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Author Topic: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers  (Read 367467 times)

W9FIB

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #45 on: August 13, 2015, 01:21:58 PM »

You can't just run an ad in the local paper and find hardware or software engineers that have extensive experience designing and producing Ham radio transcievers.  Especially since the majority of TEN TEC's transcievers are DSP IF based.  It takes a multidisciplinary guy to do this kind of work for a small company.  They simply can not afford to hire four engineers with no Ham radio product manufacturing experience to replace a guy that has been with the company for years and knows the ins and outs of the products they produce.

You are delusional if you think that RKR is "cleaning house" or wishing to put their own people (what people???) in place.  That is just nonsense.  Henry would not have left if he thought there was any future in the company... ditto for others who have moved on.

Delusional? Hardly. Happens every day in every industry. The product I work on has 2 of the original 8 engineers left on the team. We still make production, and still provide service for our product. We are not going out of business. In fact we started with 1 factory making the product, and now we have 4 factories. All but 1 left for different jobs. The last one retired. And that is just our little division of the company. There are very few jobs in this world that an effective replacement can't be found.

So a highly trained and educated EE that worked in RF can't pick up a current design and understand it? Does TenTec use some magical chips that no one else uses for DSP algorithm? Or anything else for that matter? Last time I peeked under the hood of a TenTec looked like most if not all the parts were manufactures production components. You figure that EE can't read the data sheets on them and understand them?

Like I said before. Time will tell for TenTec. But employees leaving after an acquisition is old news for them or any other company.

As for Brad's example, that is a good indicator that there may be problems. But that at least is a plausible example. Again, only time will tell.
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73, Stan
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SWL2002

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #46 on: August 13, 2015, 01:32:21 PM »

You can't just run an ad in the local paper and find hardware or software engineers that have extensive experience designing and producing Ham radio transcievers.  Especially since the majority of TEN TEC's transcievers are DSP IF based.  It takes a multidisciplinary guy to do this kind of work for a small company.  They simply can not afford to hire four engineers with no Ham radio product manufacturing experience to replace a guy that has been with the company for years and knows the ins and outs of the products they produce.

You are delusional if you think that RKR is "cleaning house" or wishing to put their own people (what people???) in place.  That is just nonsense.  Henry would not have left if he thought there was any future in the company... ditto for others who have moved on.

Delusional? Hardly. Happens every day in every industry. The product I work on has 2 of the original 8 engineers left on the team. We still make production, and still provide service for our product. We are not going out of business. In fact we started with 1 factory making the product, and now we have 4 factories. All but 1 left for different jobs. The last one retired. And that is just our little division of the company. There are very few jobs in this world that an effective replacement can't be found.

So a highly trained and educated EE that worked in RF can't pick up a current design and understand it? Does TenTec use some magical chips that no one else uses for DSP algorithm? Or anything else for that matter? Last time I peeked under the hood of a TenTec looked like most if not all the parts were manufactures production components. You figure that EE can't read the data sheets on them and understand them?

Like I said before. Time will tell for TenTec. But employees leaving after an acquisition is old news for them or any other company.

As for Brad's example, that is a good indicator that there may be problems. But that at least is a plausible example. Again, only time will tell.

TEN TEC is a small company.  They also do not pay very well, partly because of their location.   Some of the engineers that left were both RF engineers as well as software engineers doing embedded programming in addition to DSP programming.  Because of the small size of TEN TEC as well as the market they serve, they will have a hard time finding anyone that call fill all those shoes.  Do you really think they are going to hire four engineers for the price of one?  Yes, they may be able to slug along producing the stuff that is already on the market, but expect no firmware updates and no new products.  That combination spells doom...

p.s. Just because you occupy and a few engineers occupy an insignificant position within your company does not mean that the loss of key people at Ten Tec is insignificant.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 02:45:49 PM by SWL2002 »
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W1BR

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #47 on: August 13, 2015, 02:27:54 PM »

elecraft is a small company.  What does that prove?  TenTec did a massive downsizing as well. If you look at John Henry's work history, you will see he has moved upwards quite frequently.  I also question what is happening, but it is too easy to read too much into things.  They've changed hands two times in a year, and some churn and changes are to be expected.

