Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017
My son says I remind him of Felix Unger from “The Odd Couple” — my sinuses are giving me fits today (a headache from H-E-double hockey sticks to be exact) — and I’m complaining to the only semi-sympathetic ear in the house (his). At least I’m not honking like a Canadian goose like Felix did … unfortunately, my son is only familiar with the rebooted Odd Couple, not the TV classic sitcom or the movie that preceded it. Such is the life of an Old Fart (sigh).
I’m listening to the Ten-Tec 40-meter net on my ICOM IC-756PRO (and waiting for a lightning bolt direct from Seviereville for my blasphemous use of a “rice box” to tune in). Sounds like there’s quite a few of the TT faithful on frequency .. though a significant number of check-ins are using non-TT rigs.
There was a recent discussion thread (on eham I believe) about Ten-Tec’s future — or apparent lack thereof. The discussion devolved into a pissing contest (not surprisingly). No matter where you stand on the debate, let’s look at it realistically.
- Entering (or re-entering) the Amateur Radio market will be expensive to the point of being cost-prohibitive. We have a proud product brand formerly manufactured in the U.S. that is little more now than a string of promises of coming product. This scenario sounds oddly familiar … remember Hallicrafters after it was acquired by Northrup?
- If — as claimed — Ten-Tec’s parent company (Dishtronix) is busy building commercial equipment, they probably should continue to do so and avoid the Amateur Radio market. For a number of years now, the company has been selling a high-end solid-state legal limit amplifier. After the company’s up’s and downs, they arent’ going to be able to re-enter the market with high-end products and build the trust of very skeptical Amateur consumers (outside the Ten-Tec faithful).
- Repeated statements about Ten-Tec building 100 Eagle transceivers in the interim (until they get geared up for new production) have worn thin. Clearly the company is not allocating resources to Amateur Radio production at present, and no one blames them for that. Why build a run of 100 “new” old technology transceivers that are unlikely to be priced competitively? If there’s money in it, fine; if it will boost the company’s remaining reputation, that’s good too. Perhaps the company would be better served making smaller steps back into the Amateur market. Getting back into the 100W HF transceiver market is a very tough row to hoe … without a novel, competitive product its going to be a tough market to find success. Just my 2 cents, of course.
LAPTOP REPAIR PROJECT. My readers may not be aware that my non-ham activities include serving as a gatherer and writer of news. As such, I am a slave to a computer (several, actually).
My favorite laptop is an Acer S3 ultrabook — computer code words for “very lightweight and expensive.” Me being the cheapskate I am, my S3 is used. It really is nice for what I need it for — weighs like 2-1/2 pounds, it has a 13.3-inch screen, and is equipped with a solid state drive, so it boots to Windows 10 in as much time as it takes for me to write this sentence. I love the thing — or I did until I broke it.
Yeah, what I didn’t stop to consider was the fact that the S3’s lightweight construction was a compromise between portability (weight) and durability.
The S-3 has been pretty darn rugged; I keep it in a neoprene laptop sleeve and stored in a shoulder bag with minimal padding. Never a problem with it — until a few weeks ago. Either me or my son must have stepped on the laptop bag, because the next time I fired it up the screen was NFG. Dang! I know the difference between a 7 pound laptop and a 2-1/2 pound one sounds like a First World problem, but it means a lot when you’re already carting a bag of camera equipment around (still and video) along with a tripod. The S3 is light and has battery capacity that absolutely rocks — 6 to 7 hours.
Thanks to YouTube, I found a video describing how to replace the screen; I had a replacement ordered within minutes. The video illustrated how significant the trade-off was between portability and durability; The S3’s upper half had no metal supports in the case (other than the two hinges). In fact, the LCD screen was glued in place with double-sided tape. Unsnap the bezel, remo
ve the sticky from the old screen, put in the new screen and whomp! Done!
Because my new screen came assembled as a complete new lid assembly, I opted to install it as a unit rather than just remove the LCD from the replacement lid. My observation folks is that it is amazing how little here is in a relatively expensive laptop these days.
BTW, I recommend watching eBay for late model computers like the Acer S3; people sell them dirt cheap and you can replace the screen and be operating with gas once again with a stylin’ and profilin’ ultrabook. I did just that, and now I have a spare S3 “just in case.”
ICOM IC-756PRO. I’m getting reacquainted with the PRO and enjoying it more all the time. I checked in to the Georgia CW net and due to crowded band conditions I had the narrower filter options available. Unfortunately, there’s not much even the best DSP can do when a LID fires up CQ TEST 100 Hertz about your frequency. Next up — I have ordered the appropriate cable and jumper block in order to put my Signalink USB on the air here in the library. More ham radio fun ahead!
73 es CUL de KY4Z SK …. dit … dit