Strong communications skills, both written and oralīaofeng has tasked an in country long time amateur radio operator to assist in the pre screening process.Desire to own the unit your shipped (at no charge).Strong desire to provide feedback about the product.
To help facilitate the selection of Beta test candidates, Baofeng is desiring to prescreen potential users, based on the following criteria: Their amplifier product family could become a game changer, and we suspect that their SDR radios could become the new standard for rigs of that class. (I’m kidding….we’ve seen the likes of Baofeng and Wouxun tell every reseller that they are “special” or “unique” and the “only official supplier”)Īgain, we at Factual Amateur Radio believe Baofeng intends to start customer shipping in 2016.
We believe that the “new” TenTec, (RKR Designs LLC) will be the only official US distributor of the Baofeng HF products, in a similar fashion that the manufacturer has used with selecting a single supplier for their VHF/UHF transceivers. It is believed that the first products released will be reworked Tokyo High Power labs inspired amplifiers and tuners (see our previous entry) with a followup rollout of their new “SDR with knobs” transceivers, later in the year.īaofeng intends to put a strong push on marketing to US amateur radio operators. PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR LAUNCH OF THE TRANSCEIVER BETA LATER THIS YEAR!!!!įactual Amateur Radio has recently learned that Baofeng is preparing a slew of products targeted for the 2016 calendar year, and is preparing to engage beta testers for several of them. “If MFJ Enterprises were to acquire a progressive company like Ten-Tec, equipment purchasers would experience enhanced customer support, and innovative technological products, similar to the other brand experiences that we represent.”įor our money, we believe that at the 2016 Dayton Hamvention, you’ll see:ĪLL BETA TEST SLOTS ARE NOW FULL! TESTERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED!!! When we finally tracked down Martin, he would neither confirm nor deny our claim. MFJ employs more than 150 people right now, serving the worldwide amateur radio community from the electronics capital of North America, Starkville, Mississippi. Martin founded MFJ back in 1972, and through numerous acquisitions now owns brands like Ameritron, Hy-Gain, Mirage, Vectronics, and Cushcraft. The new owner of Ten-Tec has to be none other than Martin F. Who already is a “notable amateur radio operator”, with experience in the “fight club” of marketing amateur radio products? Who already operates 14.7 million dollar conglomerate enterprise worth 14.7 million in 2013? You won’t even be a bit surprised when you think about it. It took us a bit, but we believe that we’ve found the new owner of Ten-Tec. We even ventured into the “infamously notable” collection of characters frequenting 14.313 and 7.200 MHZ. We started with the usual collection of “notable” amateurs like the founders of Elecraft and Flex Radio. Take a peek here.įactual Amateur Radio sought to uncover the name of the new owner. We can’t even begin to make this stuff up, it reads like a script from a really weak plotted “made for TV” movie. One of the blog postings we found suggest that a “mysterious buyer” has stepped forward to breathe new life into the organizations, making them once again a viable source for state of the art amateur radio products. More recently though, toward the end of 2014, we all learned that parts of the original Ten-Tec and RF Concepts companies have again been sold off. You can catch an ARRL press release here, in case you’ve forgotten, or all the positive radio activity on 7200 has left you a bit confused. Unless you’ve just crawled out of the pile of empty Oreo bags, Burger King wrappers, and beer bottles in your shack, you know all about the purchase of the two companies, known by many radio operators as leaders in their respective fields, by RKR Designs, LLC.
One of the more interesting stories we’ve followed for a couple of years now is the status of the beloved Ten-Tec Corporation, and it’s “sister” company, RF Concepts. To suggest that the Amateur Radio market is one filled with all kinds of ebb and flow in the economic tidal pool is like suggesting that Donald Trump doesn’t need to become President of the United States to make money.
#Ten tec pegasus 550 review full#
We at Factual Amateur Radio Technology Services expect this year to be full of twists and turns in the world of Amateur Radio. All of a sudden,we’re celebrating the start of 2016.