laughing nor heckling during my 
> bungled attempts to operate the radio, and I certainly do not 
> know where you got your misleading impression.  We 
> explained that the radio firmware was still in development, 
> and that not everything worked together at this point.   Folks 
> with experience in software development knew exactly what
> we were talking about and the others were polite.

Point 2

I had said there was no antenna connected.  TT reply:

> Without a "decent high outside antenna, it is folly to demo 
> a radio in the noise and local QRM at an indoor
> hamfest.    We invite people to play with the knobs, but it 
> is prudent to assure that when they key it up, the load will 
> be proper and will add little to the local QRM.  Add to that the 
> fact that we are still swatting software bugs, and there is no 
> cause for complaint about not being on an antenna.   Most of 
> the people we talked to left with a favorable impression about 
> the product.

Point 3

> Your ill-informed comments on the reflector caused me much 
> embarrassment at work this morning, though I am sure that was 
> not your intention.  We believe we largely succeeded in our goal 
> of exposing the ORION to the crowd and it was gratifying to see 
> the good reaction.   They agreed with our philosophy that 
> "we will sell no radio before its time".

I have sent a note of apology to the fellow I impacted so thoughtlessly
yesterday.  I hope he accepts.  And I am truly sorry for causing him
pain and discomfort!  I will not give names nor call signs of the
sources of my miss-info I posted yesterday ( it was at least 2nd,
if not 3rd hand in retrospect),  no point.

I will now be very careful about posts in the future.

73,  Jim  KH7M












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