This is not meant to be a technical review by any means, but I hope
that you may find it useful if you are thinking about buying the new
Omni VI+
I ordered my Omni VI+ with a full set of filters, 1.8 kHz SSB, and
250 and 500 Hz filters for both IFs. Having never previously owned a
Omni VI I can't compare it to that particular rig. I do own a Ten Tec
Corsair II and Century 21 as well as a Yaesu FT900. I have also, in
the past, owned a Kenwood TS520S. I have had occasion to use the
Kenwood TS450, TS850 and TS950SDX in the shacks of friend I mention
this only as a point of reference for the following.
One long week after ordering my rig it arrived. The box came complete
with all of the connectors needed to put the rig on the air with a
minimum of bother. There is a ready to use power cord and a spare
connector to make up another included included in the package. I
already had a Heil boom mike made up for the Corsair so I was ready
for SSB. There are two key inputs for CW use. One is for using the
internal keyer and is a 1/8 inch stereo jack. The other is a standard
1/4 inch jack and can be used for external keyers, bugs or straight
key input. I opted to use my external memory keyer so did not
immediately wire up a cable for the built in keyer. I did eventually
wire up a connector to use the internal keyer and it does work very
well
Power output is adjustable from 1 to 100 watts continuously. This was
important to me since I do operate QRP quite a bit. The filters are
extremely sharp and quite a bargain when compared to the
yaecomwood offerings. For the Omni the price per filter was $89.95
compared to the $150 per filter Yaesu wanted for the FT1000MP which
was the other rig that I had considered. Filters from the Corsair II
Omni V and VI are all useable in the VI+. The built in DSP is a real
marvel to use. I have a DSP59+ connected to my FT900 and thought that
it did a good job until I used the one in the Omni. Once you have a
station tuned in with whatever filter you need, a push of the "NR"
button and it is like a receive amplifier is turned on. The signal
literaly jumps out at you. The auto notch also works very well on
SSB. The manual notch is also spectacular, especially on CW where the
auto notch would wipe out the CW signal you are trying to copy. The
low pass filter in the DSP will block out signals above watever low
pass frequency you want and anything above it is basically gone.
The auto notch also works very well on SSB. The manual notch filter
is also pretty spectacular especially on CW where the auto notch
would wipe out the CW signal you are trying to copy. The low pass
filter is also very nice to use on CW. You can set it within a
select set of frequencies and whatever is above that frequency is
basically gone. Since I like a CW offset of about 700 Hz, I set the
low pass for 800 Hz and it works great
For ease of use I think you would be hard pressed to find a rig that
does this much with such a short a learning curve. Within a half hour
of power on I was able to use just about every feature of
e rig with a fair degree of efficiency.
The SPORT computer interface works great also. I use LOGic4 for my
logging chores and after a bit of work on my part is was up and
communicating very well. Now if I can just get PDA, who wrote
LOGic4, to write a new interface that will use all of the Omni VI+
features I will be tickled pink. As of the latest version of LOGic4,
you will have to use the Icom 735 radio selection which does not use
all the Omni's features. The last time I talked to PDA they were
planning to upgrade their radio interfaces.
Connecting my old Yaesu FL2000B non-QSK linear was also a breeze. One
wire from the Omni was all it took and I was on the air with a mighty
500 watt
Do I like the rig? You bet! Would I buy it again? In a heart beat. My
30 day trial period lasted about 30 minutes from power on to filling
out the warranty card. Thanks Ten Tec for a truly great rig.
73 - Phil
Phil Sikes - KJ7NS
ARCI #9196 - QRP-L #528
FISTS #2602 - NW QRP #412
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