I agree, Rick. I have both the Orion II & the Omni VII. The Omni is a very
intuitive rig to operate. Plug it in & use it. The Orion II is a wonderful rig.
I use it daily, and the Omni gets very little use. The reason for that is that
if I am ever to get the most out of the Orion, I must master it and that takes
time & practice. I probably would not have many fewer points in contests (I'm
more than casual, but not viral ) if I had never owned the Orion. However,
there ma y have been some entities missed in my DXCC chase (I have 300+) if it
were not for the ability to dig a new one out of the mud with chaos all around,
& that's the rea l forte' of the Orion.
I've got two Omni VI+'s gathering dust. They're full blown with 600 Hz roofing
filters and mostly Int'l Rad filters in the IF's. Outstanding rigs, but I've
fallen in love with the Omni VII & the Orion II. BTW, the reason I chose the
Omni over an Eagle (still want one to play with someday) is the availability of
the remote tuning knob. I like my rigs raised above the operating desk (you can
see that on QRZ.com) and the convenience of a tuning knob to the left of my
keyboard with my paddle & key to the right can't be overstated for my personal
style of operating.
Yes, it is the ANTENNA. A good antenna on a mid-range receiver will beat a
mediocre antenna on a great receiver.
It is very cool to read what others use & their reasoning for it. As has been
said on this reflector many times, there is no right choice for everybody
Good DX & good rag-chewing
73
Dave
WA3F
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP" <Rick@DJ0IP.de>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 8:58:58 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Omni VII Filters
These are very nice, realistic observations, Paul.
Nobody will ever lose a contest or even lose a few points in the standings
buy running an Omni VII instead of an Orion.*
The OM7 is as good or better than a lot of the other radios people win
contests with.
The one place where the OM7 will be at a disadvantage is if you are trying
to use it at a multi-multi station where you have at least 6 max legal power
stations on the air simultaneously from a location the size of a football
field, or if you have a field day site with 2 stations operating on the same
band at the same time, one on CW and the other on SSB. Then every dB of DR3
makes a difference.
I also had 2 Orions and about 6 Omni V/VI/VI+ over the years, but I prefer
operating the Omni VII over all of them.
Don't tell anyone I said this, but I even like it a wee bit better than my
Eagle, but the Eagle has other advantages - size, weight, and simplicity.
*The exception would only be a top notch 160m operator with great antennas
in a 160m contest. The rest of the time, the rest of the contests, the
operator makes far more difference that the tiny bit of difference in the
radios.
And my favorite slogan: "It's the ANTENNA stupid!"
In my books, the Omni VII is the best all-around radio on the planet today
for 98% of all hams.
73
Rick, DJ0IP
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of Paul DeWitte
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 1:51 PM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Omni VII Filters
I recently bought a used Omni VII from TT.I got both the 500 and 300hz
filters.
I had an Omni VI+ for several years, and then an Orion for about 6 months.
The Orion had the best receiver, but I did not care for its ergonomics. So
it went.
Now I have the Omni VII which I like very much. Very good receive audio.
Much better than the Omni VI+ on SSB, of which I do very little.
I had the Inrad 600hz roofing filter in the Omni VI+, and in a contest it
was great.
I do not feel that the Omni VII has as sharp of filtering as the Omni VI+
had, and definately not as sharp as the Orion. This is just a gut feeling
with no A/B testing. I will have a chance to try it out in the WPX CW
contest to get a better opinion.
As for what filters to buy for James, I would buy at least one or the other
to start with.
Even in casual ragchewing you sometimes get some guy that moves in and
starts calling CQ while you are in QSO with someone. So a filter plus PBT is
nice to have.
The Omni VII is not at the top of the list on receiver performance but so
far it meets my needs.
Just my observations and opinion (for what it is worth).
Paul K9OT
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
|