Ten-Tec is Bubbling With Future Changes

[Pete, WA2CWA]

No Wi-Fi available at the top of Mt. Everest.

Are you sure?

If I remember correctly, the highest Wi-Fi enabled point on Mt. Everest is at the last base camp at roughly 17,000 feet which I believe they brought online in 2010. Maybe, in five years, they moved it higher. In the past, they had to use satellite based transceivers to do audio and video at the top.

[KD6VXI]

Sat phones would work,  as would email over hf,  as maritime mobiles do.

Iow,  it's feasible.
--Shane
KD6VXI

[Steve - K4HX]

There is WiFi at the top of virtual Mt. Everest.

[W2NBC]

Sponsored by Verizon:

 http://www.fastcocreate.com/3034452/take-this-interactive-3-d-hike-up-mount-everest-if-you-must-but-please-be-careful

Can you hear me now?

[K1JJ]

Sponsored by Verizon:

 http://www.fastcocreate.com/3034452/take-this-interactive-3-d-hike-up-mount-everest-if-you-must-but-please-be-careful

Can you hear me now?

Right on, Bro!  Now I can tell the babes I climbed Mt. Everest.    

The bad news is I only made it to the Khumbu Icefall before the computer crashed.  I got rescued by the Trump Helicopter and they flew me to the top.  Do I still get  an award?


T

[DMOD]

  I haven't got the money to get into an equipment race, for me the fun is getting some of this old (junque) stuff working, learning a few things, reliving what it was in the day and the satisfaction of using a piece of gear that is older than I to talk to some one hundreds of miles away.

 I also have a love and fascination with the history of radio that goes along all of this.

Same here. Rebuilding a Viking I, II, Valiant, Apache, homebrew, or whatever and watching the tubes glow is my thang! 

Phil - AC0OB

[John K5PRO]

Some time back I bought a Titan II used, knowing that it was a dead-end design, with the Russian 4CX1600B source gone. I bought it for a reasonable cost, for the box, the power supply, meters and controls, with plans to convert it to another tube that I have available. It had been at the factory, as the last 4CX1600B had killed the bias/screen regulator board multiple times. This tube apparently had developed a hot short or a breakdown path inside, that would come and go. Anyway, I got the unit shipped directly from the TT service department, after being repaired. The whole deal on this amplifier had been in limbo for about 1/2 year as it was stuck in repair at TT. They were likely happy to see it leave, as it was eating their time and there wasn't an easy fix except to keep replacing the silicon on the PC card. I don't think there was a good tube remaining anywhere.

When TT finally said it was fixed, and the owner and I settled on a sale, I called them to ask what they found wrong with it. It was worse than pulling teeth to get a solid answer. First I had to get the original owner to approve TT talking to me about the amp, even though I bought it from the original owner, and TT was shipping it to my name and address. Then, with this approval, the service manager would not give me anymore information except that I better never use that tube in the amplifier as it would not be repairable again. I agreed, and begged them to please send the dead tube to me, so I could have it. I still wanted to know what transistors had failed, in which mode, so that I could perhaps engineer a better protection circuit for my own use. I have been building tetrode amplifiers since 1981, at high power, first in broadcast and now in scientific systems. So I feel confident that I make something usable from this amplifier.

But the entrenched manager got angry with me, and refused to talk more. What I learned (mostly reading between the lines) was that this particular amplifier was not a favorite model for TT, and the service guy even said he would have designed a simpler amplifier himself. It became obvious to me that the original designer was not there, or was not affiliated with production and customer support and service. Still, I could not get any more specifics. When I have something serviced, I want to have a list of what was done, what was repaired.  Finally I gave up asking, as it was a dead end. Maybe he got a lot of calls from hams telling TT what was wrong with their products or just had a bad week, in any respect, I was not impressed with service there, at least for amplifiers.

I wish them well, with the new owner, and sorry to see the Alpha/TT merger failed. TT has a broader line and they will survive with their professional equipment, and likely continue in amateur. The service manager and others retired I believe.

[KD6VXI]

The old ten tec is gone.   The people that maintained brand loyalty because of legendary service and the ability to pick up the phone and get a technician are over (unless you want to pay for quarter hour increments).

I wish Mike well.   His using John Henry as a mouthpiece screwed him.   His attitude on qrz isn't winning him many friends,  either.   The whole,  I don't care what agreement you had with the prior owner(s),  it's my way or the highway (for repairs already accepted but not yet fixed) is pretty shitty.

People are discovering:  Ten Tec today,  is just a name.   The customer service is dead.  At least the customer service that people PAID for.   You can pay some more now.

It's funny,  watching the attitudinal difference a ceo makes.    Mikes attitude is pretty much,  I saved ten tec from rkr selling it off.   You owe me.  As proof,  he's asking for psuedo crowd funding new radios?

Honestly I see either a rushed decision,  or one that was way more emotional than business sense.   And now ten tec is going to be dishtronix radio outlet.   With pricing and customer service to match.


And any engineer that thought using Russian tubes,  with a limited lifetime,  limited supply and having to use nearly half the rated current at ZSAC wasn't an engineer.   That's a bean counter.

