Folks,
I got the Omni VI yesterday and so I'm now an expert after 1 day playing with
it :) Here are my first impressions, comparing it to my Corsair II :
Advantages
1) The tuning "feel" is silky smooth, and it's nice to be able to change the
tuning rate; but will I get "withdrawal symptoms" if I don't have to do a PTO
re-build now and then :)
2) The auto-notch seems to work well
3) It will "auto band change" my Hercules II linear
4) Keyer speed control is (slightly) less non-linear than the Corsair
5) CW side-tone sounds like a sine wave, unlike the Corsair
6) It's nice that the frequency readout is the carrier frequency on CW, and
that you don't have to go to "Reverse" for 17m SSB
8) Nice to be able to change bands without worrying if the band-change knob
will crack :)
Disadvantages
1) An annoying heterodyne (non-tunable) in the pass band on all bands,
significantly above the noise level.
2) I don't like the agc characteristics. Perhaps after 22 years I've just got
so used to the Corsair "hang" agc. I find myself turning the RF gain way back
on the Omni to stop the noise rising between words - even with the agc in the
Slow position
3) Audio quality on SSB Rx is not as nice as the Corsair. I've tried various
external speakers on the Omni, but the Corsair always sounds better
4) The meter and Frequency display is quite dim (even at the highest setting)
compared to the Corsair's bright display. And the meter illumination varies
with the number of LEDs that are on. For example if you switch VOX off and on
the meter illumination varies!
5) An annoying "thump" in the speaker going from key down to key up.
6) S meter calibration not as accurate as the Corsair. I set the Omni as per
the book (S9=50uV, S3=0.3uV) but it's not as accurate as the Corsair
in-between. [It probably wouldn't normally worry me, but at the moment I'm
doing a lot of a antenna azimuth measurements]
I certainly wont be getting rid of the Corsair. I did a lot of A/B switching
between the two. I couldn't detect any difference in sensitivity or intermods
etc, but I kept prefering the Corsair because of its nicer sounding (to me)
audio and the annoying heterodyne on the Omni.
If anyone has any "fixes" for the Disadvantages I'd like to hear from them.
73,
Steve G3TXQ
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