Pete
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SWL2002

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #48 on: August 13, 2015, 02:40:06 PM »

elecraft is a small company.  What does that prove?  TenTec did a massive downsizing as well. If you look at John Henry's work history, you will see he has moved upwards quite frequently.  I also question what is happening, but it is too easy to read too much into things.  They've changed hands two times in a year, and some churn and changes are to be expected.

Pete

Yeah, and if Elecraft had Wayne, Eric, and Lyle as well as a few others all leave in a matter of months of each other, Elecraft would be in trouble too.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 02:42:35 PM by SWL2002 »
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W9FIB

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #49 on: August 13, 2015, 03:05:47 PM »

elecraft is a small company.  What does that prove?  TenTec did a massive downsizing as well. If you look at John Henry's work history, you will see he has moved upwards quite frequently.  I also question what is happening, but it is too easy to read too much into things.  They've changed hands two times in a year, and some churn and changes are to be expected.

Pete

Yeah, and if Elecraft had Wayne, Eric, and Lyle as well as a few others all leave in a matter of months of each other, Elecraft would be in trouble too.

Not if they were replaced with competent people. Just like any other company in the world, big or small. You say they can't. History is on my side that says they can. If a company were that dependent on an employee to survive, they have a very poor business plan. That one employee could die for some reason suddenly. Then what? Poor planning yields poor results. But maybe that's all you know.

Time will tell. Not the comings and goings of employees.
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73, Stan
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SWL2002

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #50 on: August 13, 2015, 03:20:00 PM »

elecraft is a small company.  What does that prove?  TenTec did a massive downsizing as well. If you look at John Henry's work history, you will see he has moved upwards quite frequently.  I also question what is happening, but it is too easy to read too much into things.  They've changed hands two times in a year, and some churn and changes are to be expected.

Pete

Yeah, and if Elecraft had Wayne, Eric, and Lyle as well as a few others all leave in a matter of months of each other, Elecraft would be in trouble too.

Not if they were replaced with competent people. Just like any other company in the world, big or small. You say they can't. History is on my side that says they can. If a company were that dependent on an employee to survive, they have a very poor business plan. That one employee could die for some reason suddenly. Then what? Poor planning yields poor results. But maybe that's all you know.

Time will tell. Not the comings and goings of employees.

Exactly where did I say that they can not be replaced? Do you have some kind of reading comprehension problem? Don't put words into my mouth.  Practically every one can be replaced with enough money and time.  It becomes much harder when you are a small company that does not pay much like Ten Tec.  It is much more difficult on a small company when it is your key players leaving all at once like rats on a sinking ship.   You can't seem to comprehend that either...

Also please spare us the platitudes.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 03:22:07 PM by SWL2002 »
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W9FIB

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #51 on: August 13, 2015, 03:30:33 PM »

LOL Time will tell!
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73, Stan
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KK5DR

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #52 on: August 13, 2015, 04:14:22 PM »



TEN TEC is a small company.  They also do not pay very well, partly because of their location.   Some of the engineers that left were both RF engineers as well as software engineers doing embedded programming in addition to DSP programming.  Because of the small size of TEN TEC as well as the market they serve, they will have a hard time finding anyone that call fill all those shoes.  Do you really think they are going to hire four engineers for the price of one?  Yes, they may be able to slug along producing the stuff that is already on the market, but expect no firmware updates and no new products.  That combination spells doom...

p.s. Just because you occupy and a few engineers occupy an insignificant position within your company does not mean that the loss of key people at Ten Tec is insignificant.



Hot shot RF engineers right out of college can get $120k-250k a year with the top RF design companies like RF Harris, Rockwell/Collins, Thales, RaCal, etc, etc.
Engineers that can write software code as well, are highly paid.
Ten-Tec can't hope to attract that type of talent, it's just not in their budget.
So, you typically have older engineers who may already be retired, going to work for them as more of a "for the love of ham radio" reasoning for working there.
However, these guys may not be fully up to date on cutting edge RF technology, and they may be abit too conservative on ideas for new radio designs.
Sorry if this statement ruffles a few feathers. Its not personal, it's just the truth. And sometimes people need to hear it, and think about it.
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W8JX

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #53 on: August 13, 2015, 05:28:56 PM »

 TenTec did a massive downsizing as well.

