Hi Larry,
The Paragon is a general coverage rig, and the Omni VI is not. Being
general coverage requires wider bandpass filters in the receiver front
end, given the same number of bands to cover 160 meters to 10 meters. In
fact the Paragons use eight low pass filters to cover 100 kHz to 30 MHz,
using a single filter for 10 and 12 meters, another 17 and 15 meters,
and one for 40 and 30 meters. The Omni VI has nine dedicated bandpass
filters, one for each amateur band from 160 to 10 meters. In most
situations this will not make a noticeable difference. However in the
presence of strong out of band signals or interference sources the Omni
VI first mixer has less total power input to deal with. So in a multiple
transmitter contest station environment, or near SWBC transmitters the
Omni VI would likely have a lower minimum discernible signal.
The 9 MHz IF (first IF in the Omni VI and second IF in the Paragon) has
6.0 kHz and 2.4 kHz BW filters in the Paragon, whereas the Omni VI has a
2.4 kHz and one or two optional narrow filters (depending on version of
Omni VI) , one of which can be cascaded with the default 2.4 filter. The
Omni VI does not have AM mode, so does not need the 6.0 filter. This is
another reason that the following IF stages have less total power to
deal with, and are less likely to be driven in to nonlinearity, making
reception of weak signals amongst strong signals in a crowded band better.
The first local oscillator in the Omni is also much different, covering
smaller band segments and using a much less complicated phase locked
loop system. The result is that the first LO in the Omni VI is probably
quieter. Also the Omni VI does not even have the second LO that the
Paragon has, another possible source of noise.
Version 2, 3 and Plus Omni VIs also have DSP noise reduction (in the
audio, not in the last IF like an Orion, TS-870 and other newer JA rigs)
which the Paragons do not have.
For the mostly rag chewing ham, these differences will not often be
noticed, and lack of general coverage in the Omnis may be a reason to
own a Paragon instead. For a contest operator or a low band DX operator,
the differences may very well be noticed. They are all excellent rigs.
DE N6KB
kartooo@netzero.net wrote:
> Hi,
> Never see anything about the paragon vs other rigs on here. I just recently
> purchased a paragon and i love it. I use it only on ssb and i have all the
> filters and gehiel chip. I have owned the top end yaesu,kenwood,icom stuff in
> the past but really like the simple straight fwd working of the paragon and
> it's looks. I have owned maybe 15 to 20 used rigs and always get bored and
> re-sell. The paragon is a keeper for sure.I know the later omni's carry a
> bigger price tag onn the used market but why ? the cabinet and layout look
> the same as the paragon. what are the extra features and do they really add
> that much more value to the radio ?
>
> TNX.
> Larry N1YW
>
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>
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