I was on the road for the holidays and just now got a chance to read and
respond to the large number of posts regarding the Orion's contest
performance. I don't want to dredge up a bunch of stuff that has already
been beaten to death, but I disagree with those who say Orion does not live
up to its advance billing as the best rig for contesting on the market.
W4PA's defense of the rig is clearly bolstered by his convincing win of USA
SOAB HP in CQ WW CW, but of course it would be difficult for Scott to be
entirely objective about the matter. I, however, have no connections to Ten
Tec or any of its stakeholders, and can give you my unbiased opinion.
I used the Orion for 1020 QSOs in ARRL Sweepstakes CW and 3066 QSOs in CQ WW
CW, both SOAB HP Unassisted. I also used an Orion in NT1Y's M/2 effort in CQ
WW SSB. Simply put, the Orion is the best contest rig I've used:
- The roofing filter scheme works as advertised: even under massive
congestion on 40m in CQ WW CW, there was never a hint of desensing or IMD
caused by strong adjacent signals. The DSP filtering was much better than
standard crystal filtering: the skirts were tight and the BW could be
narrowed to 100 Hz without appreciable ringing or loss of gain. Contrary to
past experience, I had very little trouble finding a run frequency in CQ WW
CW -- I was amazed that I could park between loud stations with the BW set
at 250-300 Hz and run to my heart's content (I got *too* close once or
twice... :-)
- I did not have enough understanding of the programmable AGC to make
optimum use of it (c.f, W4ZV's recent instructions) , but was able to use it
several times to pull stations out of the mud. No other radio has this kind
of flexibility in the AGC.
- The RX is so quite, compared with other rigs, that long-term fatigue was
significantly reduced. This is very important when you operate for 48 hours
without sleep!
- The NR was very effective at reducing or even eliminating noise during
rough conditions. You have to be careful with this feature, since it can
sometimes mask very weak stations.
- The NB actually eliminated key clicks from loud stations with bad
transmitters!
- I had no problems with the Orion tuning rate (I typically use 10 Hz,
Fast.) That's probably because I tend to S&P slowly up or down the band,
working whatever I can instead of zooming around looking for new mults. But
even when I did the latter, I was not annoyed or put off by the choppy
audio. I should point out that I used the Orion primarily for running and
the 1000D primarily for S&P. This is partly because the Orion used an Alpha
87A and the 1000D uses an Acom 2000A, and I prefer running with the 87A's
silent PIN diode T/R switching (a great combination with the Orion's quiet
QSK.) But it's also because the Orion's performance under crowded band
conditions is far superior to the 1000D's and I usually want that kind of
performance when I'm running on a crowded band. The bottom line here is that
the 1000D makes a pretty darned good S&P radio, so the Orion synthesizer
speed wasn't an issue. This gets to my feeling about P3F's concern that the
Orion's tuning speed is not suitable for SO2R. I thought long and hard about
buying two Orions for SO2R, but eventually decided to keep the 1000D for
several reasons. First, it's a fine contest rig and quite good on the low
bands. Second, I like having radios with different strengths and weaknesses:
flexibility is very important in contesting. My station is set up so I can
switch the roles of the two radios instantly (band decoders, any-to-any
switch matrix, autotune amps, etc.), so I can always use the best radio for
the job at hand. After I get more familiar with the Orion, I might replace
the FT-1000D with one. For now, the setup is excellent and better than
anything I've used in the past. (I should mention that the 1000MP has been
the most disappointing radio I've used in my station -- terrible AGC and
poor low band performance.)
