Good news Eric!  This also needs to be reposted on e-ham.  Toby W4CAK 
 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric SENSI" <eric.sensi@skynet.be> 
To: <tentec@contesting.com> 
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 5:15 AM 
Subject: [TenTec] Orion bug video AND important information from ON6CV 
 
 
Hi, 
 
On this "bug" video, the VFO A is a little bit "out of band", okay, but 
the 
problem is not coming from this fact because the Orion is a radio which 
can 
transmit 10KHz up and down of band edges (from firmware 1.328 to cover 
some 
MARS frequencies). 
 
What is strange with what you said is that : how the radio knows that you 
are "out of band" ? These limits are not programmed into the radio, band 
limit is just a "human decision". The 40m band, for example, in the USA is 
not the same than in Europe, on "your" upper 40m band whe, in Europe have 
a 
broadcast segment, and for us, it is totally impossible to communicate 
starting at 7.105Khz (the first BC station there with bunch of KW !). I 
mean 
that "out of band" for me is not specially "out of band" for you and vice 
versa ! 
 
The problem was the same on any band, in the band or, like in that video, 
a 
little bit out of the limit, but don't search there for the cause. 
 
Anyway... now the good news ! 
 
To be frank, before sending the radio back to the dealer as I don't give 
up 
so easily (Hi !), I put the radio back on the table, I uploaded the 1.370 
firmware, doing a master reset and RAM clear procedure as explained by my 
TT 
dealer... then I uploaded the latest firmware (1.371) again, master reset, 
RAM clear procedure, etc... 
 
When I started playing with the Orion, I recorded my callsign and a DX 
call 
into the "send 1" and "send 2" DV memory. 
 
Send 1 was "CQ DX From Oscar November Six Charlie Victor" for a total of 
3.26sec 
Send 2 was simply "Oscar November Six Charlie Victor" for a total of 
2.30sec 
 
I started making some contacts (finally !) and from time to time, I pushed 
the "send 1" or "send 2" regarding the situation and the radio NEVER fails 
! 
 
I did NOT experienced any screen layout bugs at all - sometimes the layout
was messy after leaving the MENUS.  
I did NOT experienced anything strange with the sweep display which was 
NOT 
showing the peaks even when a 20dB over S9 signal was detected ! I 
experienced this strange thing only on the 40m band, but I must recognize 
that the sweep display is not mandatory at all for me, and of course not 
very useful on the 40m band where there's lot of activity ! 
 
I did NOT experienced any receiver/transmitter crash after using the DV
memory buttons even at full power.  
By the way, I think that the problems are gone for good now (I keep my 
fingers crossed) because this radio is "THE" radio that meets my demand at 
100%. It is a joy to operate, very easy to me, well layed out to my 
opinion, 
two real receivers (not the case on my FT-1000MP), menus are in plain 
english so don't need the manual to decipher what you're changing, really 
love the continuously variable bandwith in any mode, the optical encoders 
are a great idea to me - love that and much, much more. 
 
Now, a question, do I have to apologize for what I've written last week on 
my Orion ? No, I don't think so because the problems were real problems, 
this was not my fault in any way, I'm using a nice power supply (Kenwood 
PS-52) and a ground connection made by a specialist, RF feedback is almost 
impossible here with tuned antennas and remember, the DV memory crashed 
also 
with a power as low as a value of "1" ! 
 
A word on the manual, this 61 pages document is, IMHO, the best manual 
I've 
read so far ! 
 
There's everything in it to learn the radio, arranged in a very logical 
and 
simple manner, well written with lots of explanations regarding the AGC 
system and Hi-fi SSB transmissions, etc... 
 
The kind of manual which I am able to write if I were to do it ! 
 
Voila, that's all for now, hope my message will bring some peace in the
forum. :-)  
To all, best regards and thanks for reading this long information. 
 
73's, Eric de ON6CV. 
 
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