[CQ-Contest] If you were buying a new contest radio today...

[Mark]

Ten-Tec ORION


Without a blink of an eye.

Have tried this rig for 2 yrs now, both at home and in heavy contest 
situations (PI4TUE , with ALL antennas raised above 220ft AGL).
Have had several different operators using the Orion at the contest 
station PI4TUE, who all have long lasting experiences at super MM 
stations like OTxA, DF0CG etc..

Differences with competition (IC756ProI/II, TS950SDX, FT1000MP+Inrad 
filters/roofing, MKV-Field +Inrad filters/roofing) are:

FINDING FREE FREQUENCY, BANDFIGHT, QRM ETC
Usually the bands are loaded with wall-to-wall signals, continuous key 
clicks, unwanted AGC actions in your rig etc. When finally a frequency 
is found you hear lots of garbage from left and right, again making it 
impossible to hear the weak ones.
ORION: no problems here. There are quiet gaps between most contesting 
stations. We now can work the weak mults between the big ones. Our 
running freq is often below 025 on the bands between the big ones for 
the first time ever!!!!!! No fights, no QRM.

RX OVERLOAD
Due to restricted IM/dynamic range specs at close range, it is 
impossible to operate without 20dB att. switched in with the antenneas 
being all above 220ft AGL. Some recent rigs even suffered from pin-diode 
attenuator overload, which made the use of att even worse (IC756 ProI 
and ProII are bad examples and proved useless on 40m)
ORION: NON-existent. We switched off the preamp on the low bands, but 
never had to use the attenuators at any time.

WORKING THE WEAK ONES ON 20 &15 MTRS
Usually they were all buried in the garbage; no features or mods ever 
helped to make the heard signals copy able. Where other local hams 
always *did* hear the weak ones calling us, we could not translate it 
into qso’s whatever rig we used. This was our most frustrating issue for 
years.
ORION: like removing a thick noise curtain, all clean and very easy to 
copy.

IF FILTERING, DSP ETC.
Usually the smaller the IF filtering, the more attenuation, ringing and 
other negative effects are heard, hence no s/n improvement when you need 
it the most.
ORION: with the very weak ones going from 300-400Hz to below 200Hz down 
to 140Hz DSP filtering or so, makes the signals simply copy able. True 
S/N enhancement according mathematical theory. Technical experienced 
operators were astounded.

COMPATABILITY WITH CONTEST SW AND AMPLIFER
This is usually not too difficult but requires some attention up-front
ORION: no issues with N1MM (thanks guys) and the amplifier setup. Not 
one glitch during 48 hours.

OPERATOR FIRST IMPRESSION& USER INTERFACE EXPERIENCES
Usually every new rig you drag in requires lots of explanation and ops 
still have problems to tweak it for best rx results due to many knobs 
and new options.
ORION: no troubles at all; operators only used RF gain dial to tailor 
gain with band propagation between 60-85, Bandwidth dial between 
400-100Hz, RIT dial and click to clear function, no more. Operators 
found the interface unconventional but very intuitive.


Bottom point: all ops have seen the boost in contest results at PI4TUE 
and now want the Orion for permanent.

And me?
I have my dream rig and find it great operating/listening to this rig.
The human interface (and analogue S-meter) is a warm companion (we are 
in the soft-area now). Current fancy coloured new kids on the block 
cannot touch this by a mile.

'73 Mark , PA5MW


Barry wrote:
> which one would you buy?  What makes it better than its competitors?
> Tnx,
> Barry
>
>