By law they have to ensure either seven or ten years of spares,  do they not?   Would REALLY put a hurting to these companies scouring the eastern block for profit,  if they had to retrofit common tubes into the amps they blew out the door with nothing but profit in mind.

And Badger,  et al,  should have been sued for the 4cx800 lies.   All it took was a person who could read Russian to see that was a flat out lie.

What tube did you retrofit John?   I always thought a 4cx1k or 1500 (the big grid versions)  would be good in them.

--Shane
KD6VXI

[K4RT]

I wish Mike well.   His using John Henry as a mouthpiece screwed him.   His attitude on qrz isn't winning him many friends,  either. 

Agree. The announcement posted on the Ten Tec site seemed reasonable and they should have stuck with that and left it alone until they had something new to say.

I have owned Ten Tec gear since 1979 and had gear serviced at the factory but that was a good number of years ago.

[W3RSW]

It's a Law to guarentee seven years worth of spares?
Sounds like a good fable title. 

"Seven Days In May,"
            to:
"Seven Years In Purgatory."

[KD6VXI]

Honestly,  I don't know.   Hence me proposing it as a question.

Regardless,  marketing an amplifier when you KNOW spares are unobtanium is sad.

When I worked for the 2nd largest HVAC Co (worldwide)  and a fortune 15 company,  that was the law touted.   It could have been an internal rule,  made as a "law"  to those in purchasing / engineering / whatever.   

I was a network engineer,  so it wasn't of consequence to me.

--Shane
KD6VXI

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Honestly,  I don't know.   Hence me proposing it as a question.

Regardless,  marketing an amplifier when you KNOW spares are unobtanium is sad.

When I worked for the 2nd largest HVAC Co (worldwide)  and a fortune 15 company,  that was the law touted.   It could have been an internal rule,  made as a "law"  to those in purchasing / engineering / whatever.  

I was a network engineer,  so it wasn't of consequence to me.

--Shane
KD6VXI

Back in the "good old days" when I was a product manager, the general unofficial rule of thumb was to have at least 5 years of spare parts to support warranty and out of warranty repairs. However, as we moved into the final 20 years of the 20th century, it became increasingly difficult to even do that because no one wanted to hold the inventory (spare parts inventory is a slow moving asset). I suspect things haven't changed that much now in the 21st century. There is no law that I know of and manufacturers can build, sell, stop, walk-away, and disappear. Of course, not holding any spare parts inventory, specially for in-warranty repairs, leads to very disgruntled customers.

In today's Internet world where a bad review is just several clicks away on a keyboard, manufacturers and designers have to thread very carefully to produce products with non-exotic components so that spare components would be available after the product has been discontinued. However, even with component manufacturers, they can discontinue a component without much notice to the users, leaving product manufacturers holding the bag.

In certain contacts done with the military, quite often there is a stipulation within the contract that the manufacturer must maintain "X" number of years of spare inventory for products they buy from the manufacturer so that repair support can be maintained.

[John K5PRO]

Shane, those are both the tubes I am going to try. I have several of each to play with. 4CX1000A and 4CX1500B. I wouldn't even start to try to use a pair of 4CX800 and going to GG triodes would be a tragic loss of all that tetrode power circuitry.

[John K5PRO]

Ten Tec went through a lot of Titans, the 416, 417 and 425 models. The two tetrode models were doomed quickly by overpriced or unavailable tubes. The 425 is quite popular with pair of 3CX800A in grounded grid. All of them are well built construction. Now all of these will be difficult if not impossible for them to support. Or a very costly proposition. 

[KD6VXI]

The 425 is a fantastic amp.   A friend here in town has one.   

I used to replace the 4cx250 tubes with 3cx800s.  About the same gain (for the job enlisted),  a lot more stable and plentiful.

Now,  not so plentiful.   I informed my buddy to grab a couple pulse rated pulls when they come up.  The 425 is too nice an amp to hack different tubes into.

--Shane
KD6VXI

[KA0HCP]

I think it is unreasonable to expect to be able to tie up repair technicians time with blow by blow description of the repair procedures, parts lists, etc.  And if the facility is willing to do so, charge you for their time.

You sent them a broken amp, you get a general description of the failure/repair and you get back a working amp.  *shrug*

[n1eu]

I think if Ten-Tec (or any company) wants to remain successful they need to be less of a "follower" in technology and designs and become more of a "follow me" in their equipment products.

I would re-phrase to say Ten-Tec needs to once again be a "follow me" company.

How quickly we forget how revolutionary the Orion was in 2002.  The Elecraft K3 virtually copied the architecture five years later.   And again later the Yaesu FTDX5000.  And later the TS590/990. 

No doubt that ANAN and Flex are showing the way but the door is wide open for someone to do it better (how about it Elecraft?).  The more I see of the IC-7300, the less convinced I am that Icom will be doing it better, let alone competitive.  Flex 6K with Maestro is far out ahead of anything else.  The release of Simon Brown's software for ANAN in a few months could be a game changer.

(fwiw ANAN-100D, Flex 6500, K3s and Orion2 are all on my table - they're ALL great radios)

73, Barry N1EU