I received my new (used) Orion I last week from TN. I work full-time and was
out of town this weekend, so I haven't been able to spend huge amounts of time
with the Orion, but I had a question about my initial impression. I spent a
couple of evenings going through the manual and playing with the radio's menus
and settings (and downloaded 2.059d into the radio, which came with 2.037).
The Orion is quite different from my previous base radio, which is an Icom 746
(non-Pro), so I've been spending time playing with AGC, NR, NB, RF Gain, and so
on.
I did some A/B comparisons with my 746 during the week in non-crowded
conditions, and I felt like the Orion and my 746 were about the same on receive
performance while listening to some phone QSOs in various bands. I guess this
surprised me because of all of the raves about the Orion's receiver. I wanted
to try some A/B comparisons in crowded conditions because I would expect a
more-pronounced difference between the two, but I haven't been able to do that
just yet.
Question 1 - Should this non-scientific result surprise me?
Question 2 - I've tried a variety of settings on the AGC settings and NB/NR/RF
Gain and have tried to use some info from the manual and from some other places
on the web with regards to starting points for these settings in different
conditions, but I haven't found a combination yet that really surpasses my 746.
For the most part, I'm using fast AGC, NR3, NB3, Preamp=off, and high (85-95)
RF Gain. I have the optional 1.8 KHz filter, but I normally leave the BW
between 2400 Hz and 2700 Hz. I welcome recommendations and/or lessons learned
from your operating to help optimize the receiver.
I like the radio and feel fortunate to have gotten a used one that's in such
nice physical shape. It's totally mint except for one small 1cm scratch on the
top. I can't find any other defects on it. Maybe I was expecting too much.
Maybe I'm using a non-optimal setting. I'm not sure at this point.
Thanks and 73,
Dave / K8JDC
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