John:
No idea what to do about the extra display digit. That is a freaky
problem, to be sure!
As for mods, I'd say use the rig for a while and see if anything jumps
out as needing work. For me, excess audio gain and maybe excessive IF
gain are bugaboos of this rig. It is a super hot RX and it is easy to
run it into distortion with all controls up.
Have a look at the W3TS mods and the mods listed on the Ten Tec Wiki,
but I wouldn't mess with anything until you familiarize with how the rig
works stock.
One thing you need to know is the RF gain control is your friend. Adjust
for best perceived s/n ratio. I usually run it at 1:00 or wherever the
band noise starts to drop out. There is a point where band noise seems
to drop more than signal and that is where I want to be.
I also found that the controls can be a bit touchy. A few degrees
movement of the BP/Fade or IF Shift knobs can make a big difference
under certain conditions and these settings are quite interactive. RF
gain and AF gain also have tiny sweet spots sometimes.
I installed the product detector bias mod recently discussed here and on
the Yahoo Omni V group. Seemed to help with what I took to be
overdriving of the product detector, but I have no way to quantify or
measure before/after. Now I can run RF gain up higher if I want to.
Appears to be useful or at least it fooled me!
The best thing I did to my Omni V was to recap the logic board, display
board, and IF/AF board with modern "digital age" low ESR high frequency
caps. This greatly reduced internally generated noise.
I can turn my AF and RF gain all the way up on a dummy load and only get
a minor hiss. Before the recap it was quite noisy. Maybe yours is better
than mine was.
I think I put a bigger cap in the slow AGC to increase the time
constant. Stock value was too fast for me on sideband.
It is also a good idea to take an afternoon to clean all of the internal
connectors with Deoxit...and don't forget to clean the power connectors
every now and again. I use a baby toothbrush dipped in Deoxit on the
male pins of the board connectors, then connect/disconnect once or twice.
What I would really love to see is a mod to make the noise blanker work.
I've heard there was a late NB board with three wires going to the
control pot that works, but mine is purely ornamental. Useless.
Overall, I love my Omni V too. It doesn't have the superb audio quality
of an older Omni C or Triton, especially on SSB where it sounds a bit
mechanical in comparison, but overall it is a great performer. I kept it
while selling off many other rigs in the meantime, because it works so well.
It really doesn't "need" too many mods.
Joe N5KAT
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