Hi Tommy: Well, K5TO is 66, I'm 69 myself, and way too much playing with high
powered short barreled rifles has left me about like Red Skelton's Cauliflower
McPug. So it's easier for me to run a little slower than I would maybe prefer,
and turn the volume up a bit to compensate for the built in sirens. And turn
the sidetone down a bit so my ears lack of AGC is not so much a distraction.
I hope the Orion does maintain a 3:1 dot dash ratio at all weights, since so
many would be fast boys drop the weight to below 2:1 and some go as low as
1.5:1, making copy difficult and sometimes impossible when conditions are less
than perfect. A string of 50 WPM dits mixed with static is not very
informative. Just tried playing with weight and from the sidetone it appears
the manual may be correct, since the sidetone at least sounds more like
Farnsworth with wider spacing between characters.
On the NR - every Master Reset I have done has turned the TX off, the aux in
gain to 4, keying loops off, the NB off and the NR to 1. And reset the AGC to
default. Among other things. And hitting User 1, or User 2, does not get me
back to where I want to be. So I just use the cheat sheet with my preferred
settings and spend much less time trying to figure out why it don't work like I
think it should. (Yes I have Carl's program but I am sot in my ways and prefer
to operate the radio directly) After the reset and all that the NR worked very
well. Or at least it did last night. Lemme check - yep seems to work FB this
morning as well.
I agree, the VFO knob is a little tetchy - but not nearly so much so as it
could be, and not enough to cause me problems if I lay a steadying finger on
top of the rig and turn the VFO knob with thumb and forefinger. Short of taking
5 steps to make a change I don't know how you could make it less sensitive,
since it's one opto-isolator step to toggle on/off/ or go up/down now.
Besides, it would not be that touchy if I didn't insist on drinking three or
four pots of coffee a day. Caffiene raises Ol Ned with fine motor control, and
with a man's ability to keep 10 shots in the X ring. And gives you a terrible
headache when you suddenly have to do without! As in suddenly having to drink
that dishwater the hospital calls coffee.
Anyhow, the Orion is not perfect. But it's the best rig I have had here and
that includes most of the "performance" rigs. So I will keep it until something
better comes along.
73 Pete Allen AC5E
--
Never squat with your spurs on
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