Tim,
There are very few who can actually tell you what you will get
when you put an Orion on your desk. Speculation abounds, but until you
actually have operated the radio on your desk, with your antennas, under
your conditions, it's still speculation. All of the opinions (mine
included) and all the referencing of DSP technical material are
interesting, but you just have to put it on your desk and operate it.
That being said, I can tell you what sold me, 1) Ten Tec's
reputation, 2) the fact that you can change the bandwidth of the roofing
filter by selection. I, personally, see #2 as a significant design
change, however that is my personal opinion. #1 is because in 1992 I
bought a Omni 6 and over the ensuing years I actually purchased a
FT-1000MP and five different Icom IC-781's, both used and brand new.
With each radio, for three to six months I A/B switched the rigs on the
same antenna, listening to very weak DX signals, in the noise, on the
low end of 80m. No other receiver outperformed the Omni 6. The IC-781
could hear most, but not all of what the Omni could hear, however keep
in mind that a used IC-781 is in the $3k range and a new IC-781 is in
the $7k range. I operated DX contest with the Omni where I had a 40dB
over signal 500hz above me and another 40dB over signal 500Hz below me
on 40mtrs, and I could copy very weak (QRP) European signals under those
conditions. I expect the Orion to have an even better receiver and with
the switchable roofing filters, I feel the strong signal performance is
going to be even better.
You, of course, hear a lot about Ten Tec's reputation for
customer support, however I can't really verify that as neither my Omni
6 nor my Titan amp has had any problems (that I couldn't fix) and that's
after about 15,000 hours of operation (yes, I was on the air a lot!).
I do have a concern however, and that is how good the DSP
filtering is going to be as I'm not convinced yet that DSP filtering is
better (operating CW) than crystal filtering under very weak signal AND
under very strong signal (contesting) conditions.
Rest assured that once the first group of hams receive their
Orion's, at first your going to hear unbelievable fantastic reports,
then your going to start getting reports from the nit-pickers who may
not like the color of the meter background, or the knobs don't feel
right, etc., and not too much about literal performance. Keep in mind,
you can buy one and try it for 30 days (hardly enough for a thorough and
fair evaluation) and if you don't like it, Ten Tec will take it back and
refund your bucks!
I am an avid CW ragchewer, however nothing rings out a receiver
better than a major CW contest. One of Ten Tec's employee's and beta
testers is a CW contester, a serious contester. If his experience is
that the receiver holds up well in contest conditions, that's very
valuable information to me. For ragchewing, both CW and SSB, there are a
lot of good radios available, however under very harsh conditions, in my
opinion, nothing beats the Omni 6, and the Orion is expected to be
better than the Omni 6!!
73,
Tom/W4BQF
Chester Alderman
calderman@cox.net
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-admin@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-admin@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of tlogan7@cox.net
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 12:21 AM
To: tentec reflector
Subject: [TenTec] Orion question
Hi folks -
I've noticed on the TT website that Orions will be available in April
for
those who order now. The first run seems to be sold out already. Other
than
TT's rep and a vague feeling that the concept of crystal filters/DSP and
2
indeprendent receivers seems to make sense, I'm wondering what it is
that
has caused so many people to order for the first round of Orions. I am
not
technically proficient enough to understand some of the concepts the
Orion
is based on....but I do have a lot of faith in Ten Tec and much of the
expertise that I see on this reflector. So can anyone who is willing,
tell
me what it is about the Orion that has really sold them enough to order
"sigh unseen" so to speak? This is NOT a negative question. I am tempted
to
to sell out some of my rigs to get an Orion based on what I THINK it
is......but I really need some simple explanations as to why it is
expected
to be so good by many of you. All thoughts will be most appreciated.
73/Tim NZ7C
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