[TenTec] Rubbing the crystal ball...gently

["Ten-Tec Inc. Amateur Radio Sales" <sales@tentec.com>]

At 11:16 AM 2/11/04 -0500, you wrote:
> When a company loses its brainiest employee (Doug Smith), it's time for 
> black crepe, it seems to me, rather than sentiments such as he won't be 
> missed because his work was done. One thing Smith's departure shows is how 
> difficult it is to recruit and retain top-notch talent in locations such 
> as East Tennessee. Virginia Tech, located not far from Sevierville in 
> Blacksburg, Virginia, has the same recruiting/retention problems for its 
> engineering faculty. Appalachia is not Austin, Texas, or northern 
> Virginia, if you get my drift.
>
> As I recall, Scott Robbins said on this reflector some time ago that 
> Ten-Tec had no plans for a Jupiter + (or Orion -). That leaves the 
> Argonaut V, which is the world's best 20-watt transceiver, the Jupiter, 
> and the new Orion. Given that product line-up, seemingly set in concrete, 
> and no brainy innovators on board (don't forget Allan Kaplan is gone, 
> too), and no new rigs in the pipeline, it is somewhat of  a gamble IMHO 
> that sales of these three transceivers will be sufficient to keep T-T's 
> ham business afloat indefinitely. Of course, T-T has other businesses and 
> is not dependent on just the ham business.

John:

I know you didn't mean it the way it sounded - - -

Doug did make a contribution to the engineering effort while he was
employed here, but we're not dependent on anyone to continue doing
what we're doing.  Personnel changes at any company are just a fact of
life - Doug is going to do contract work for Rockwell-Collins;
one of Rockwell-Collins' former employees is engineering receivers for us.
And so it goes.  We still have a lot of smart guys working here.

Allan Kaplan is still around, though not putting in 40 hours a week in
the engineering department.  (Hi Allan - I know you're reading this.)
We see Allan here quite a bit - and he's going with Stan Brock
to the Orlando Hamcation this weekend to represent Ten-Tec.

>>As I recall, Scott Robbins said on this reflector some time ago that
>>Ten-Tec had no plans for a Jupiter + (or Orion -).

Yes - no plans for a stripped down transceiver using the Orion's main
receiver as its basis, that's true.   We're constantly working on new
projects - not all of them see the light of day, but there will be more ham
equipment from us off into the future.

> In the meantime, as has been noted, ICOM is marketing a new transceiver to 
> hams for about ten grand, but this rig is designed primarily for the 
> government/commercial market and will stand or fall on its reception 
> there, where sales run into the tens of thousands over many years. Ham 
> sales will be gravy. The next new ham rig from ICOM likely will be a 
> successor to the 756PRO II using some of the circuitry from the ten grand rig.
>
> 73,
>
> John, W3ULS
> Owner of OMNI VI, Argonaut V, IC-746PRO & FT-920

Ham radio sure is getting interesting, isn't it?

73
Scott Robbins
W4PA


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