Todd and everyone else living in the states - be they friend or foe of
ORION:
Here in Europe the band conditions are different than those in the states.
For one, we have hundreds of high-powered shortwave broadcast stations.
These cause a real ruckus in the front-ends of our radios when trying to
work 40m at night.
And then we have much smaller ham bands on the low bands:
- 3.5 to 3.8 MHz
- 7.0 to 7.1 MHz
The smaller bands results in much worse QRM, especially on weekends or
during contests.
Almost all rigs on the market require some kind of sensitivity reduction in
order to be able to function on 40m here in the evenings. Some use
attenuation or "AIP" or both. Once you've turned this stuff on, you have
reduced the sensitivity of your rig such that an S1 or S2 DX station may not
be heard.
The Orion is the first rig I've seen or used which not only does not require
any reduction - you can even turn the preamp on and you still don't get the
intermod the others get when not using some form of reduction.
The stateside conditions during a contest probably approximate the garbage
we get daily here in Europe. If you run an A/B comparison in the states in
a non-contest situation, you may not distinguish a lot of difference.
During contests you will. We can every day.
Your point on hi-fi SSB is valid and if that's a top criteria, it's
understandable why you dumped the VI. Of course the Orion has hi-fi
capabilities too (once you hook the proper mic to it).
Personally I wouldn't waste 1 cent on a sweep and I only need color on a TV,
not on a radio. But I do need to hear weak signals in the presence of
strong QRM and strong shortwave broadcast stations. The Orion does this
significantly better than anything else currently on the market, with the K2
probably being the closest thing to it.
Now many people may be thinking "that's your problem in Europe". Well as I
stated, during contests, your conditions worsen and then it's your problem
too.
I'm one of the fortunate ones that uses his/her Orion in ways that don't
seem to be bothered by all of these "glitches" some people are having. CW
worked "out of the box" and I had to change my mic cable on a 35 year old
mic to get the SSB clean.
Todd, bring your radio over here, put it in my shack on my antenna and we'll
run A/B tests against the Orion (40m, evenings, any day of the week). I
guarantee you you'll throw rocks at your 570!
73
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of KD7EFQ@aol.com
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 10:09 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Decision Made
Hello, First To Jerry's post, Go to www.eham.net reviews section and look at
the ratings for the Paragon. Read some of the reviews for all the problems.
Alot of people tell me not to pay attention to E-ham reviews. But they are
reviews by real people...
Second, For Bernard, I LIKE Ten Tec gear. I had a nice Omni 6+ that only had
a couple of minor bugs that mostly went away after a TT alignment. I sold it
because I am a SSB op, and the Audio Passband range of the Omni 6+ was just
too
restricted for the kind of SSB audio I like to listen to. (yes, even with
the
Inrad mod). If I were mainly a CW op, I would have kept the 6+. I put a 2.8
wide inrad filter in the TS570S and am happy with the audio, but the urban
noise handling of the 570 is only fair. A Timewave ANC 4 helps some, but I
really
need to move.
The main reason for the comment about the Orion being a Prototype, is
naturally the beaten to death issue of a color display with a quality
spectrum scope,
and needing stable software as well as other things provided in the same
price range by the JA rigs.. I have a feeling that at the present rate, by
the
time the Orion becomes virtually glitch free, the hardware technology will
have
evolved into the next generation, current parts will become discontinued and
hard to get, and Ten Tec will have to progress to the next generation -
Orion +,
II whatever it will be called. I'm waiting to see if the new FTDX9000 will
be
the first next generation rig to beat Orion, like the FT 1000 MP passed the
Omni 6+ ( See reviews on the elecraft K2 rig comparison site).EXCEPT for thr
key click problems.
Anyway, enough of my speculating. Time to go enjoy my holiday days off.
Again, Merry Christmas to all & a great new year.
73, Todd - KT0DD - kd7efq@aol.com
"The race is over...THE RATS WON !"
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