Is Ten Tec closing?

After years on building ham radios as well as having an establish machine shop, Ten Tec moved from it location to renting two rooms in the Thompson Carr Real Estate building. They said they were moving because they needed better facilities?
Really???
They done away with the machine shop all together, got rid of high end radios, trying to sell a QRP radio with missing hf bands, selling other radios at prices like they are trying to get rid of stock, and laying off all but needed employees.
I worked there from 1989 to 1998 and seen some bad economic times during my employment years. A couple of times they had big layoffs, one time they laid off most of the production for almost 6 months. I was lucky I never had to do a layoff, I was one of the technicians working on radios.

When Jack Burchfield decided to retire and sold the company to RF Concepts, I figured the end was soon to follow. They keep saying they aren't closing but closing a factory to move into two rented rooms doesn't show progress.

Any thoughts?

Doesn't sound good at all.
The CHINESE are wiping out what is left of HAM companies in the USA.
DOCTOR/795

And everything else...

On the other side, FLEX is still around.

Like most others, I hope they are not closing. (Or moving production overseas, for that matter.)

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I've had recent conversation with people at Tentec and don't believe they are closing any time soon. They did affiliate with RF Concepts and I'm not sure if they were bought out, merged or something else. I've also heard they lost some key people and had recent problems ramping up assembly lines at the new location and had quality problems trying to keep up with massive radio sales due to the price reductions.

Anytime a company is merged or bought, etc, some streamlining usually follows to trim operating costs. I'm only speculating here but they may be outsourcing some mfg and assembly that used to be done in house. I'm also speculating that the radio price reductions come from RF Concepts as they try increase profits by selling more radios which also decreases parts and assembly costs due to qty discounts.

The Orion II was their flagship high end radio and when first introduced had the best receiver specs out there. But the radio was difficult to use and newer radios from Flex and especially Elecraft really cut into the Orion sales. They seem to be concentrating on more popular radios like the Argonaut VI, the Eagle and Omni VII plus a new little SDR called the Rebel.

The Omni VII, Eagle and Argonaut VI are very good performing radios at competitive prices, especially at the current sale prices.
prcguy

doctor795 said:

Doesn't sound good at all.
The CHINESE are wiping out what is left of HAM companies in the USA.
DOCTOR/795

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The Chinese are not wiping out anything. The American hams buying the cheaply and poorly made Chinese radios are what is wiping out the ham companies. It's not the producers, but the buyers who are the problem. Hams tend to buy price more than quality.

Even more so in this lousy economy.

n2nov said:

Even more so in this lousy economy.

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That's what's making the economy lousy; people trying to save money by buying cheap, throw away radios instead of a quality one that will last. Or in terms of other stuff, buying the cheapest one they can get instead of looking past price to how the tool (or other item in question) will last; sometimes cheaper isn't better, especially if one is in an employment situation where the tools of the trade need to be good quality.

prcguy said:

They seem to be concentrating on more popular radios like the Argonaut VI, the Eagle and Omni VII plus a new little SDR called the Rebel.

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I"m kinda waiting on the Patriot myself; same basic deal as the Rebel, but with SSB too.

beischel said:

The Chinese are not wiping out anything. The American hams buying the cheaply and poorly made Chinese radios are what is wiping out the ham companies. It's not the producers, but the buyers who are the problem. Hams tend to buy price more than quality.

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Yup, this. It's seen as a good thing to spend the least for something that accomplishes the primary goal. I've always had an issue with this myself placing value and less problems above price. Most of the time it works. The saying is "cry once".

I refuse to buy the Chinese crap. You get what you pay for. The Baofeng radios, while nice and cheap, suck to program. I am very happy with my Motorola portables, as well as my Alinco, Icom and Yaesu equipment.

Folks, the thread is about Ten Tec, not cheap Chinese radios.

beischel said:

The Chinese are not wiping out anything. The American hams buying the cheaply and poorly made Chinese radios are what is wiping out the ham companies. It's not the producers, but the buyers who are the problem. Hams tend to buy price more than quality.

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Its damned hard to buy quality when you don't have the money in your wallet. I can't buy what I cannot afford.

Unless something has drastically changed, Ten Tec just moved from their original building to a newer more updated home that suits their needs. Don't think they're going under.., least I hope not!
BG..

People that buy TenTec radios are buying quality not price. It's a shame that alot of hams make poor investments in allot of the cheap rigs available in the hobby.

ButchGone said:

Unless something has drastically changed, Ten Tec just moved from their original building to a newer more updated home that suits their needs. Don't think they're going under.., least I hope not!
BG..

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Without a metal shop to make their chassis, they will have to purchase those somewhere. I don't see them doing that and saving money.
As for a newer, updated facility, two rented rooms in a Real Estate office building no bigger than an high end house does not seem like a move that will keep them going.

When I worked there, the company made all of the knobs, chassis, paint, silk screening. Had a tool and die shop and fabrication shop, with the exception of the actual components (resistors, capacitor, IC chips) all items were made in house.
They won't be doing that anymore from the present location.

n4yek said:

Without a metal shop to make their chassis, they will have to purchase those somewhere. I don't see them doing that and saving money.

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Not necessarily; RF Concepts probably has excess capacity that Ten-Tec could make use of. I know that is something my former employer should have thought about instead of taking the path they did.

beischel said:

The Chinese are not wiping out anything. The American hams buying the cheaply and poorly made Chinese radios are what is wiping out the ham companies. It's not the producers, but the buyers who are the problem. Hams tend to buy price more than quality.

Click to expand...

Nah, its the high cost of doing business in the US that makes it impossible for US companies to price their products competitively. Want people to buy US? Lower taxes and expensive regulations. Still can't compete with sweat shops? Find a way to force those countries to adopt the same standards of workplace safety, child labor laws and minimum wage as we have here.

Until you fix those things it will always be cheaper to manufacture overseas. Quality can be achieved anywhere. Just because a product is made elsewhere doesn't mean it is low quality. You can buy loads of low quality junk made right here in the USA.

If ten tec moves manufacturing overseas to remain competitive it doesn't necessarily mean quality will suffer.