Like everybody else, I have had some time to digest today’s news. While it is
no surprise, I wish Ten Tec and Alpha and whoever they may merge with next
nothing but the best of luck, and I’ll do my part to buy from the combined
company, partly from brand loyalty, partly from the fact that both companies
make great products.
I haven’t yet had the pleasure of owning an Alpha amp, but plan to make a
purchase soon. I have bought tubes from RF Concepts to feed my Titan 3, and the
tubes were a bargain and continue to work to this day.
My Orion 2 remains the best radio I have ever owned, and if and when the new
company comes out with a new radio (with dual receivers), I’ll buy it.
I will most likely soon replace my Ten Tec Titan and Titan 3 amps with newer
tech RF Concept/Alpha amps.
It’s a natural fit.
And here’s more random thoughts, and let this sink in: The problem is not Ten
Tec, and it’s not RF Concepts/Alpha. Both companies make excellent products.
The problem is demographics. We went through this a few years’ ago when the WW2
generation started dying off. Fortunately, they were replaced for the most-part
by the guys who had grown up with radio in the 40’s and 50’s. Well, those guys
are getting older now and dying off. Unfortunately, the radio generation that
came next was the CW McCAll (Convoy) group, of which I am a part. Our numbers
are weak compared to the WW2 and cold-war 1950’s generation of hams. I’ve been
an active ham since first firing up my Heathkit as a 13 year old Novice in May
1977, and there are many more like me, but not enough to offset what is being
lost everyday as older hams die off. And the radio generation is even weaker in
numbers, so you probably see what’s going on.
We have great amateur radio companies here in the U.S., and Ten Tec is as good
as Elecraft, and Elecraft is as good as Alpha as is as good as Palstar. All are
great companies with at least one exceptional amateur radio product, and all
share similar business models, but they are all suffering from a dwindling
customer base. I also own a Palstar tuner, which has been a mainstay on my
desktop for many years, and I recently bought an Elecraft KX-3, which is a
technological work of art.
Maybe in another 10 years, when I am ready to retire, it will all be 1 company,
Palpheletec. But whatever this morphs into, as long as they continue to make
the best, and keep skilled folks employed producing and marketing it, I will
continue to buy it.
As stated in the topic, I wish all these companies nothing but the best, and
will continue to give them my dollars for the top rate products they produce.
Notice no mention of MFJ/HY-GAIN: Check an existing thread for my experience
with that.
73 de Jack W4TJE
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