Ten-Tec News

[El_Kabong]

If you see something floating around Facebook and social media regarding Ten-Tec closing up- don't believe it. It is not true. Fake news.

Counterfeit Press Release on Social Media -

It has come to our attention that a press release is being circulated on social media...

www.tentec.com

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Why would someone do this.?

 

[prcguy]

Even though they are still in business, they have nothing to offer the amateur community except 10+ year old designs at best for more than twice the price of the competitor, and there really isn't competition. I bought both the Omni VII and Eagle when they first came out, ok performing radios at the time but the worst investment in a radios I ever made. The resale value is close to nothing, I almost had to give them away. TenTec repairs are now legendary, the worst in the business, either they can't fix the radio or if by chance they can it will cost a fortune and you won't see it for months. You can't even call them for info about your repair on the phone, email only and be prepared to wait for an answer.

Check out their latest Omni VII+, its basically the same radio except they had to swap some parts around that were not available. The design is old and the only real improvement is they replaced the plastic front panel with an aluminum one. Its spectrum scope is a one shot, push a button, one sweep and hold, not continuous like any other radio made today. This radio starts at $2,700 and a $1,200 retail Icom 7300 blows it away in features and performance. Who would buy this radio today? Anyone on RR with a new Omni VII that would like to comment?

 

[El_Kabong]

I had a Corsair II back in the day and it was an amazing unit. Toured the facility in Sevierville a few times back in the 90s and once right before they closed the doors. The last visit left me feeling concerned. I think Mr Dishop has the talent to produce a good product since taking over. I would give them a chance even it was Ohio-Tec.

 

[MTS2000des]

Even though they are still in business, they have nothing to offer the amateur community except 10+ year old designs at best for more than twice the price of the competitor, and there really isn't competition.

JVC Kenwood is "quietly quitting" the amateur product line too. Look at the latest HRO Catalog. Kenwood has ONE 10 year old 2 meter HT, no mobile VHF/UHF, and three HF rigs. That's it. Those HF rigs are the 590SG, been out for a decade- the 890 and 990, high dollar radios that still lag behind the high enders from Icom and Yaesu.

The commercial ham market has been watered down by cheap hams, a struggling economy, and cheap plastic turd radios from China. I am surprised Ten-Tec even bothers.

 

[prcguy]

TenTec claims their Govt business, probably for wide band SDR receivers is their money maker right now and they want to use those profits to build up the amateur products, but I don't think that will ever happen. TenTec used to have some reasonable engineering people but I think they all left.

At one time and for a very short time the TenTec Orion series was a top performing transceiver but it got quickly outclassed buy newer technology. The original Omni VII and Eagle were good performers for the price at their inception but again quickly outpaced by newer and much cheaper technology. Right now the ho-hum Icom 7300 runs circles around the current production Omni VII+ for well under half the price and service sucks. Tentec would have to hire some brilliant new talent and cut production costs to be able to compete in the amateur market and I don't see that happening.

Also look at companies like Elecraft where a radio is designed by committee with a vision from the founders then experts in every aspect of the radio are developing the individual sections of the radio and the end product is cutting edge performance. That takes a lot of resources were Icom and Yaesu have also been able to produce stellar new radios but Kenwood has been lacking for many years, probably due to a very limited engineering group. My best example of a radio failure is the Commradio CTX-10 where it appears one person had the vision and did the complete design and I don't believe he had the needed insight on portable QRP operation or minimal RF specifications to compete in that arena. Its a well made radio but performance and features are bottom of the barrel.

JVC Kenwood is "quietly quitting" the amateur product line too. Look at the latest HRO Catalog. Kenwood has ONE 10 year old 2 meter HT, no mobile VHF/UHF, and three HF rigs. That's it. Those HF rigs are the 590SG, been out for a decade- the 890 and 990, high dollar radios that still lag behind the high enders from Icom and Yaesu.

The commercial ham market has been watered down by cheap hams, a struggling economy, and cheap plastic turd radios from China. I am surprised Ten-Tec even bothers.

 

[KA4DPO]

The claims of government business might be true, but I seriously doubt Ten Tec has anything to do with it. The company is very small so if anything, sub contract assemblies, like making circuit boards for a big company on a government contract. I don't think the owner has the wherewithal to design and build modern digital radios for the government, the engineering costs alone are incredibly high to be able to do that. When I worked at Harris, we used to contract small companies to build sub assemblies for our government contracts, but the design and engineering was all done in house, and we had teams of engineers and software designers.

I honestly don't see Ten Tec coming back ever.

 

[prcguy]

Here is what you get if you go to the TenTec website and want to buy a radio.

"Attention Ten Tec Customers.
Effective June 18, 2022, the online store is closed until we finish moving inventory to Ohio.
There is no one in Tennessee and there is no support available whatsoever at this time.
We should be open again at the end of summer.

Thank you.

Mike N8WFF
President
Ten Tec / Dishtronix / Alpha RF Systems"

They were supposed to be open end of summer 2022 and now its early 2023 and you can't buy a TenTec radio. Here is what happens when you try and find service for your TenTec radio.

"Unfortunately we will no longer be able to answer email or telephone calls regarding Ten Tec amateur radio products."

So if you bought a TenTec radio you have been abandoned and must take it to an independent repair place to try and have it fixed. And good luck with that. Then there is the resale value, which is probably the lowest in the business. I had a mint TenTec Omni VII which cost me close to $3k with all its filters and options. It was an ok radio which competed with the Icom 756 PRO III at the time and except for the lack of real time band scope I think it was a better performer. However, not too many years later when I needed to sell it I couldn't even get $750 for it and finally had to trade it for other equipment. I suspect if you recently bought the newer version of the Omni VII early last year for $2.7k on up you would be in the same boat with nobody willing to give you anything for it.

 

[KA4DPO]

I wonder if they will have a booth at Dayton this year? Las year it looked like a ghost town.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I was taught that businesses were either operational or defunct. Thanks to Ten-Tec, we should add 'comatose' to the definition list in BBA and MBA programs.

 

[KA4DPO]

I recently corresponded with a guy who has an Omni VII and was looking for some factory software to do the MARS mod. He said Ten Tec would not return any of his Emails and they don't answer the phone. For them to keep saying they are still open for business is just ludicrous, they are deader than Hogans goat.

 

[KA4DPO]

I wonder if they will have a booth at Dayton this year? Las year it looked like a ghost town.

Looks like they do have a booth at Dayton this year, along with Alpha RF Systems. So it will be interesting to see if they have anything new to offer. I have noticed that the so called fake press release is still up on their web banner page. If that was fake, how come we never heard about who wrote it, and why is it still up there? Kinda weird if you ask me, but then, that whole website is a mess.

Lets see what they have at Dayton.

 

[KA4DPO]

Question answered, Ten Tec showed up at Dayton with the same old stuff, and a motorized dipole antenna that cost nearly a thousand bucks. They have not done anything, not even updated the busted website for years.