On 10/15/09 14:47 , Mark S. Holden wrote:
John Plimmer wrote:
On Oct 14, 7:47 pm, dave wrote:
John, the best receivers in the world are made here in the USA and in
Italy; why would Steve want a sand box from Asia?


Dave they make transceivers and they are not the best for our type of
SW/MW DXing, where top line audio is required. The K3 is no good on MW
at all and the audio is poor. The TT radio's are mainly on ham bands
only and their general coverage receive is mediocre.

Hams that want top audio always go for Icom = they are tops.

As for specs, you have to compare apples with apples. Sherwood tests
the radio's on the narrowest CW filter setting. If they were tested on
AM with a 4.5 kHz filter the Icom would come out way tops.

JP

Most of the hams I know who are looking for great audio are heading in
the direction of Ten-tec or Flex.

The Ten-tec Omni VII is general coverage, and I've heard very favorable
things about it's performance. The Orions have GC on the second receiver
though it's admittedly not as good as the primary rx. The Flex radios
are also GC.

An advantage Ten-tec has over Icom is they seem to be better about
supporting discontinued models. They'll also try to talk an owner
through diagnosing and fixing a radio on the phone.

I've read less about the Flex service as they're a newer company with a
smaller customer base. Frankly, while I've got plenty of computers
scattered about the house, I'm not excited about a radio that depends on
a computer to run.

Ten-tec and Flex are both made in the USA.

I'm researching HF rigs now, and at the moment, I'm leaning to the Omni
VII or possibly a Harris RF-5000 Falcon.


I've worked with both Ten-Tec and Icom service. Icom is fairly
institutional. They're good. But they're pretty rigid. Ten-Tec is a
lot more personable. And, you're right, they'll fix a rig over the
phone, if you'd like. I like that.

When they've had a rig of mine, it's always come back well
packed, cleaned, and cost effectively serviced, but serviced right.

Icom, one time, required a second trip back to Bellevue to
address an issue that they'd missed. They did pick up the extra
shipping, and they did a nice job of the service issues. Packed
well, but not cleaned and dressed as well as Icom.

Costs are about the same.

Of the two, I'd make Ten-Tec a preference in my next purchase.