Bravo Mike!!!!!!!
Regards
Michael K1PEV
Sent from my iPad
> On Feb 21, 2017, at 3:29 AM, Mike Dishop via TenTec <tentec@contesting.com>
> wrote:
>
> OK, there is complaints that I don't communicate directly with you. Let me
> see if I can actually post on the reflector correctly. I'm afraid I work
> very hard each day and don't have time to make posts and things like this so
> I don't quite know how to reply to a thread, but here goes. Something you
> might keep in mind is if one of you make an ass out of yourself on a
> reflector it doesn't do anything but make you look stupid. Anything I say
> however will be taken out of context and distorted by some person to try to
> shed a bad light on me or the company. I have a number of people working for
> me who depend on this for their livelihood. Please think about what damage
> you are doing when you spread outright lies that Ten Tec or Alpha is out of
> business. We have been open and working since I purchased the companies.
> Hundreds of radios have been repaired, including radios that were piled up
> and unrepaired by the previous owners. Even the backlog at Alpha has been
> mostly cleared except for a few 87A's which are very difficult to get parts
> for. Alpha is producing amplifiers entirely in house now and has nothing but
> satisfied owners since I assumed control of the company. If anyone wants a
> brand new 9500, I've got one sitting on the shelf waiting for you. We are
> caught up on ALL amplifier back orders. I've spent a lot of time getting
> critical and long lead components back in stock. For example, the ceramic
> plate choke and 160m coil form provider went out of business and didn't tell
> us. This week we are receiving brand new designed ceramic coil forms which
> is about the last specialty item I've had to clear up. The good news? We
> designed it in such a way that the TEN TEC roller inductor will now have a
> ceramic coil form instead of the grooved fiberglass which is the FIRST step
> to making more 238C antenna tuners! So there are HUNDREDS of things
> happening behind the scenes you don't know about and frankly you don't need
> to know about. We are doing what we need to do as fast as we can do it. If
> I publish everything I'm doing then competitors will think what a great idea
> and run with it. Think it won't happen? I can name a dozen products it has
> happened on but if I do I'll just be accused of lying or sour grapes.
> First let me thank each of you who expressed well wishes for me and Ten Tec.
> I'm sure I've alienated some of you and I apologize if I make anyone feel
> bad, but frankly you have never stopped a single time to consider my
> situation. I want to address directly the do not contact me about service
> for your amateur radio at Dishtronix. First off, I answer my own telephone
> unlike anyone else in the industry. 614 675 2497 is my direct line right to
> my desk. So let me ask you a question - is My job to get Ten Tec healthy
> and to get the company to a point where it can supply hundreds of radios
> again? Or should I spend my time trying to arrange a $5 dial string for some
> obsolete radio sold to the three previous owners before you when I was ten
> years old? Now perhaps one phone call a day I can handle. But how about ten
> or twenty? Especially when you want to talk to me for a half hour? I'm not
> in Tennessee. I'm in Ohio! I have NO CLUE if they have a dial string or not.
> It is very plainly stated to email them but despite the numerous postings
> about it you continue to call me. When you look up the number right there on
> the web it asks you to write Ten Tec but SOME of you just can't accept this
> and call anyway, and wonder why I am irritated when you ask me about a dial
> string.
> Let me ask you the same question. How many radios can the bench tech repair
> if he is on the phone with ten people a half hour each per day?
> YES, TEN TEC HAS A TELEPHONE! Do you want to know the real reason it isn't
> published? THE BENCH TECHS SUGGESTED GETING RID OF THE PHONE SO THEY CAN
> ACTUALLY FIX RADIOS. There - I've just gone ahead and said it. Now you know.
> Someone suggested I hire someone and pay them 12 dollars an hour to answer
> the phone. First off, get real. You have forgotten the unemployment
> insurance, state employers tax, federal employers tax, social security
> withholding of 7.5% contribution by me. Add about 35-50 percent to that
> figure and you see it is very close to 18 dollars an hour cost to me to pay a
> man 12 dollars per hour. Lets multiply that by 2080 hours in a year with no
> benefits. It is close to 40 grand just to pay someone to talk to you about
> service. Now, just how many radios do you think we repair? 10 a week? so
> spend 40K for 500 radios is $80 per service call. So instead of paying less
> than $300 on an average repair not it cost $400. Oh, that $25 dial string -
> now it is $125.
