Scope measurement shows that the CW waveform is much improved in 1.370.
On-air tests confirm that CW sounds excellent at all speeds. With the proper
rise time setting, keying is no longer hard, shortened or "staccato", and
there are no discernable clicks -- even at 1500W through an amp.
The CW rise time control now works properly for both internal and external
keying at any speed (a warning is displayed if you set it high enough to
affect timing of speeds over 40 WPM.) On-air tests show that a rise time
setting of 7-8ms does not produce clicks. A rise time of 5ms produces some
barely discernable clicks at full legal limit, so I wouldn't recommend going
lower than that. The reason for this is that the figure shown for rise time
is about 2ms longer than the actual rise time. So, at 5ms the actual rise
time is more like 3ms, which is too low. At 7ms, it's really 5ms, which I
personally think is the lowest acceptable value. Rise times above 7-8 ms
won't produce clicks, but the keying may be too soft for some ears and the
timing of elements may be off a bit at very high speeds.
I don't know what you mean by 8ms clipping, but previously both the rise and
fall times were extremely short above 30 WPM or when external keying were
used. Also, there was previously a problem with the end of each element
being severely clipped when driving certain types of QSK amps (e.g., the
87A) using the keying loop. This produced extreme clicks, but is now fixed.
73, Dick WC1M
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Henderson [mailto:bob@cytanet.com.cy]
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 10:39 AM
> To: tentec@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] New Orion Firmware
>
>
> I just returned from Dayton carrying my second Orion, which I am
> delighted to report journeyed well. This morning I
> downloaded 1.37 and
> performed the update on my original Orion which was delivered
> here just
> before Xmas. So far I have a few observations:
>
> I am pleased to note that the T/R timing adjustments have had a very
> benefitial effect on the quality of CW produced at relatively high
> speed. By ear, keying at 40wpm now sounds well timed and no longer
> noticeably truncated. I haven't done any scope measurement
> but it looks
> like a good job has been done in removing the ~8mS clipping,
> which was
> very evident before.
>
> I am less happy about the effect of the double rate RIT FAST
> tuning.
> Using the RIT set to Fast on CW now sounds like the control is a very
> "dirty pot". Actually, the steppy tuning problem which previously
> affected the main tuning dial is now very noticeable on RIT
> adjustments. Hopefully Ten Tec will be able to do as good a job in
> fixing this as they did when the main tuning suffered this problem.
>
> I have tried the CW MOX setting and I can't fathom it at all.
> This just
> does not seem to work. If I set "PTT in CW as MOX" in the
> menu then the
> rig continues to work in QSK! Not only that but the only effect of
> grounding the PTT line is that RX audio is muted. The RX
> itself is not
> muted and the S-meter continues to register received signals.
> Pressing
> the VOX button to ON has the same effect, merely muting RX audio. I
> have wondered if maybe something had gone wrong with the
> flash update.
> I did it again and then did a master reset but all to no avail. As a
> double check I next flash updated the second Orion just brought back
> from Dayton. This behaves identically to the first. Have I
> overlooked
> something or is this feature merely a jape to exasperate contesters?
>
> 73 Bob, 5B4AGN, P3F
>
>
>
>
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