Kudos Jack!!
I really liked your post and agree 100%. I am going to
miss you on the 40 meter Ten-tec net .I sure hope you
get moved and back on the air quickly
73
John WB4QDA
--- Jack Emerson <w4tje@lexcominc.net> wrote:
> Within the next couple of weeks, I will temporarily
> leave this reflector
> while my family and I move to a new QTH.
> When I joined this reflector over 3 years ago, I
> owned 1 Ten Tec amp. I am
> proud to tell any ham who will listen that I am
> taking with me to the new
> shack 2 Ten Tec amps (Titan and Centaur), an Orion
> 2, a 238B Tuner, and the
> Ten Tec remote encoder.
> So please, I ask you, put my name on the cult list.
> 3 years ago, I operated 99% SSB, and 99% on 15
> meters. I had not operated
> CW since I passed my 20wpm exam in the early 90's. I
> still remember telling
> the examiner for that test that if he passed me, I
> would promise to never
> operate CW again.
> But after joining this reflector, it sure got the
> creative juices flowing
> again. I still remember Tommy, W4BQF, talking about
> his QSO's at or near
> 100 wpm, and thinking he was a nut. But you know
> what, it got me to
> listening to CW again. And a funny thing happened, I
> put the pencil down,
> and started at about 10wpm trying to copy it in my
> head. Now I'm up to 30
> wpm in my head, actually more if the fist is good,
> and I am having the time
> of my life. I realize that CW is an art, and no
> dumbing down by the powers
> that be can kill it, as long as we continue to use
> it.
> 3 years ago, I used a kenwood rig, and thought that
> Ten Tec was for CW
> buffs only. But in recent years I had told Stan at
> Ten Tec that if they
> would ever design a big radio to compete with the
> FT1000 series, that had
> Kenwood's audio on SSB, I would consider it. They
> built it, and I lived up
> to my word, and boy am I glad I did.
> I must say admit that 9-11 played a small role in
> this as well. After 9-11,
> I have tried my best to buy American made products
> as long as I believed
> the product to be equal to the foreign competition.
> It's hard to explain,
> but that's what I'm doing, and as long as my country
> is engaged in a war, I
> will continue to do this. So that partly explains my
> decision to purchase
> the Orion, but it has nothing to do with how happy I
> am that I made that
> decision.
> Now here's some more random thoughts and
> acknowledgements for anyone that
> is still awake:
> Having used both the Orion and Orion 2 side by side
> for 3 weeks, I sold the
> Orion. I would have kept it, but I couldn't figure
> out a way to keep both
> radios gainfully employed.
> The Orion with the early software worked fine on
> SSB, but would
> occasionally lock up on CW, especially if the sweep
> was on. I learned to
> keep the sweep off, and never had any more problems.
> The audio on the version 1.3xx software was better
> than anything I had ever
> heard on the air. So if ur a fan of great SSB audio,
> and you own the Orion,
> go back to that software if you think the audio was
> better in the early
> releases.
> The NR feature on the early software for the Orion
> was amazing. Under the
> proper band condx and signal strength, I could
> listen to perfect received
> audio with no background noise.
> On the Orion 2, the NR feature sounds different,
> depending on who I am
> listening to. On the Saturday morning QCWA net, for
> instance, the NR
> feature brings out the audio for some stations, and
> they sound great, while
> other stations on the same net sound terrible with
> the NR on. So I would
> say the NR is not broke, but it is different than
> the way it worked on the
> 1.3xx Orion software.
> As for the audio, the Orion with 1.3xx software
> sounded perfect to me, as I
> said. But I worked AE4BC last Sunday, and his Orion
> 2 sounded just as
> perfect to my ears as any Orion that I have heard.
> The audio settings on
> the Orion 2 and the Orion with 1.3xx software are
> way different. Ten Tec
> told me on the phone there was no difference, but I
> think they were simply
> wrong on that. However, once you find the proper
> settings, The Orion 2
> sounds great, at least to me. Just 3 weeks ago, on
> 15m, a European station
> told me that the audio on my Orion 2 sounded better
> than the audio of the
> 1.3xx Orion that was on frequency with me. At the
> same time, there have
> been times when I have heard a rough edge on
> occasional words spoken on
> Orion 2 radios. I don't know if it is coming from
> improper settings, rf
> issues, or software issues. But I have heard it. But
> remember, when the
> Orion came out, it took about 2 months before anyone
> figured out how to
> properly tweak the audio on those rigs. I remember
> many a Sunday afternoon
> listening to Orion ops on the Ten Tec net marveling
> about their wonderful
> new Orions, and thinking how for that kind of money,
> their audio sure did
> sound very vanilla.
> OK, here's my "thank you's"
> W4BQF, Tommy, Yes I thought you were a nut, and I
> was wrong. Then I thought
> you were mean for disparaging the Orion. Then you
> and I started working
> each other on the air, rather than arguing on the
> internet. I then learned
> what a patient cw op you were, and you helped me
> greatly. CW will never
> come naturally to me, but it has come to me, and I
> am still plugging away,
> and you have played a major role in helping me.
> Tommy, I still have no idea
> at what speed you top out at, but I am in no
> position to dispute it. It's
> fast.
> N4LQ, Steve, another ham that I argued with here,
> who called me up on 80m
> cw one evening and was as patient and courteous with
> me as could be.
> N4TN, Don, runs circles around me on the bands
> because he is just a flat
> out great CW op. As with Tommy and Steve, tnx for
> helping me along.
> W4ZV, Bill, inspired me to try the low bands. Tnx to
> listening to ur
> activities on 160m cw, I installed some beverages,
> put in some radials,
> arose before the sunrise for 2 years, and finally
> worked a JA on 160m. From
> listening to you, I also learned that 25wpm is a
> good operating speed to
> shoot for in cw contests when condx are marginal.
> Additional kudos to WB4BQF and W4CAK.
> But the biggest tnx goes to Ten Tec for their
> products. Ten Tec, you have
> played the greatest role in the pure enjoyment of
> being on the air than at
> any time since I became a ham 29 years ago.
> Finally, I hate to end on a sour note, so I will say
> this as nice as I can.
> The negative comments on this reflector do adversely
> affect sales for this
> company. 3 weeks ago, I received a telephone call
> from a ham who had just
> received his Orion 2 that day. He was having trouble
> setting it up, so I
> got on the air with him and we sorted it out. During
> the course of the
> conversation, he told me that he had wanted for some
> time to buy an Orion,
> but after joining the reflector, all the negative
> comments about the Orion
> and Orion 2 had scared him to death. He said that
> if he had not heard me
> on the air with mine, and W4WTB with his, he doubted
> that he would have
> gone through with it.
> Last week, he called me up and told me that he was
> absolutely amazed at how
> good this radio actually is. Having used the Orion 2
> for a couple of weeks,
> he said that he still cannot understand the nit
> picking on the reflector. I
> told him to love the radio, but to tolerate the
> reflector.
> I am only on 1 other reflector, but it seems that
> reflectors can be free
> speech run amuck. I learned in the Marines the
> simple rule to compliment in
> public, but to criticize in private. When I have
> found issues with Ten Tec
> equipment, I picked up the phone and called them, or
> sent an e-mail to dits
> and bits. I didn't get on the reflector and have a
> nervous breakdown. It
>
=== message truncated ===
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
|