My brand new Orion II arrived about three weeks ago and I finally got
around to taking it out of the box and plugging it in. WOW, aren't the colors
bright? Since I am a RTTY nut, I decided to make the cable for FSK before
doing anything else. Had I missed something in the Orion II manual? I decided
to use the cable (46176) that Ten-Tec sent along, that is useless to me as is,
since the FSK wire is not connected, but a "not used" wire is. It makes no
sense to me, but I am just a user. I cut the the useless five pin plug off the
cable and decided to put on the supplied 8 pin DIN plug, which wasn't in the
box(they also sent the wrong color #302, but that's on it's way to me).
Fortunately, I had a spare and used it. I read the manual, #80 AUX I/O on page
27 and wired the plug. I am not the greatest solderer to start with, but I got
it done. THEN, I decided to get the Fluke out and check my handy work. Whoa,
it didn't check out. As fate would have it, after almost throwing my Fluke,
the cable and the DIN plug into the trash can, I found that the yellow wire was
connected to the White RCA receptacle and the white wire was connected to the
Yellow RCA receptacle. Yea, yea, I know I should have checked it out first,
but I never gave it a thought that a factory cable would not be wired
correctly. My wife tells me I'm losing my mind, and for a few short moments, I
thought maybe she was right(for 40 years, she has tried to convince me that she
is ALWAYS right).
There has been no antenna connected to it yet, but have already noticed
that the S-meter reads S-1 on the VFO-A and S-0 on VFO-B and a definite
difference in the sound coming out of the speaker. After reading the
reflector for a few months, I can see that I am in for a real challenge to
become proficient with this rig.
73 de Dusty, K3WC
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