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Re: [TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue

To: "'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment'" <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue
From: "Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP" <Rick@DJ0IP.de>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:26:10 +0100
List-post: <tentec@contesting.com">mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
The original "pre-production" Eagles did not have gold contacts either.
Carl, you probably had one of these, as did Bob and I.
I later sent mine back to the factory and had the motherboard swapped, so
now I have gold contacts too.

ALL PRODUCTION UNITS HAD GOLD CONTACTS, so if you bought an Eagle, don't
worry!  Yours has gold contacts.

I doubt we will ever see any non-gold contacts again from these two
companies.

73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carl
Moreschi
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 1:42 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue

Elecraft had the same problem with the K3.  But they now do a free upgrade
to gold contacts.

Carl Moreschi N4PY
58 Hogwood Rd
Louisburg, NC 27549
www.n4py.com

On 3/19/2014 8:08 PM, Bob McGraw - K4TAX wrote:
> It's not only related to Tentec products or Orion radios. For years 
> I've dealt with service and maintenance on products costing 5X to 10X 
> or more of what the Orion's. cost. These products have been found to 
> have the same issues. Some interconnection methods are better or worse 
> than others. It is a matter of cost vs. space along with a few other
factors.
>
> Just exercise the connectors, clean the pins and apply a very small 
> amount of contact cleaner. It will serve you well until next time.
>
> 73
> Bob, K4TAX
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Moreschi" 
> <n4py3@earthlink.net>
> To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 3:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue
>
>
>> The Orion and Orion II have shown a history of problems related to 
>> corrosion building up on the cable connections in the radio. These 
>> connections should have been gold plated but they are not. In 
>> particular, the cable connections behind the front panel have over 
>> 100 connections. Many times the solution is to remove the front 
>> panel, which is not at all difficult, and unplug the cables, spray 
>> them with a contact cleaner, and then while they are still wet, plug 
>> them in and out 10 times or more to clean them. This fixed all the 
>> intermittent problems on my Orion. And with so many connections, 
>> almost any symptom is possible.
>>
>> Carl Moreschi N4PY
>> 58 Hogwood Rd
>> Louisburg, NC 27549
>> www.n4py.com
>>
>> On 3/19/2014 3:38 PM, art N4UC wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Here's a brain teaser for all you Orion experts. My 565 running ver
>>> 3.032 has developed a couple of problems that I was hoping would be 
>>> a firmware issue but it's looking more and more like a hardware 
>>> problem. I'm looking for some ideas about where to start 
>>> troubleshooting.
>>>
>>> In a nutshell the two problems (which may just be different symptoms 
>>> of one problem) are these:
>>>
>>> 1. All signals received by the main rcvr on 20M only are extremely 
>>> garbled and distorted. This condition is not dependent on mode and 
>>> all other receiver functions such as S-meter operation, AGC, BW and 
>>> PBT functions seem to be unaffected. Operation of the sub-receiver 
>>> is normal. One interesting note is that a signal disappears when I 
>>> engage the hardware NB, which is probably just an indicator that the 
>>> NB thinks it's seeing noise and just doing its job.
>>>
>>> 2. When both VFO's display the same frequency, there is a difference 
>>> in received frequency between the two receivers. This is present 
>>> regardless of band, but the difference is not the same from band to 
>>> band. The worst I've noticed is 200 hz offset on 20M, but other 
>>> bands exhibit 50-100 hz delta between the receivers in spite of 
>>> displaying the same frequencies. It doesn't matter how the two 
>>> receivers arrive at the same frequency, either by pressing the A>B 
>>> button or configuring both Main and Sub recvrs to be controlled by
VFO-A.
>>>
>>>
>>> This all came on as an intermittent condition. I would notice that 
>>> during operation on 20M, received signals would suddenly jump by
>>> 100-200 hz and I would have to re-tune to get back on frequency. I 
>>> was assuming that the transmitted frequency was jumping as well, but 
>>> I haven't verified that as yet. Anyway, after the "jump" occurred, 
>>> the signals would sound warbly and quivery (technical terms for 
>>> "trashy"). No matter their signal strength they sounded watery like 
>>> they were coming from over the North Pole. If I were to select a 
>>> different band and then return , the receiver would "slide" a few 
>>> hertz back onto frequency before settling.
>>>
>>> I have
>>> sometimes noticed that just before this would happen there would be 
>>> a rise in noise level, like precipitation static. While the rcvr is 
>>> off-frequency, there is a lot of noise/hash that is in sync with 
>>> other signals some as far away as 50 khz. It resembles being at 
>>> field day in close proximity to several transmitters. Even though 
>>> they are way out of the bandpass of the filters and too far away to 
>>> hear a cw tone, I can copy them by listening to the hash.
>>>
>>> I have re-flashed the firmware and performed a few master-resets, 
>>> etc... with no change. The problem is no longer intermittent and I'm 
>>> looking for ideas while I decide how much $$$ I want to put into 
>>> repairing a really fine, but old, radio.
>>>
>>> 73, Art/N4UC
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TenTec mailing list
>>> TenTec@contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>>
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