Yes, the Orion is state-of-the-art, at least it was at the time the design was
finalized. But from experience all computer related hardware becomes
obsolescent between the time the design is approved for production and the
first unit is assembled. That does not keep the device from being state of the
art for several years, or in some cases a decade or more.
Considering what the Dragonball does in other mediums you can bet there's
plenty of horsepower to do what's necessary in a radio. So no, the system does
not seem to be trying to squeeze too much performance out of limited resources.
Fetch and replace time is another matter - it may not be possible to
drastically speed up some of the functions because of the time it takes to dump
one set of parameters, fetch another, load that one, and verify that everything
is as it should be.
However, according to the stopwatch it takes just over 0.3 seconds to go from
20 SSB to 40 CW. And probably a tad less, since I'm not as fast as I used to
be. It takes me almost two seconds to put five shots inside the 8 ring from my
Model 57, and I used to be able to do it in 1.77. Sometimes, anyway.
Of course, I was at my late brother-in-laws house when he had a seizure. His
wife called 911 and I ran out the door to corral their guard dogs. It took just
over 4 minutes for the EMT's to get there but Gwen swears it was over 20
minutes. And I seem to remember holding two vicious-to-strangers dogs by the
nape of their necks for a half hour or more - while my wife insists the EMT's
had Woody loaded and on his way to hospital in less than seven minutes.
Things sure seem to move slowly when you are excited - and even slower when you
are in a bind! So maybe the Orion is not really as slow as some of the comments
on the reflector would lead you to believe.
Still, it's probably possible to speed up the time between the first
"attention, processor, I want to adjust this" button push and the second "ON
NOW" push. Perhaps other timing adjustments can be made - such as reducing the
time you must push a volume encoder to make the thing stay muted. And the NR
algorithm may well be on the list for improvement.
All things in due time - and at least Ten Tec is constantly improving the
product. Something the makers of many of the severe disappointments I have had
in the shack failed to attempt.
But I do wonder about one thing. I regularly home in on fairly rare DX stations
by tracking down the source of key clicks and phase noise. How will we get the
jump on the competition when everyone uses an Orion?
73 Pete Allen AC5E
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