[Orion] Quirky/buggy Orion VFO A/B switching of MODE

[john, ke5c]

Hi Alan!  Very good pickup - yes, if VFOB is connected to SUB RX at the time
of power up, the bug I described does not occur.  If, however, VFOB (and
VFOA) are connected the MAIN RX, or if VFOB is not connected to anything at
power up, the bug I described does occur.  I guess the work-around for now
is to leave VFOB connected to SUB RX when you shut the Orion off.  BTW, my
Orion is going the N5TW contest station in a few minutes so the other ops
can get some experience with it before the ARRL 160 CW contest this coming
weekend.  Listen for us.  N5TW transmits on an inverted-L 4-square with five
miles of buried radials and listens on 4 beverages which are directional.

73, John

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A. Sewell N5NA" <n5na at arrl.net>
To: "Orion @contesting.com" <orion at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [orion565] Re: [Orion] Quirky/buggy Orion VFO A/B switching
ofMODE


I tried it.  The only way I could duplicate the problem was to have the SUB
RX set to VFO A when I started.  If SUB RX is on VFO B, where mine stays,
then I didn't see the problem.

73,

Alan  N5NA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "john, ke5c" <ke5c at hot.rr.com>
To: "Orion @contesting.com" <orion at contesting.com>; "Orion @yahoo"
<orion565 at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Quirky/buggy Orion VFO A/B switching of MODE


Mode handling in conjunction with the A>B and B>A keys appears to have some
quirks/bugs, and certain key sequences lead to apparant results that are
neither expected nor accurately reflected by the display.  Here is a
sequence of keystrokes to illustrate this phenomena (listen only to MAIN RX
while doing this):

step   key stroke (manual number of key)    :comment
----   ----------- ------------------------    ---------
1) VFOA/RX (11) :connect RX to VFOA (if not already so)
2) MAIN RX (56) :select main receiver for commands
3) MODE (27) :select mode menu
4) UCW (softkey) :select CW mode for MAIN RX
5) VFOA tuning knob (47) :tune to a CW station
6) SUB RX (55) :select subreceiver for commands
7) MODE (27) :select mode menu
8) FSK :select FSK for SUB RX (remember, you're only listening to the MAIN
RX)
9) A>B (60) :transfer VFOA frequency to VFOB, they read the same now
10) VFOB/RX (10) :connect RX to VFOB ***AND YOUR SIGNAL IS GONE***!  Both
VFO's read the same frequency, MAIN RX still shows it is in UCW mode, but
it's not, it's really in FSK mode which is what is shown for the SUB RX.
11) MODE (27) :select subreceiver for commands - if you've followed this key
sequency exactly, you are still entering commands to the SUB RX (to which
you are not listening)
12) UCW (softkey) :select CW mode for the SUB RX - you still don't hear your
CW station, but you soon will ...
13) VFOB/RX (10) :even though this led is already lit, press the key again,
and presto, you hear your station.  It appears that the change you made in
step 12 above now actually takes place and the MAIN RX is back into UCW
mode - even thought the display always showed it in that mode and even
though the MODE changes you made should have affected only SUB RX

MODE switching seems to work well most of the time, and this may be an issue
only after the A>B and B>A functions, but the MODE you see on the display is
not always the MODE you get after using the A>B and B>A (and perhaps A/B
which I haven't checked).  BTW, I am not searching for problems; I stumbled
onto this when switching frequencies and antennas while playing around in CQ
WW CW.  I copied A>B and when I switched VFO's on the MAIN RX, the signal
was gone because the MAIN RX wasn't really operating in the MODE shown on
the screen.  This may also cause an operator to conclude he has a VFOB
problem when he really doesn't.

73, John