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Re: [TenTec] Newbie Orion questions

To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Newbie Orion questions
From: John Nason / NA9U <na9u@arrl.net>
Reply-to: na9u@arrl.net,Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 06:08:16 -0800 (PST)
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
My rig before the Orion 2 was a TS-520, same vintage
as the HW-101.  What a technology shock!!

1) Grab the silver ring on the knob and hold it and
then turn the black knob counter clockwise to loosen
the feel.  I had them so loose they would spin for a
few seconds after letting them go.  

2) When you press the Tune button it should sound like
a transmission going out.  It make clicking a grinding
noises.  If not the tuner is not coming on line.  Mine
came with the tuner disabled in the menu, yours may
have too.  Menu -> TX -> Auto tuner enabled.  

3) Sorry, I am a CW op.  

4) The AN is for killing carriers but it will kill CW
too.  I never played with it enough to find out how
well it works in CW mode.  I manually tune out the
carrier. 

Have patience, they take a little time to learn.  

John
--- Randy K7RAN <k7randy@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm absolutely sure I'm going to sound like a moron,
> so I may as well  
> admit the fact of my moronity right off the bat. I'm
> a moron with a  
> smart radio. I just took delivery of a new Orion 2
> today. Those whose  
> patience is easily tested should tune out now. But
> for those who are  
> willing to work with a newbie, I'm very grateful.
> I've been running  
> an old Kenwood TS690S (the 6 meter version of the
> old 450), so I hope  
> everyone will forgive my initial trepidation with
> the Orion. Then  
> again, I well remember how intimidating the 690 was
> when I stepped up  
> from an ancient Heathkit HW101. In any event, here
> are a few  
> questions regardless:
> 
> 1) The VFO knobs don't spin... In other words,
> they're really tight!  
> I like a little bit of spin... The manual doesn't
> say how to adjust  
> them (or at least I couldn't find it as I flipped
> through the pages a  
> few times), and they don't appear to adjust the way
> my old Kenwood's  
> knob does, i.e., by holding the knob skirt
> stationary and turning the  
> knob to adjust. Am I missing something -- like brain
> cells? Am I just  
> so afraid of damaging the rig that I didn't dare
> hold the skirt tight  
> enough to adjust it? Or is it something else? Enough
> about the knob. :-)
> 
> 2) I pressed "TUNE" and the word "TUNE" appears on
> the display and an  
> SWR appears on the display as 3.2 to 1 and never
> changes. I waited 20  
> seconds (the manual says it can take 20 seconds),
> and then nothing. I  
> rechecked my receipt and, yes, sure enough I paid
> for a unit "with  
> tuner"... I checked the manual and it says the tuner
> on/off default  
> is "on"... I switch over to 15 meters, and press
> "TUNE" and the  
> display doesn't show an SWR but instead just says
> "high"... I collect  
> my cojones and let it stay on "TUNE" for a half
> minute and nothing  
> changes. I have a sinking feeling that I've failed
> an IQ test.
> 
> 3) I like a bit of treble to my sound more than
> bass. I realize I'm  
> lost. With my trusty but lame-eared Kenwood 690, I
> use an outboard  
> ClearSpeech speaker with a "tone" knob and then plug
> the headphones  
> into that. But I don't want to use that speaker with
> the Orion  
> because I might want to use the Binaural audio
> feature. Is there a  
> way to adjust the overall treble/bass-ness? I
> promise I won't get my  
> feelings hurt if someone says, "Randy, treble and
> bass are for  
> sissies and broadcast radios, so return your Extra
> ticket to the FCC  
> posthaste." I can handle the truth. But I still just
> want to know if  
> I can adjust the tone, hi.
> 
> 4) With my ClearSpeech speaker, the heterodyne
> killer waits a second  
> to determine that it's not going to kill a CW
> signal. For that  
> reason, it's great on CW. A dead carrier gets
> squelched after a  
> second while the underlying CW sigs continue
> unabated. With the  
> Orion, I fiddled with a few things but couldn't
> figure out how to  
> adjust things to duplicate the functionality I just
> described. I  
> realize I've hardly begun to scale the learning
> curve, but is there  
> an easy way to comprehend this more quickly? (If my
> question is  
> incomprehensible, please forgive me.)
> 
> I know I'm going to have more questions over the
> next week or two as  
> I settle in with this fantastic piece of equipment.
> I just hope they  
> don't throw me off the list for asking dumb
> questions. I'm going to  
> sit down and watch the instructional DVD again
> before posting more  
> stuff like this. Anyone who read this whole message
> down to here is a  
> superhero -- thank you.
> 
> 73,
> Randy K7RAN
> 
> 
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