> So you don't like my website. You don't like the grainy pictures that were
> taken DIRECTLY from the RKR website. You don't like that I don't update it.
> You don't like that I don't have a professional advertising staff and a full
> time webmaster... Well guess what. ALL THAT TAKES MONEY THAT I DON"T HAVE
> AND THAT YOU ARE NOT PAYING FOR. Please make your non-charitable donation
> checks out to Dishtronix, Inc and mail to PO Box 1007 Bellefontaine, OH
> 43311. If 500 of you each send me a thousand dollars I can hire all these
> people and get the new ham products out we are working on sooner. All we
> need is money. We have the skilled people, the technology, the machinery -
> EVERYTHING we need but money. Just wait until you see what we have planned
> for you.
> Now I KNOW the above paragraph is going to really stir the pot. There are
> going to be those who are going to say why should we support you for free?
> Allow me to ask an equivalent question. If I subsidize Ten Tec and they
> loose money, perhaps say on service, am I not extending charity to those of
> you who get your radios repaired and dial strings? Have I made my point?
> Here are your alternatives in case you don't get it. I can close TEN TEC,
> quit answering the phone and quit repairing radios. If I do that I will get
> the next radio out sooner because I won't have to deal with this sort of
> gossip, rumors, lies, slander and negativity. I won't have to answer the
> phone about dial strings and tell you to follow the obvious established
> procedure of emailing service@tentec.com.
> So we have speech processors for sale, 612s whatever those are, all kinds of
> microphone cords and microphones and a whole bunch of the CW version Arduino
> radio in stock. We are working on the store. It will be just like the Alpha
> store. We have that up and running.
> Guess what else we have working in TN? Anyone remember the missing WARC
> bands in the Argonaut? Well they are in there now. I just need money to buy
> the parts. For every radio you can plan on needing about 100K investment in
> rolling inventory of parts at all times.
> In the last year TT has gone from outsourcing all their circuit board
> manufacturing to returning it all in house under my roof. We built up a new
> surface mount facility using the income from the RX340 contracts we fulfilled
> last year that enabled TEN TEC to stay open. Please forgive me for doing what
> I have to do to keep the doors at TEN TEC open, no matter how much you
> disagree with me or my methods.
> What is the best website in the world and the glossiest advertising good for
> if the doors close for good? Who is going to repair your radios or supply
> your dial strings then? WHERE SHOULD I EXPEND MY LIMITED RESOURCES/ WHERE
> WILL THEY DO THE MOST GOOD?
> Frankly it doesn't matter what I do with Ten Tec. If I bring out a new
> transceiver and you like it you will buy it. Except of course for the people
> overheard saying they would never buy a TEN TEC or an Alpha again because the
> future of the company is uncertain. Yet Rick-UFO brings out a new QRP radio
> from a group nobody has ever heard of, or somebody from China puts a cheap
> amplifier on eBay and you fall all over yourselves to get one because it is
> cheap. Who cares that you never heard of them. Who cares about service?
> Witness the miracle of Baofeng and the WalMartization of America and the
> decline of Western civilization and the abundant lifestyle. It doesn't
> matter how it sounds or how good it works, only that it is CHEAP. I wish the
> government would subsidize my R&D and supply me slave labor like SOME
> companies benefit from.
> How many of you have tried to get a 5 or ten year old transceiver repaired at
> IcoYasWood? Or get any kind of satisfaction out of them of any kind? I
> tried for a year to get through at one of the service departments for a
> certain XX-100 radio that I bought new with a problem. It never was resolved.
> I finally got a service manual through my friend who I have no idea how he
> managed to purchase it.
> We have repaired over FIVE HUNDRED transceivers and amplifiers this last
> year. Out of production Omni VI, Orion, Orion II, and supplied dial strings,
> PTO rebuild kits, etc.
