Before I bought my Corsair-II and was looking at the Paragon and
Corsair-II, I was asked by one of the TenTec staff manning their booth
at Dayton, "What radio are you using now and what is your principal use,
DXing, nets, rag chewing or something else?" When I responded that I was
using a model 546-C and matching external VFO to chase DX from a quiet
rural location, his response was, "you'll be a lot happier with a
Corsair-II... you'll be able to hear weak stations with it that will be
covered in noise in the Paragon!" I bought the Corsair-II and sold my
OMNI-D to my best friend who had just become a General licensee and was
looking for a radio.
I still have that Corsair-II which was built in the last production run
of model 561s. I did A-B tests with it and the Paragon (model 585) I
bought several years later for MARS work for Operation Desert Shield and
Operation Storm. In those tests which were done using a DOW Key Relay
reversed so that only one radio was connected to an antenna or with a
coaxial jumper between the two radios with one switch set for AUX ANT
and the other to AUX RX and with the radio with the switch set to AUX RX
having a good antenna connected to its SO-239, the Corsair-II was always
slightly better. Its those signals below S-2 and into the RX/band noise
where the Corsair-II comes out ahead.
I also had a fully loaded OMNI-VI+ (model 564) and found it, through
testing in the manner above, to be at least equal to the Corsair-II,
mostly due to 1.8 kHz and 500 Hz filters in BOTH I.F.s, making it more
selective and a bit quieter. The CAT serial port on the 564 is a huge
advantage for those doing computer logging while DXing or Contesting.
The lack of frequency / mode information from an un-modified Corsair-II
like the one I own is its major drawback, in my opinion.
I currently have an OMNI-VII (model 588) with a FLEX-1500 as its sub-RX
(N4PY mod) as my primary radio and with the Corsair-II as the back
radio. (see AB9M at QRZ.com for the station photo) While the OMNI-VII is
a great radio for my needs, in my opinion (and experience) it needs to
some careful adjustment of the RF gain to avoid digital artifacts which
are created from strong signals in the passband when trying to work 2
kHz to 10 kHz from the DX station with lots of callers.
Regarding the cost of any Corsair-II replacement; I know there is the
issue of price, but I believe its also a matter of value for an
experience which cannot be matched by others. If you provide a pure
analog receiver and transmitter chain like the model 561 with only DDS
VFO and CAT serial ports then perhaps your market segment is in a
different range than the IC-7300. Today absent any product from TenTec
to replace my OMNI-VII and FLEX-1500, I'll keep my Corsair-II and buy a
FLEX-3000. The Eagle may need a replacement, but one for the OMNI-VII
and ORION is long overdue.
--
73 ES DX,
Gary - AB9M
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