[TenTec] ORION

[Ken Bourne W6HK]

The following message (posted on January 25, 2002) is on the Ten-Tec 
message archive on http://www.contesting.com.

Ken Bourne, W6HK

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Hello:

Thought it might be time for some comments from Ten-Tec directly
about the ORION - I waited a couple of days on purpose just to see
what initial feedback we'd get about the rig without any information
coming from us.  Thanks.

Frankly, there isn't a lot to share about it as of yet, and here is all
the information I have available at the moment:

ORION will be a completely new, ground-up design top-of-the-line
HF transceiver from Ten-Tec.   We anticipate the retail price will be
in the $3,300 range.

ORION will be a true dual receive HF transceiver.  We anticipate
that the receiver performance will exceed the Omni-VI Plus and all
of the currently available Japanese HF transceivers.

Main receiver is amateur radio bands only, utilizing both analog and
IF-DSP stages, 10-160 meters. Sub receiver is IF-DSP,
general coverage.

Cosmetics are still being finalized.  The transceiver will use an LCD
display screen similar to the Jupiter but larger and not the same
color background display.  Case color will be black.

Transmitter is 100 watts output.

The will be a number of new features on ORION that haven't been
found on anyone else's previous rig.  We can't release complete details
on these until the specs are finalized.

There is no estimated delivery date, other than it will be available
sometime later in 2002.   We plan to introduce and show the new
rig at the Charlotte Hamfest on March 9-10 and at Dayton
Hamvention in May.   By then, we should have feature and spec
information to distribute about the new rig.

We are VERY excited about this new product.  Stay tuned.

Thanks and 73.
Scott Robbins, W4PA
Amateur Radio Product Manager