Pete,
Great post. Your thoughts and mine about the Orion experience are very
similar. I think that many of the early "warts" have been eliminated by
TenTec and those that are still present have been reduced to the level of
"beauty marks" on the face of a beautiful model!
Are there things I would like to see done differently? Sure! I would like
to see the main receiver retain all of its specs and be general coverage
also. I would like the sub receiver to be identical to the main general
coverage receiver(specs + roofing filters etc). I would like to see
PSK31/RTTY/Pactor/Clover modulation/demodulation built in to the radio so I
can just read the data on the radios display! Is this going to happen?
Probably not for a while, but...for the time being, I got everything that I
was told that I was going to get before I originally bought my Orion and
MORE. I got a free new Owners Manual (from the TenTec web site) and 25
improvements to the firmware with a number of NEW features that the radio
did not possess when I received it in June 2003. I contrast this experience
to my experience with my IC-756/IC-756PRO/IC-756PROII. In terms of cash
expended, my Orion 565AT experience has cost approximately $3900.00 LESS
than the Icom 756 update program cost me. These are not fantasy dollars, but
real hard cash greenbacks spent.....and in side by side receiver comparisons
on 80 Meter Phone the Orion hears signals that are completely inaudible in
the 756 and 775 series of radios (because the dsp NB and NR and the hardware
NB of the Orion work so much better than the respective functions of the 756
and 775 series of radios and because the internally generated noise in the
Orion is quieter than the internally generated noise within the 756 and 775
series). I am not knocking the Icom 756 series or 775 series of radios, they
delivered good performance considering when they were designed. Had I known
in advance that I would have to buy three of the 756 series to get the
latest model, I probably would not have bought in initially. However, Icom
did the right thing by improving their 756 series as better technology
became available. It will be very interesting to see how good the IC-7800 is
after it has been available for almost a year in the field. My expectations
have been forever changed since I have become accustomed to receiving a "new
radio" every month or so for free in the form of a free firmware update from
TenTec. This feature has also put a LOT of heat on the other Ham Radio
manufacturers in the world. It is going to be much more difficult from now
on to sell anyone a ham radio that does not have this feature!!
I did have to add one 10K pullup resistor to my Orion to make the external
rtty modem work in an open collector configuration(without altering the
internal jumpers in the modem which are set to also work with other radios
in the shack). So I have spent 6 cents on upgrades to my Orion. This I might
also add is the all time record low cost for hardware updates on a new HF
radio.
For anyone wondering about resets / freezing etc., my Orion has NEVER frozen
up or come up with a blank screen. The only time that my spectrum scope has
ever even frozen intermittently when I did not do a hard reset after
updating the firmware. So, I have learned to save the various settings in my
radio prior to doing a hard reset and how to reload them after the hard
reset(I highly recommend the N4PY software for this function)(I also have
them written down as a backup).
As you said Pete, "there are no perfect rigs. Never have been, never will
be. NO piece of equipment can satisfy all users all the time. And it's
unreasonable to expect perfection. But the Orion comes pretty close. "
The Orion is within the area of the Bullseye, perhaps not exactly in the
center, but well inside the boundary lines of it. I would expect that as
time progresses, it will move closer to the center as the experts at TenTec
refine the firmware and the features contained therein. I have sold my 756
series of radios because I know that they can never move closer without
replacement and as I stated above, my expectations have been changed forever
by the ORION.. AND the great PEOPLE of TenTec!
73
Kirby, W7SV
----- Original Message -----
From: <ac5e@comcast.net>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Buying a New Orion
> Hmmm - so far my expenditures to "finish" my Orion amount to exactly Zero.
Unless I have forgotten a rig, that's several hundred dollars less than any
of the many other rigs that have been resident here.
>
> The Orion has cost me a little effort to learn to operate - but no more so
than most of the other rigs that preceded it - and less than a couple.
>
> It has cost me a little effort to unlearn some habits picked up operating
JA equipment. And a small amount of trouble to shift cables around and
retiming some things so everything works as it should.
>
> It has made me remodel my shack - and decide that I needed an antenna
system that complements rather than detracts from the performance of the
rig. So my wife gets the house she's been bugging me for for most of a
decade, I get the antenna farm I want. My inertia has been overcome, and
hopefully I will be in the new shack with some decent 160 through 30 Meter
antennas by this time next year.
>
> Issues? There are still a few things I wish worked differently - but I
wished that with my "new in tropical packing BC348" some 54 years ago. Most
of the Orion's warts have been taken care of - and I can work around those
that remain. I'm not so ossified I cannot learn a new way of doing something
if it gives me more operating satisfaction. Not yet, anyway.
>
> On the other hand, I no longer annoy my neighboring hams with key clicks
and phase noise. They still annoy me at times but that will soon change. I
no longer wonder who the pileup is yelling at - I can copy the DX and the
zoo. Even with the very inferior antennas that are the best I can do in the
space I have.
>
> So, if Ten Tec came out with an "Orion +" and offered a reasonably priced
upgrade; as they did with the Omni VI; I would buy the "+" and try it before
I made a decision. Just as I did with the VI's.
>
> But there are no perfect rigs. Never have been, never will be. NO piece of
equipment can satisfy all users all the time. And it's unreasonable to
expect perfection. But the Orion comes pretty close.
>
> 73 Pete Allen AC5E
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> TenTec@contesting.com
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>
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