It is nice to see the happy Orion owners (1 & 2) chiming in. Your posts
bring us back to reality - namely, that the Orion or Orion II is the
best thing going for contesting.
Many of you started out with the Orion II. I started with the Orion I,
and assumed that the II would be even better. The simple fact is that
version I software beats version II in almost every way. You should
hear my orion running ver. 1 -- the noise reduction actually reduces
noise and the s-meter goes down, enabling weak signals to come through.
The S-meter isn't affected by the rf gain until the rf gain goes real
low -- it shows the "actual" signal strength. The notch, auto or not,
reduces the actual signal strength of the notched station, enabling you
to copy and read weaker stations on the s-meter. It is better DSP than
I have seen on any radio before.
That is why there are complaints. There was so much anticipation when
it was announced that there would be a more stable version "2", and the
new version didn't come out for a year -- then when it did, it was worse
than version 1.
A lot of the comments simply were trying to see if others noticed the
problems too. In other words, "it seems to work that way for me -- does
it work that way for you too? What do you make of that? Is there an
advantage to the new way it is being done?"
I quickly moved back to version 1. But the sting of the anticipation
and letdown is still with me. Just like when I got the Orion , and
assumed in a radio like this the bandscan would be quick like the
ProII. That was a disappointment as well. It was using this thing in a
contest, and using it on 80 and 160 meters against 50-over-9 signals to
pull out dx 1 khz away, that I saw it shine.
The reflector is a place where disappointed people vent... but you
notice that most of them keep their Orions. They just want them to be
better.
Remember, no matter how it sounds, we are all trying to tell the truth
as we see it, and we all love our Orions. --Brent N9HZ
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