- I have no problem with the CW PTT implementation. In fact, I like it the
way it works: By connecting the computer keying to PTT and the paddles to
the Key jack I can use both without having to turn the internal keyer on and
off. I've been very annoyed by Yaesu rigs, which have only one Key input
(actually two, but they are paralleled.) On those rigs, you can't use the
computer keying without turning the internal keyer off, which renders the
paddles useless. The paddles must be connected to an external keyer to be
able to use both the computer keying and paddles. I should point out that
both my amps are QSK compatible (PIN diodes or fast vacuum relays.) Still, I
don't see why PTT is necessary. Either the transmit inhibit loop or the
external relay delay can't be used to avoid hot switching an amp with a slow
relay and the CW delay can be used to simulate semi break-in. I never use
Writelog's PTT features because they are unnecessary on the equipment I use.
That's the good stuff. Here are the problems I encountered:
- With other rigs, I have not been able to use QSK in contests because the
noise drives me crazy. The Orion's QSK is terrific, though I have been
annoyed by the headphone clicks. In my case, they are only in the left
headphone. Scott has told me that all the Orions do this, and they are
investigating (any news on this, Scott?) I haven't tried AGC adjustment or
different impedance phones to get rid of the noise. Those are not
necessarily acceptable solutions. I'd like to see Ten Tec either address the
issue or tell us it can't be fixed. At any rate, I was able to use QSK quite
effectively in Sweepstakes, but for some reason in CQ WW CW there was weird
RX noise between elements -- sort of like IMD. This could be due to the AGC
recovery time and a very crowded band. I didn't think to play around with
the programmable AGC to try to eliminate it. I'll do that in the next
contest. The noise in CQ WW CW was so bad that eventually I increased the CW
delay enough to simulate semi break-in. This worked fine and I had no
problem with needing to adjust the delay for different speeds (switching
between, 36 WPM, 34, WPM, 32 WPM and 29 WPM.)
- I have to side with those who are asking that the sidetone volume not be
varied with the main audio volume. In SO2R, I tend to reduce the sidetone
volume to barely audible on the CQ radio. I find that the sidetone can
produce fatigue over time (tens of thousands of CQs!), and is distracting
when listening to the S&P radio in the other ear. If I turn down the
sidetone and increase the volume on the CQ radio, then that radio stays in
the background until someone responds to my CQ. Unfortunately, the Orion's
sidetone follows the main volume control and I have not been able to find a
setting that works like other radios. This is something I hope can be fixed
in software. It's really important to me.
- It's complicated to get in and out of Split on the Orion. I've proposed a
Quick Split feature to Ten Tec and hope they implement it.
- The audio cuts off too abruptly at the low end, so it's very difficult to
achieve a good low volume setting. The attenuation should be more gradual at
the low end.
- The audio level drops significantly when switching from normal RX to
Binaural RX and always requires readjustment. Also, it's awkward to switch
between normal and Binaural audio. I'd love a front-panel switch for this.
It's a real problem in SO2R -- I like to use Binaural RX when both
headphones are on the CQ radio and normal RX when I have one headphone on
each radio.
- I found the Orion pod to be useless for contesting. The Main tuning knob
is close enough to my hand that I don't need the pod. It would be great if
the pod could be used for RIT, though. In fact, you should be able to assign
any function to the pod. This would facilitate some of those "I wish I had a
front panel button for that" requests. Unfortunately, only a few pod
commands are implemented. Full pod functionality can only be achieved
through software on the PC. I'd prefer not to have to buy a third-party
software package to make the pod I bought useful.
- The sweep is entirely useless. Not a big deal for me, but others might
care.
- The internal tuner sounds like the gears are being stripped every time it
runs. Never heard one like that before. Should have a memory feature, too.
But since I never use it, I don't care (it's just in there for resale
value.)
I don't want to lessen Ten Tec's motivation for fixing the above problems
and implementing the new features I've suggested, but the bottom line is
that even with its flaws the Orion is still far and away the best contest
radio on the market. Furthermore, many of the problems and enhancements can
be addressed in firmware, making this radio a terrific investment for the
future. No other radio on the market has this kind of flexibility and a
manufacturer who takes advantage of it. I heartily recommend the Orion for
any serious contester. It will improve your scores.
73, Dick WC1M
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