Thanks for the post Merle.....I still personally prefer v 1.372. Next would
be v 1.373b5.
One would think that with Elecraft moving forward, TT would be releasing
some upgrades.
73 John K4NP
----- Original Message -----
From: "Merle Bone" <merlebone@charter.net>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:07 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Orion Repaired and Back to V1.373b5
I recently sent my Orion back to Ten-Tec with a problem I had been chasing
for over 6 months. I had been running V2.062a while trying to find the
cause of losing the main receiver and transmitter when the band was
changed - first thru the computer control port and then thru the front
panel buttons. The Service Department quickly isolated the problem to the
digital board and then to the EPROM chip - I should have sent it back
earlier! Ten-Tec Service group is great!
While the Orion was at Ten-Tec, I was using my FT1000MP. I found the
FT1000MP audio to be much less fatiguing when operating the radio for
several hours (With the rain,ice and cold weather I am spending more hours
on the radio!). When the Orion came back - with V2.062a - I noticed that
the audio sounded "overdriven and somewhat distorted." After a day of
operation I reloaded V1.373b5. To my ear, V1.373b5 audio sounds much
smoother - regardless of the RF gain or audio gain setting. Of course I
much prefer the performance of the Manual Notch Filter in the V1 code
(Removes the carrier from the IF bandpass as well as the audio tone so
that nearby strong signals do not "pump the AGC" - making it hard to copy
weak signals). Additionally I find the sidetone to be much clearer on V1;
the V1 Noise Reduction code is much more effective - to my ear - on SSB; I
much prefer the operation of the S-Meter/RF Gain in that the S-Meter still
correctly reads the signal strength even with the RF
gain reduced (I know that some prefer the V2 mode where the S-Meter
needle moves to the right side of the S-Meter as the RF gain is reduced).
I don't know if the audio issues I observe on the Orion are due to the
changes that were made in the V2 AGC operation/take-off-point or because
of the code changes made in an attempt to reduce the adverse effect of
burst QRN, or something else.
I hope that Ten-Tec will soon devote some resources to continuing work to
improve the V2.062a (May 2007) firmware. I remember early Orion
discussions, on this reflector, that discussed expectations that the Orion
firmware would be continuously upgraded to add new features and functions
to the radio. There have been very few functional improvements to the
Orion/Orion II (Letters for the stack memories; a strange "sloped AGC"
function; etc.), while numerous performance issues have emerged as
artifacts of the V2 firmware re-write. Certainly those early expectations
have, thus far, gone unfulfilled. What would be most welcome would be
Ten-Tec releasing a new digital board for the Orion and Orion II with the
much faster - with larger memories - follow on processors to the current
Orion SHARC (Which are code compatible with the current Orion/Orion II
DSPs). That would allow new code to add new features to the Orion/Orion
II. However, it doesn't look much like that is in the works.
Hopefully this isn't the end for the Orion firmware.
Merle - W0EWM
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