> This is my 18th year in the ham radio business. You can't find ONE person
> who says I screwed them over or did not deliver what I guaranteed I would do.
> How many times do I see on this reflector someone complains about TT service
> and ten people respond that their radio was repaired promptly, the price was
> reasonable and the radio works? Granted we don't get it right every single
> time. Factory techs miss things too. We are all human and prone to error.
> If you don't like how I'm handling things quit being part of the problem and
> be part of the solution. I hear all of this about how I should do this and
> that. It is real easy to say that I should do this and this and that. Or
> that "all" I need to do is put this feature and this feature from that radio
> over here and BINGO, there is the new product. Speaking as a degreed
> Electrical Engineer with about 45 years experience building electronics I can
> tell you quite frankly if you make a statement like that you are telegraphing
> to the world loud and clear that you have no idea how things work and that
> you have never commercially taken an electronic product to market. At the
> performance level we expect in modern equipment NOTHING is trivial. These
> high IP3 numbers don't happen by accident. I can tell you that for every
> circuit board in my Prometheus amp there were sometimes two dozen previous
> circuit boards that worked 99%. 99% is easy. It is the 1% that kills you.
> Good is not good enough if you intend to be great. Leave the engineering
> decisions to the engineers is usually a good practice. You wouldn't want me
> to operate on you if you needed a kidney transplant would you? Wouldn't you
> want a real doctor? Maybe even a specialist?
> Discussion of features and wants are welcome as long as the discussion is
> constructive and positive. If I communicate through third parties it MIGHT
> be because they can say things that I can't. I've got twenty bucks that says
> at least one person is going to take what I've said out of context and try to
> tear me to shreds for it. This is exactly why I don't post in these things.
> I would greatly appreciate those of you who when you hear some jackass
> spreading lies saying TT or Alpha is out of business to set them straight.
> these people are nothing but vicious trolls. It is called libel and it is a
> civil offense.
> Ten Tec is making radios. Alpha is making amplifiers. I offered to bring back
> the Eagle because it is a good receiver that doesn't make your ears bleed. It
> sounds good and you can listen to it for hours. It gives the production
> people something to do and keeps them busy until the next great radio is
> ready. Maybe it enables us to build a supply line of parts that may be used
> in the next great radio. Maybe we have a strategy and a reason for doing
> things the way we are.
> As to the price, I tallied up what it takes for a K2, which uses the Jones
> filter incidentally, to do full featured 100W 160-6 all modes and it is over
> 2K. So the Eagle which is also a single conversion receiver and comes fully
> assembled and is also designed and made in America, and in my opinion sounds
> better is priced less. So please criticize my wonderful competitors equally.
> Here might be a reason for buying a radio. Those who have Eagles keep them
> because they like how they sound and how they receive. That is why you buy
> one, not because of the price. You can drive a Rolls Royce or a Beetle.
> Beetles are fun if you don't mind being cold in the winter. Frankly if the
> difference between $1300 and $1700 is a major decision for you and you can't
> spend $400 to have what you want, well maybe you should find a hobby you can
> afford. If you really can't afford that extra $400 you better dig deep and
> buy the radio that the company will still service even after it has been out
> of production just like we do every other Ten Tec because everything breaks
> eventually, and when it does you will be thankful you bought ours because we
> will still be here. How many 40 year old Icoms are still on the air?
> I challenge any one of you to do better. Put your money up and purchase the
> company from me and you can do what you want with it. Until then I am very
> sorry but somebody has to pay the bills and make the hard decisions and be
> criticized for it. If you want that job you can have it. I'll come to work
> for you. I'd love to have a steady paycheck and not have to deal with
> negativity and vicious liars. It isn't going to be cheap however. Oh yes,
> you know I can just give it all to the Chinese right? They could probably
> get you Eagles for $500. What do you think that would do to the industry?
> Why would anyone want to invent anything better if you can get it for free?
> Hello Baofeng, anybody listening? If money is all you judge a radio quality
> by I can fix that. Of course you'll have to say goodbye to dial strings and
> PTOs forever.
> 73 de N8WFF
>
>
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