This was the first time I used the TenTec Orion in a contest and must
say that I was disappointed. My previous rigs were the OMNI VI and
some time ago the Drake C line modified. All had good filters in the
first and second IF. One thing what I didnt like with the Orion
before the contest was that I could hear strong signals several
kilocycles off the main frequency. I am not used to that with my
previous rigs except when somebody had a bad signal. During the
contest it turned out on 20m that I could not hear several weak
stations calling me because there was a very high background noise
from adjacent strong stations usually arround S4 to S5. The
"interferring" station were about 600 to 700 Hz off my frequeny. I
never experienced such difficulties with the OMNI VI or modified R4C.
Therefore I exchanged rigs i.e. used the OMNI VI instead of the Orion
and everything was fine from then. I have of course read the test
reports of the Orion. However there seems to be a problem. 2KHZ
spacing used in the tests is to my opinion not sufficient at least
for contest conditions. In my qth in the middle of Europe I hear the
big US contest stations and the Europeans (short skip) very often
with S9+. And very often many strong stations are seperated only by 1
to 2 KHZ.It has not been a problem for me before with the Omni or
Drake R4C to go inbetween 2 strong stations seperated only 1-1.2 KHZ
and call CQ and copy weak stations. I have now ordered the Inrad
600HZ filter and hopethings are better with it. Unfortunately I could
not find any data or graphs of the TenTec 500 or 1000Hz filters so I
would be able to compare them with the Inrad 600Hz filter.
Other problems with the Orion:
On several occasions the Orion computer crashed apparently because of
high powered RF nearby. Of course the reason is my working conditions
but still I dont like it. For explanation in my QTH in the mountains
I cannot put up beams or quads because they would break or fall down
during the winter time. Instead of this I use wire antennas e.g. vee
beams and a rhombic antenna. All antennas have open feeder lines
which go directly into the shack.Sometime ago the circuit for the
linear keying output of the Orion broke using a TL922 linear. Now I
use output 2 with an external relay and everything is ok.
There is still the question if such a complicated rig as the Orion is
good for contesting. Personaly I dont like that I have to change
several parameters when changing from one band to another i.e. 160m
with high background noise to another e.g. 15m with low background
noise.
Knut DK5AD/OE2BZL/OE2G
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