I just wanted to pass along a very positive experience in the middle of the
stream of problems that are usually discussed here. Pardon me while I rave
about this great radio.
I spent many hours operating the Orion this last weekend and I have come
away very glad I made this purchase! I was able to use the radio in many
different conditions and the adjustments that are available made the
operating a pure joy! I was able to catch the TenTec nets on both 20 and 40
meters. On 17 meters I worked all over Europe, nabbed Hawaii (actually they
called me), nabbed the CY9SS operation on St Pauli Island, and much much
more.
My setup is pretty modest - an 80 meter dipole at 40 feet fed with ladder
line, tuner, and an old refurbed SBE SB1LA linear to boost the power up to
about 400 watts. Firmware in the Orion is 1.372.
I like the sweep display. I can see how it could be better if it was a bit
faster, but all in all, a very useful feature. You can tell the difference
between CW, (or digital modes) and voice with just a bit of observation
experience. It can tell you were the activity is with just a glance.
I had no glitches, freezes, or burps the entire weekend. I "wore out" the
PBT and BW tuning to try different settings. The slight offset trick that
was posted here really works to help the NR work without sounding too
watery. As with all DSP NR's, they work best when the band isn't so noisy
(when you don't need it) but it was interesting to see the slight PBT offset
really help out that function.
...OK, back to your regularly scheduled programming!...
73,
Randy
K4QO
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