I have been playing with the max af, ride the rf, pre-map on idea all
evening. My "ears" tell me that there is an improvement. The NR actually
works better than it ever has.
The problem I have with this is that I am not sure the ergonomics's of
the radio were designed with this setup in mind. So perhaps it is just a
work around until TenTec blesses us with another release of SW.
Merle Bone wrote:
> Jerry Volpe (KG6TT) said:
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "We discussed the A-D converters in the Orion and that it was their practical
> sampling limit.... or max range of ability.... that made it important to keep
> the Preamp IN. The object there is to make sure that there is sufficient
> signal
> available to the A-D converters so that the conversion produced a better
> sampling overall (think of early audio CDs). If the RF energy applied to the
> A-D converters is too weak then the conversion process generates too few
> samplings... resulting in continual sampling errors which many of us
> experience
> as 'distorted' weak signal audio (I certainly had)."
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I continue to return to the V1 firmware for my Orion for a number of causes -
> always
> hoping that a new release of V2 will be as good as the V1 firmware. And, I
> certainly have no
> reason to doubt what Jerry heard from one of the Ten-Tec engineers about the
> A/D converter issue with the V2 code for the Orion and the Orion II. To look
> for that issue
> in the V1 code, I ran some basic "minimum discernable signal" tests tonight -
> similar
> to those run by the ARRL for their test reports. I started with a calibrated
> signal generator,
> on 20 meters, and use a calibrated attenuator pad to further reduce the
> signal. I used
> Spectrum Lab software, and most importantly my ear, to find the "minimum
> discernable
> signal" and listened carefully to thee beat note from the signal generator
> through the Orion.
> With the preamp off I got to a -121dbm signal that I judged to be the
> "minimum discernable signal"
> from the ARRL procedures - that is about .224 microvolts for those that think
> better in those
> terms. The RF gain of the Orion was set to 86. The note from the generator
> was
> clear and undistorted.
>
> I then turned on the Orion preamp and inserted additional attenuation looking
> for the
> minimum discernable signal. With the preamp on I got to a signal of -133dbm -
> or
> about .047 microvolts. The Orion RF gain was set to 80. The note from the
> generator
> was clear and undistorted.
>
> So I think it is safe to say that the V1 code doesn't appear to have any
> issues with A/D
> errors at the level of signals that we use in communications through the
> Orion. Of course
> the noise level on all but the highest HF bands is much above the levels of
> these - and the
> ARRL's - tests. So, the signal levels passing through the Orion are
> significantly above the
> test levels.
>
> -----I stopped writing for a couple of minutes to work EL2DX on 160M - My
> QTH, the radio
> black hole of urban St. Louis Missouri ----- :-)
>
> As I just worked the EL2 on 160M, my preamp was off, my RF gain was on 78, my
> AGC
> threshold was on .37 microvolts, AGC Decay was at 45dB/S and my hang was set
> to
> .04. You could not ask for a cleaner signal to work - all be it close to the
> noise here in
> Missouri!
>
> Maybe we will hear more from Ten-Tec about this A/D converter error with the
> V2
> code and the "AGC overshoot." And maybe even get a new V2 code release for
> the
> Orion and Orion II with some more of the issues resolved!
> 73, Merle - W0EWM
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
>
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