TenTec
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TenTec] Orion bug video AND important information from ON6CV

To: <eric.sensi@skynet.be>, <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion bug video AND important information from ON6CV
From: "Toby Pennington" <toby423@earthlink.net>
Reply-to: tentec@contesting.com
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 08:11:24 -0400
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
Good news Eric! This also needs to be reposted on e-ham. Toby W4CAK

----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric SENSI" <eric.sensi@skynet.be>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 5:15 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Orion bug video AND important information from ON6CV



Hi,

On this "bug" video, the VFO A is a little bit "out of band", okay, but the
problem is not coming from this fact because the Orion is a radio which can
transmit 10KHz up and down of band edges (from firmware 1.328 to cover some
MARS frequencies).


What is strange with what you said is that : how the radio knows that you
are "out of band" ? These limits are not programmed into the radio, band
limit is just a "human decision". The 40m band, for example, in the USA is
not the same than in Europe, on "your" upper 40m band whe, in Europe have a
broadcast segment, and for us, it is totally impossible to communicate
starting at 7.105Khz (the first BC station there with bunch of KW !). I mean
that "out of band" for me is not specially "out of band" for you and vice
versa !


The problem was the same on any band, in the band or, like in that video, a
little bit out of the limit, but don't search there for the cause.


Anyway... now the good news !

To be frank, before sending the radio back to the dealer as I don't give up
so easily (Hi !), I put the radio back on the table, I uploaded the 1.370
firmware, doing a master reset and RAM clear procedure as explained by my TT
dealer... then I uploaded the latest firmware (1.371) again, master reset,
RAM clear procedure, etc...


When I started playing with the Orion, I recorded my callsign and a DX call
into the "send 1" and "send 2" DV memory.


Send 1 was "CQ DX From Oscar November Six Charlie Victor" for a total of
3.26sec
Send 2 was simply "Oscar November Six Charlie Victor" for a total of 2.30sec


I started making some contacts (finally !) and from time to time, I pushed
the "send 1" or "send 2" regarding the situation and the radio NEVER fails !


I did NOT experienced any screen layout bugs at all - sometimes the layout
was messy after leaving the MENUS.

I did NOT experienced anything strange with the sweep display which was NOT
showing the peaks even when a 20dB over S9 signal was detected ! I
experienced this strange thing only on the 40m band, but I must recognize
that the sweep display is not mandatory at all for me, and of course not
very useful on the 40m band where there's lot of activity !


I did NOT experienced any receiver/transmitter crash after using the DV
memory buttons even at full power.

By the way, I think that the problems are gone for good now (I keep my
fingers crossed) because this radio is "THE" radio that meets my demand at
100%. It is a joy to operate, very easy to me, well layed out to my opinion,
two real receivers (not the case on my FT-1000MP), menus are in plain
english so don't need the manual to decipher what you're changing, really
love the continuously variable bandwith in any mode, the optical encoders
are a great idea to me - love that and much, much more.


Now, a question, do I have to apologize for what I've written last week on
my Orion ? No, I don't think so because the problems were real problems,
this was not my fault in any way, I'm using a nice power supply (Kenwood
PS-52) and a ground connection made by a specialist, RF feedback is almost
impossible here with tuned antennas and remember, the DV memory crashed also
with a power as low as a value of "1" !


A word on the manual, this 61 pages document is, IMHO, the best manual I've
read so far !


There's everything in it to learn the radio, arranged in a very logical and
simple manner, well written with lots of explanations regarding the AGC
system and Hi-fi SSB transmissions, etc...


The kind of manual which I am able to write if I were to do it !

Voila, that's all for now, hope my message will bring some peace in the
forum. :-)

To all, best regards and thanks for reading this long information.

73's, Eric de ON6CV.

_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec



_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>