[SFDXA] More from Charlotte on the Ten Tec Orion

[Bill Marx]

John Mann W4MAN Associate SFDXA Club Member sends this:

"Here is another person that looked at it with the idea of maybe buying one
in the future. Take care

Well, here are very brief first impressions of the prototype Orion, fresh from the Charlotte Hamfest today.  For those of us used to
YaesKenCom aesthetics, this thing is butt ugly.  It looks like a cheap stereo receiver with a display worthy of my sixth grader'
design class.  Hate to be crude, but if they don't make this thing look better, I suspect they will only sell to the hardest
dyed-in-the-wool TenTec fans, those guys who've grown accustomed to that "brewed up in someone's garage" look, and who maybe even
appreciate the different look to the gear.  It has a dull black face, gaudy shiny polished knob surrounds, and a crude looking
monochromatic LCD panel. It really looks cludged together.

It does have decent control layout, with two identical large tuning knobs (unfortunately with the bright shiny knobs).

As far as performance, if it does what the handout promises, it will best any amateur transceiver on the market.  I talked with
Scott about it at some length, and I was impressed by his willingness to listen.  This radio seems to have been designed by
listening to what contesters and weak signal operators want and need and they're definitely not through with the design yet.  I even
recommended to him that they do something about the radio's looks, and he indicated that was on the table too.

I wouldn't really care that much how it looked, but I suspect they need to sell a lot of these to make money on them, and I just
don't think they will unless they do something about it.

Sitting right next to the Orion was the RX-340, which was the BEST LOOKING piece of ham gear I've ever seen.  It looks like a
Watkins-Johnson HF-1000, with fantastic ergonomics, panel layout, display, sub-displays with tiny red leds, and rack mount handles.
I told Scott that the ORION needed to look more like this radio, and several bystanders rejoined YEAH!!!  Maybe he'll listen.

Sorry I don't have more factual info on performance specs.  All the material handed out there is identical to what's on the website.
There was a great deal of excitement about the rig at Charlotte, and I am excited too.
TenTec is definitely still listening, and they plan on bringing the rig to
Dayton,
> as well.  It will be some time later before we can buy one.
> I hope they seriously consider improving the aesthetics.  Mike N4GU was
> there and took some pictures which he will put on his website soon.  If he
> doesn't post about it here, I'll get the URL and post it.
> 73,
John K4IQ"