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Old 01-09-2012, 10:08   #100
Radio Guy
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Join Date: Nov 2009
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I own two RAMP-75 and two AM-SAT-50 amps and have first hand knowledge of the two companies, no skewed info here.

I purchased the two TSE labeled RAMP-75 amplifiers from an asset recovery company (lost UPS shipment stuff) and they appeared NIB but had problems. I contacted Ed at TSE who was very gracious in getting me info and suggestions on troubleshooting the units but in the end they were well beyond user repair.

Ed at TSE finally put me in contact with the designer and manufacturer of these amplifiers which was Tricom Research, I still have the emails from Ed on this.

Tricom is not far from my location and after some conversations Tricom agreed to waive the usual checkout fee for an out of warranty unit and I was at their front door at 8am the next morning with one of the amps.

I toured the Tricom factory, met some of the design, assembly and test team and I can tell you with my past career at Hughes Aircraft designing and building microwave and RF equipment I can say the operation is first class.

Tricom found my units had been shipped to an end user, were defective and were lost in the return mail back to TSE or the factory. The guys at Tricom proceeded to replace a defective board supplied by another vendor while I waited. They ran it through final QC and handed me the repaired amp and a printout of its performance at no cost. Tricom later repaired the second defective unit at no charge to me. How is that for service?

Ed at TSE did his best to help but in the end the unit was out of warranty with his company and TSE did not appear to have on site manufacturing or repair capabilities to handle a repair like this.

I also inquired about the Tricom/TSE connection and received info and timelines of who designed what and who sold what for who. These amps have model #s assigned by Tricom but TSE trademarked the "RAMP" designation for these products which they sold. If you look at any of the amps made before around 2009 they can have the TSE RAMP sticker and the original Tricom part # on the same unit.

A Google search also find the info on lawsuits between the two companies, and timelines where you can see Tricom made and supplied these amps and other equipment to TSE and other resellers.

With Google searches you will also find its very clear that after the Tricom/TSE split, TSE had a third party company design and manufacture a new line of amplifiers with similar looks and footprint to the Tricom products and TSE continues to sell them under the "RAMP" trademark. The new line of TSE amps had to be re-certified after their release in early '09 even though they have the same or similar part #.

Just trying to clear up some misinformation that was posted here, my dealings with TSE are very positive and Ed is a very knowledgeable and experienced commo guy. I will speculate on some of the confusion with JITC certification which could be from TSE owning the "RAMP" trademark and the early Tricom amps were submitted under the RAMP designation. Maybe Ed can chime in on this.

On the other hand Tricom is not a fly by night copy cat company, they are the real deal in amplifier design and manufacturing. I regularly use my RAMP-75 amp with a neutered MBITR and other handlelds in support of USCG comms and in testing of prototype antenna products.

Radio Guy



Quote:
Originally Posted by 69harley View Post
That does not make sense. JITC is where MANUFACTURERS have their products certified. Funny that not a single other 'reseller' had an amplifier certified. EVERYONE with equipment listed on the JITC website is a manufacturer. Tricom didn't come on the scene until several years after TSE. Looks like Tricom copied a product designed, manufactured and cretified by the good people at TSE, most of which happen to be Quite Proffessionals. Your information is skewed.
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