Bob,
Thank you for the follow up. Just to clarify my test of the Hardware noise
blanker. I was tuning above and below a strong station with blanker On. Before
what was happening was the strong station either CW or SSB was modulating the
noise up and down around the strong station. So if trying to work a weaker
station with the blanker on (needed to hear the weak station in my high noise
environment) if a strong station was nearby it was just very annoying with the
noise being up and down in tune with the strong stations voice peaks OR CW
notes.
Today after doing all the firmware updates, (not sure how that interacts with
the Hardware blanker,) but it seemed to solve the problem. Unfortunately I
never had a real dominate station on top of a weak one to truly know for sure.
But tuning around strong stations I am now not hearing any changes in the noise
like before. I also worked 4 weak stations that with QSB were dropping below
the noise level. This was on CW. I used the SAF and diversity features and
toggled the Hardware blanker on and off on the main and it never caused any
issue with the copy. The SAF is amazing as is the diversity reception. Again I
am sure in next few days as I get more time I will find the perfect setup with
a S9+++ signal nearby a much weaker station and then I will know for sure if
problem with the blanker is solved.
I own an RV park and am operating from it. Think HIGH NOISE. So on my Orion I
always just leave the Hardware blanker on all the time. On the Orion 2 that was
just not working out, but now seems like it may.
Listening to both radio's side by side, to me there is a difference in the
firmware. It is subtle but My Orion sounds quieter or maybe slightly more
pleasing to listen to than the Orion 2. The Orion 2 has the much nicer screen
and the processor is obviously faster when looking at the sweep function etc.
The Orion 2 that I have also has the RX366 so with diversity receive it is way
ahead of my Orion with the standard sub RX. Apples VS Oranges.
The Orion I have is running the latest firmware V3.032x7b and the Orion 2 is
running latest 3.033xe
What I do know for sure is the Orion 2 (before doing the updating) was terrible
in comparison to my Orion. (talking just about using the Hardware Noise
blanker) With the blanker on the Orion 2 was almost unusable if a strong
station was within 20kc of me. in comparison the Orion would not know the
station was there. Settings same or very near identical.
Now I feel the Orion 2 is working the same as the Orion with the Hardware Noise
Blanker ON. Only change made was as stated doing several firmware updates
master resets and ram clears. Again all I am comparing with these comments
between my Orion VS my Orion 2 is the Hardware Noise Blanker operation.
Again thank you for the suggestions, also just wanted to share what I feel
fixed my Orion 2 Issue without opening the box.
73Jon
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