No TenTec was raped of assets and products for quick profit with no future. Its sad but is is dying and soon alpha unless they can come up with more affordable amps for masses but that is not likely. Their niche market is bout gone now.
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W9FIB

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #54 on: August 13, 2015, 05:38:19 PM »

Ten-Tec can't hope to attract that type of talent, it's just not in their budget.

That's true. That's why amateur equipment does not have the quality or technology of those big companies and the commercial equipment they make. If they can't afford the talent, they also can't afford the R+D that is needed to go beyond established technology. 1 goes hand in hand with the other. And engineers of that caliber are all over the place.
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73, Stan
Travelling the world one signal at a time.

W1BR

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #55 on: August 13, 2015, 05:52:22 PM »

 TenTec did a massive downsizing as well.

No TenTec was raped of assets and products for quick profit with no future. Its sad but is is dying and soon alpha unless they can come up with more affordable amps for masses but that is not likely. Their niche market is bout gone now.

Speculation as to what transpired when they changed hands.
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W8JX

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #56 on: August 13, 2015, 06:12:48 PM »

 TenTec did a massive downsizing as well.

No TenTec was raped of assets and products for quick profit with no future. Its sad but is is dying and soon alpha unless they can come up with more affordable amps for masses but that is not likely. Their niche market is bout gone now.

Speculation as to what transpired when they changed hands.

The writing is on the wall. If you cannot see or read it you need to take off rose colored glasses.
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W1BR

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #57 on: August 13, 2015, 09:15:48 PM »

 TenTec did a massive downsizing as well.

No TenTec was raped of assets and products for quick profit with no future. Its sad but is is dying and soon alpha unless they can come up with more affordable amps for masses but that is not likely. Their niche market is bout gone now.

Speculation as to what transpired when they changed hands.

The writing is on the wall. If you cannot see or read it you need to take off rose colored glasses.

Nope. I see what is going on. But, until they do a news release I don't see the need to bad mouth the company.  If you want to keep preaching doom and gloom, go for it. But you are off base on several points.  I'd be surprised if all of the design work was done in house at Elecraft, without using temporary contractors. TenTec also had military products in their stable.

Pete

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SWL2002

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #58 on: August 14, 2015, 03:32:27 AM »

TenTec did a massive downsizing as well.

No TenTec was raped of assets and products for quick profit with no future. Its sad but is is dying and soon alpha unless they can come up with more affordable amps for masses but that is not likely. Their niche market is bout gone now.

Speculation as to what transpired when they changed hands.

The writing is on the wall. If you cannot see or read it you need to take off rose colored glasses.

Nope. I see what is going on. But, until they do a news release I don't see the need to bad mouth the company.  If you want to keep preaching doom and gloom, go for it. But you are off base on several points.  I'd be surprised if all of the design work was done in house at Elecraft, without using temporary contractors. TenTec also had military products in their stable.

Pete



None of those comments above are from me, yet your editing of the quotes shows me as a source.  Please be more careful about your editing in the future - I am assuming at this point it was not intentional.
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W8JX

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RE: RKR Designs LLC / Ten-Tec / Alpha Amplifiers
« Reply #59 on: August 14, 2015, 05:55:00 AM »

Nope. I see what is going on. But, until they do a news release I don't see the need to bad mouth the company.  If you want to keep preaching doom and gloom, go for it. But you are off base on several points. 

No you do not see at all. You want to wish it will come back but it will not. Alpha/Tentec was sold/dumped to RKR because owner knew it was dying and had no future. They will not say they are closing until after they close the door because to d otherwise would further decrease value of any assets left and put sales in toilet too. I am not preaching gloom and doom but rather stating what is plain to see if you are willing to remove rose colored glasses and see it. Sadly when TenTec was taken over it was for assets to liquidate for quick profit and little more.
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