I have been watching the recent posts about the Orion and find them somewhat
amusing. It appears to be a love / hate scenario which I am in the love
mode of the Orion. I have had mine for about 5 months (I bought it at the
Ten Tec Hamfest) and no problems other than cockpit trouble. I was
intimidated by the reflectors and was worried that I might have blown better
than three thousand dollars on this rig. I even bought popular control
software that I just knew I would need to run this thing because it was so
complicated. I soon realized (in my instance) that it was just a bunch of
crap.
The new firmware made it a new radio and I have enjoyed every moment of its
use. After 329 countries confirmed on Ten Tec equipment, I don't see a real
problem. I'm a SSB guy so maybe I was there when I needed to be. My
current set up is an Orion, Titan III, 238B, Hygain TH11, and Hygain
Hy-tower. My stand by station is a Ten Tec Omni 6+, Titan 425, and 238,
using the same antennas with electric coaxial switches. The rotor is the
CATS and CATS DPU-1800 control box controlled from both sites. Both rigs
are filled with Inrad filters.
There are some things I believe that need to be fixed on the Orion. One
being that you have to be fast to plug in your head set when you need to dig
out DX out of the mud. Occasionally if not fast enough, you have to power
down to get things back to normal. Another problem I have is when I scoot
across the carpet while wearing mocossasins and touch the rig, a large arc
appears from my finger to the Orion causing weird things to happen. In both
instances I merely power down and reboot, and all is well.
I guess I'm one of the happy owners and enjoy Ten Tec's support when needed.
I'm a two-way technician by trade (35 years) and can read and understand
receiver specifications and for the value the Orion is hard to beat. Maybe
when the Orion gets to OrionIII or V and I have to pay the difference each
time I might change my mind. I read the Specs on my Kenwood TS-820s and
liked what I saw in 1977. I still own the rig and use it several times a
month just to keep the Caps wet and because I enjoy using it.
I hope everyone that subscribes to this reflector will take it for what is
worth, and if you are experiencing problems please let the manufacturer
know, no matter what brand,
Of the problems you are having. I have seen a lot of good posts here that
have helped. My personal experiences in the industry being a Guinea Pig on
different projects might be giving me a different view than some others on
this reflector. Oh well, nothing is perfect.
Hope all goes well
Ed AB4IQ
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