In 1999, the model 550 Pegasus was the first Ten-Tec DSP transceiver to be released, but not the first designed.
The first DSP transceiver we had developed was the model TX-590. We began development in 1995 and had locked down the design by mid 1996. It was around that time that Kenwood released their TS-870S, which coincidentally had a similar architecture. However, we saw the feedback on the TS-870S and understood that it would be risky to launch a similar product that would potentially have similar issues and similar poor acceptance in the marketplace. Time to redesign and upgrade both the RF hardware and the DSP firmware.
In 1997, as we pursued a redesign of the TX-590, Ten-Tec cofounder Al Kahn, then 90 years old, proposed a PC based transceiver based off the the RX-320. It was one of those ideas that just took off and came together very quickly. By 1998 the Model 550 was born and I was happy to have provided the name Pegasus.
Unlike previous products, where upgrades required a chip change, the Pegasus was FLASH based and was updated by using a Ten-Tec provided app and downloading new firmware. It would be the first FLASH based, remotely upgradable radio in the Amateur radio market. Afterwards, all future Ten-Tec products would be FLASH based and field upgradable, where possible.
Another product, the TX-531 sprang from the Pegasus and was designed to customer specifications to be rack mounted and became part of their automatic test systems.
