Well the UPS man just left a few hours ago leaving in his wake a
brand new Omni VII.
You only get one shot at a first impression.
After allowing the radio to come up to room temperature, power was
applied and lo and behold there's life in the new black box.
First off, fit and finish seem to be constantly improving from the
boys down south. There's no rattles, loose knobs or logos on sideways
I especially liked the bag of goodies that came with the radio. Mic
connectors, power cord, RS232 cable. computer interface cable, as
well as all the pieces parts you need to get into the radio. That's a
nice touch. I don't recall getting much more than a power cord when I
purchased my FT-897.
The welcome letter signed by Scott and Stan both surprised and
impressed me.
Ok, on the air time...
Since I've had the Jupiter and Argonaut VII, I figured operation of
the Omni VII would be very much the same. It is..
The encoders will take a bit to get use to.
And saints be praised!!! I can turn down the audio without lowering
the CW sidetone.. I sure wish the Argonaut V would do that!!!
While the 40 meter band is noisy and somewhat dead, a few CW contacts
were made. A few menu changes got the sending to where I think it
should be (to my ears)
SSB proved somewhat difficult.
Checking into MIDCARS, took several attempts as reports of extreme
audio distortion were heard. Using an old Ten Tec mic that came with
the scout, I had to turn the mic gain down to 3% to get good audio
reports.
First nit to pick..
I had the factory install the 500 Hz roofing filters.
The radio did not see the filter. Looking through the menu, I had the
auto filter turned on, but still no filter.
Just about ready to call the factory when I decided to read the
manual. Seems you must enable the filter too. I did and it works like
it should.
That filter should have been enable when the radio left the factory.
I know, I know.. simple to do. Read the manual!!
But think of the needless phone calls to the factory that would
prevent.
Looks like a keeper to me!
Mike, WB8VGE
SunLight Energy Systems
The Heathkit Shop
http://www.theheathkitshop.com/
J e e p
o|||||||o
Note: No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a
large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced
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