ten-tec omni7+

[magic_lantern]

Not sure if this is posted anywhere.
looks like TT has started selling the omni7+ an upgraded version of the original , I hope they offer a upgrade kit for those of us that have the old version.

 

[prcguy]

I have an original Omni VII bought 6mo after they were introduced that has been in remote control service since new, which I'm about to retire. It was a very nice radio in its day.

I stopped by the TenTec booth at Dayton this year and saw the new Omni VII+. Then I saw the price around $2,800 and asked the guy at the booth how that is going to compete with radios like the Icom 7610 and others with dual receivers, spectrum analyzers with waterfall display, super high performance, etc. The guy just smiled and shrugged his shoulders because he didn't have a good answer. I like buying American but I'm not going to pay twice what a radio is worth just for that.

Same goes for the TenTec Eagle+, probably a great radio but for much less you can get an Icom 7300 which blows it away with features and probably performance. I have an Eagle and its a very good radio, but not worth more than about $900 new these days as it has zero features.

Not sure if this is posted anywhere.
looks like TT has started selling the omni7+ an upgraded version of the original , I hope they offer a upgrade kit for those of us that have the old version.

 

[AK9R]

The shrugging shoulders response tells me that they have developed a product that they know can't compete and they haven't taken the time to develop a marketing response to their lack of competitiveness. Granted, it's a bit annoying when the marketing folks go into full spin mode and try to sell you something that both you and they know doesn't measure up. But, not even trying to cast their product in a competitive light tells me that they've thrown in the towel.

Or, they have enough military and government contracts that they simply don't care to sell a product in the amateur radio market.

 

[jaspence]

For some of the companies, it is the name association. An Elecraft Kx3 can cost over $2,000 without too much effort.

 

[prcguy]

Elecraft is a different story. They produce cutting edge high performance products that are American made and in my opinion a great bang for the buck. I had two KX3's, a KX2 and a K3 line and so on. I'm a pretty cheap tightwad ham like most, but when a company designs and produces top notch radio equipment like Elecraft, I will reward them with a sale.

Elecraft is so good with their designs and has earned so much trust with their customers, when a new product is announced people will line up and pay full price months in advance without ever seeing or using the new product. That is a phenomenal following and you don't get there putting out mediocre equipment.

For some of the companies, it is the name association. An Elecraft Kx3 can cost over $2,000 without too much effort.

 

[prcguy]

The original Omni VII and Eagle radios had very good performance and a great human interface but they had their quirks that could not be fixed like the codec used for remote on the Omni VII that didn't have any FEC and unless you had a perfect Internet connection the remote audio would get choppy. Then there was the stupid spectrum scope that was not real time, it would only do one sweep while consuming the receiver then the receiver is back and you had a stored old spectrum trace. Compare that with a real time spectrum/waterfall display like the Icom 7300.

Then there was the antenna tuner inside the Eagle. What a slow POS that is. TenTec used LDG tuners in many of their products up to the Eagle then I think they had a falling out with LDG so TenTec designed their own tuner from scratch. Instead of taking measurements and making a few intelligent steps to the tuning solution, the Eagle tuner simply started at the first of a couple thousand solutions and ran through the list until the match was ok. That could take 30 seconds or more. When it finally got there it was usually ok but it was a slow painful and noisy time getting there. No other radio I have seen had such a crude slow tuner as the Eagle.

I really hope TenTec gets their act together and produces radios that are competitively priced while offering what consumers want. We need American companies to succeed and reward them with sales when they get it right.

The shrugging shoulders response tells me that they have developed a product that they know can't compete and they haven't taken the time to develop a marketing response to their lack of competitiveness. Granted, it's a bit annoying when the marketing folks go into full spin mode and try to sell you something that both you and they know doesn't measure up. But, not even trying to cast their product in a competitive light tells me that they've thrown in the towel.

Or, they have enough military and government contracts that they simply don't care to sell a product in the amateur radio market.