At 06:18 AM 08/02/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>Hello all, NOTE: This is not a bashing, but rather a concern. In the last 24
>hrs I have heard 2 more people have returned their Orions to Ten tec.
Hi Todd!
One of the things which makes Ten-Tec unique in the marketplace, is their
return and service policies. Buy a TV, stereo component, or PC, and try to
take it back... simply because you don't like it. SOME consumer
electronics retailers will give you a refund, probably charge you a
restocking fee. They'll wrap it back up, and put an 'opened package' tag
on it, mebbie sell it for a few bucks less. Try to order one direct from
the manufacturer, and THEN decide you don't like it. Will they take it
back? of course not.
Want a Ten-Tec, but not sure if you'll really like it? Order one. Don't
like it? you can send it back. Perhaps it has a final transistor that
suffers from infant mortality, or needs a little improvement in
something... send it in- they'll take care of it. Try THAT with your TV
set... or a brand-X tranciever.
If the product isn't what the customer wanted, Ten-Tec is one the very FEW
companies that'll take it back.
As far as it being an 'unfinished' product, T_T is one of a scant few
companies that actually continues supporting existing product. Where
Brand-X comes out with a new model each year, they also orphan last years'.
Where T_T learns from their mistakes, others just continue mistakes onto
the new product. I've got several Brand-I trancievers that all have bad
power-amplifier modules... it's the same PA brick, and they get too hot and
flake-out. They also use these tiny potentiometers that're SMD-soldered to
a printed-circuit board... and one little sideways bump to the knob, and
it's over. There's no way to 'beef-up', or otherwise ruggedize the
design... and they STILL manufacture radios that way... of couse, they
Can't change it- it's a 'finished' product.
The best example of 'finished' product- the mid '80's Icom 7xx-series...
the 745 is a popular example. Loaded with phase noise, LO racket, and
other problems. Are there fixes? Yes, and no... nothing solves the lousy
audio or poor rf-stage performance. The control-processors op-code is
still maintained by a lithium battery on a RAM-card... the battery goes bad
without warning, leaving you with a permanently-dead radio. The
exact-same-condition shows up in about a dozen of that series, and they
were all pretty expensive radios when new. The BEST fixes for these radios
WEREN'T developed by ICOM. Go try to get a replacement RAM board- ICOM
will send you a NEW one on exchange, and when you get it, it'll be EXACTLY
like the one you sent in, except for the fact that they've installed a new
battery and re-loaded the radio's op-code. Note that Icom WILL NOT give
you a copy of the radio's op-code, nor will they give you any method to
refresh it yourself. With all the advancements in FLASH IC technology,
ICOM never made a non-volatile RAM card to replace the terminally-ill
units, simply because that product series was 'finished'. BUT, there are a
few genuinely ticked-off people who took matters into their own hands,
hacked the RAM card, and made a replacement which not only eliminated the
battery and made the opcode permanent, it also added 1024 memories to a rig
which previously had only 16, and increased the programmable RX range down
into the Khz neighborhood.
If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would've bought my Omni VI
FIRST. I would've passed up the 745, and a myriad of other rigs. My Omni
had some noise- doing a little re-arrangement inside, and yes- there've
been factory updates... mostly for little-stuff. Sorry to say, ICOM hasn't
done squat for the 745. If I could've sent it back... especially after
that !@#$ RAM board, I would have.
Don't look at it as 'beta-testing' on someone's dollar. Look at it as the
extreme-example of MFJ's so-called 'no-questions-asked' policy.
DK :-)
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73's from KW0D Dave in LeClaire, Iowa
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