I hope they make it back into the amateur market, we need some good old US ingenuity and competition. However, when I look at the two TenTec radios I own, the Eagle and Omni VII and compare either one to say an Icom 7300, its apparent TenTec needs to step it up a dozen notches to even begin to compete.
The Eagle going forward is projected to cost around $1,600 to $1,800 range and although its a very smooth radio to operate, the Icom 7300 completely blows it away in features and is several notches higher in performance and it currently sells for about $1,300. About the only feature the Eagle has beyond what the obvious front panel knobs do is you can change the color of its display. That's about it....Either the Eagle price needs to get into the $1,000 range or its features need to be brought up to this century.
Looking at the TenTec Omni VII, it is the first and possibly the only plug and play completely remote controlled over the Internet radio on the market and its a nice radio to operate. But again, the Icom 7300 leaves it in the dust in features and performance and the Omni VII costs in the high $2k range. Plus the Omni VII is very buggy when used over the Internet. Oh, and that "spectrum display" on the Omni VII, you push a button and it does one sweep and stops, its not continuous like every other radio on the planet.
If TenTec intends to regurgitate the same old technology and features, then they should throw in the towel now and save themselves from eminent doom.
prcguy
