[TenTec] Orion--K2--706

[Bill Tippett <btippett@alum.mit.edu>]

S56A wrote:
>There are no negatives in ON4UN Orion test report!

        Not exactly...I saw the following in his report:

6/ BW

The measured bandwidth and resulting shape factor are:

Nominal BW (Hz)  -6dB BW (Hz) -60dB BW (Hz)  Shape factor
           100       150           440         2.9:1

TT has informed me that they will change the display
so that the most narrow bandwidth displays 150 and not 100 Hz.


15/ the second receiver

Whereas the TT-manual suggests that diversity reception is possible with the
Orion, it really is not what I call true diversity reception. To me true
diversity reception is only possible if both receivers are phase locked and
that the phase delay through both receivers is nearly identical. This is not
the case in the ORION. Listen to the same signal through both receivers
using the same VFO, and you hear the warble (flutter, rapid fading) caused
by the phase difference. This warble is always there and in my eyes makes
real diversity impossible. This does not mean that under certain
circumstances you may not find a benefit in using different antennas on the
2 receivers on (almost) the same frequency. While TT doesn't claim that both
receivers are phase locked, they think that there are advantages when using
e.g. a vertical and horizontal antenna or two horizontal antennas separated
by at least a wavelength with the Orion using two radios in a single audio
amplifier and claim that some of their customers have found this form of
diversity with non phase-locked receivers useful.


18/ suggestions and shortcomings

On the negative side: the Voice memory keyer is much too slow in saving to
memory (not useful at all in a contest).

I also would like to see the possibility to see different external T/R
delays for SSB and CW. Now you can set one delay for output A (going to
amplifier A) and another one for output B (going to amplifier B). Having
separately adjustable delays for SSB and CW should only be a minor software
change, I think.

Suggestion: It would be nice if the user could, from his PC, upload HIS
frequency /mode / bandwidth definitions (a one time task to do, without
having to control the radio from a PC on a permanent basis). Doing so he
could just enter a frequency from the Orion keyboard and it would
selectively make a corresponding standard bandwidth, all this in accordance
to his frequency / mode / bandwidth chart. We understand this cannot be a
standard thing as band-planning differs in different IARU regions, and even
in accordance to individual operators.


I know TT has thought about these wishes, but not all of them can be on the
top of their priority change list at the same time. I know they do listen to
their customers and try to learn from them to make a better product. Wise
strategy! By the time you read this, some of these "wishes" are very likely
to have become true. Bill, W4ZV, eminent top-band DX-er worded it very well
on the Internet: "KUDOS to TenTec for LISTENING to actual users!  Japanese
manufacturers must surely be watching the success Elecraft and Ten-Tec are
having by incorporating real time user feedback into their  products.  If
they don't soon start doing the same, I believe they will all be history in
a few years."

Even as I write the final lines of this report I think I have found one or
two very minor control software glitches, which I know TT will correct in
one of their next firmware upgrades. It's great not having to be worried
about such issues, the people are there at TT to solve them, and the system
is in place to provide every customer with the solution almost in real time.
This is what I always dreamed about!


22/ The Orion in Europe.

At this time (early October 2003) the Ten Tec cannot be sold in the EC
market, as it has no CE label yet.

http://dayton.akorn.net/pipermail/topband/2003-October/017574.html

                                        73,  Bill  W4ZV 

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