I just received a new Orion II and have some observations on the NR and
Manual Notch functions.
The NR seems to work better on CW than SSB in my case, although in both
instances the audio is distorted and/or breaks up more often than not.
Seems to depend on signal strength, weak signals are most susceptible to
distortion although strong signals will distort as well. This is with
the NR set as low as 1, it gets worse the higher the NR is set. I don't
recall this with my original Orion; the NR seemed to work much better
with little or no distortion.
The manual notch will eliminate tones just fine, but will not reduce the
level of the tone like I seem to remember the original Orion did. It's
like it is outside the agc loop, although the manual and all advertising
talks about it being at IF level with the tone reduction being
"reflected on the S-meter" I take this to mean it takes the tone out,
not just the audio.
Other than the NR and notch issues, the radio really works well and I am
happy with it, it's just a little frustrating to see improvements in
some areas at the expense of degradation in others. I am using the
latest firmware, I wonder if what I am seeing is representative of what
others experience and if it has been this way through all versions of
the O2 firmware.
I used the radio during the CQ WPX CW contest this weekend and the
receiver is just super, it's a pleasure to use it on cw.
I'd like to hear from other O2 owners on the above two issues to get
your inputs and experiences and if there are any "tricks" to using the
NR. Please respond either on the list of off line to nz8j@woh.rr.com
Thanks
Tim
NZ8J
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