HI George: I agree with you - QST's editorial staff has different goals than
the labs, and up to a point the labs do very well. As an old tech (I had a
choice of going to academia but I didn't like that nasty brown layer that
appeared on everyone in the department's nose; my foray into engineering
resulted in
far too little pay and much too little sleep; so I decided I would fix the
stuff no one else could. Interesting work and it paid well.) I also understand
the limitations of field testing.
As a ham, now an Orion owner, with a long time open door policy, anyone is
welcome to bring any rig, hook it to my antenna switch, and compare it to my
rig under field conditions; I also understand the very human tendency to
believe that "I bought the best radio in the world" and to become unreasonably
and
extremely angry when someone suggests otherwise. I would not dare maintain
my policy if I weren't so big - and if my mama hadn't been so industrious with
that ugly stick.
Joking aside, George, it seems to me the Orion gripes break down into three
main categories. The first - it broke and I don't want this piece of junk
anymore. Well, a certain percentage of new products have always quit. I made a
good living for nearly thirty years bringing equipment suffering SIDS back to
life, working out running changes for various vendors, etc. Fortunately,
across
the board, the percentage of failure is much less for devices of the same
complexity than it used to be.
I do not have production/failure numbers but so far the O seems to be quite
reliable. Particularly compared to some of the stuff from the early days of
printed circuits. Westinghouse had one entire production run with a 100 percent
failure rate.
But that does not help the feelings of the guy one corner of whose display
darkens slightly after a few hours in a warm room. And who is told it' may be
uneven tension on the display, or it may be a faulty display, but bundle it up
and send it back and they will fix it. So he got his money back and now he's
griping to the whole world that the radio he bought was a piece of junk - and
Ten Tec's software is buggy and unreliable.
I have not found that to be the case. From my operators chair, some of the
firmware updates have been to correct initial errors of judgement resulting
from the software people's notion "I have always done it this way, so every one
else does it this way too." And many of us don't.
More changes have been users suggestions incorporated into firmware. I wish
a few more suggestions would make it into the firmware - but if not it will
not keep me from buying another or perhaps two. I can adapt, even if it's not
the way Hallicrafters did it.
The third problem - a small fire some have made into a smudge pot - is the
fact the Orion appears to be a conventional radio but does not operate like any
other radio. If you insist on using the same settings that work well on your
familiar radio - you probably won't get much more out of it than you did out of
your old rig. And not nearly all the Orion is capable of.
To mention just one area that has bumfuzzled a couple of hams at shootouts,
the programmable AGC has a maximum decay rate of nearly 100 dB/s. The AGC is
so effective that 30 dB of RF attentuation drops the S meter from S8 to S3 but
makes NO difference to the audio output. The fixed AGC is set to kick in at a
fairly high level - and Ten Tec has just posted a suggested setup for the
programmable AGC that's very close to the one I have been running almost from
the first weekend. Can it dig 'em out of the mud? Set right, Yes Sir, it can,
and how! Set wrong and it's just average.
The speech processor is another item. Visiting local hams who know me and my
voice well are amazed to find I'm using speech processing. "Oh, it can't do
much, then," is the usual response. Until I tell them to watch the LED display
on the linear and the power out on the Bird as I dial the SP up and back. Peak
power does not go up - average power does. Greatly, yet I still sound
"natural and open" to the locals. Just as ON4UN did on my end when we were
comparing
speech processor settings the other afternoon on 20.
The "lack" of a conventional RF gain control is another highly discussed
item. It isn't necessary on the Orion - and there has been no desense even with
a
KW mobile rig on 20 phone parked almost under my multiband vertical - with the
O on 14.018. We were working CW DX inside while a ham with a KW was trying
to work a W2 within 50 feet of the antenna. I can easily believe the Orion at
Field Day postings because they agree with my field tests. Impressive?
Yes, to me. Less impressive to the ham who has four grand in a rig that's
coming off second best in every category. And I do understand how he feels. But
I
didn't ask him to bring his rig over. I would not have. I had one of those in
1993 - and only lost a few hundred on it when I sold it three months later.
So I was pretty sure how the shootout would come out. And I'm equally convinced
that the Orion will more than hold it's own with anyone's current top of the
line rig.
Of course, the guy who brought over his even higher dollar "dual watch" rig
that could not stand the gaff under those severe conditions is not fully
convinced. Yet. But I think he will be, quite soon.
But that still leaves the question of how the JA enthusiasts on QST's staff
will treat the Orion. I hope they will set it up according to the Ten Tec
recommendation instead of like their personal radios. I am afraid they won't.
But
we will see.
73 Pete
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