Back a couple of months ago, I was involved in an exchange regarding
various firmware versions and the RX performance of the Orion vs my
FT-1000MP. At the time, my MP was consistently demonstrating better
receive performance (S/N and general CW copyability) than the Orion, and
the differences were often dramatic.
In my last post on the issue, I commented that there were clearly
several known hardware problems with my Orion, but I didn't think that
they were related to the receive function. I sent the Orion in for
repair and got it back several weeks ago. Since that time I have made
numerous comparisons with the MP on 80 and 160M weak signals and the two
receivers are basically equivalent regarding S/N. From the repair
invoice, it appears that there was a short to the logic board and I
assume that's where the problem resided. Frankly, I had done similar
A/B comparisons with the MP several years ago when I first got the Orion
and found them to be equivalent in weak signal sensitivity. I should
have remembered that.
I have since gone back to FW 1.373b5 and have been using it for about
two weeks now and it seems to be generally satisfactory. I typically am
using 12-18 dB attenuation on all bands.
I am most appreciative for the suggestions and help regarding my
problems provided by several members of the list at the time.
73, Joe
K2XX
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