[Orion] Re: Orion keying

[bob]

    I too had a "keying failure" on my Orion.  When sending a string of dahs the output falls off and comes back up again.  It was somewhat visible on the ALC indidcator, but was very obvious when viewed on an analog watt meter.  My Orion worked fine from early November 2003 right up until sometime last week, when the problem really manifested itself. After completely eliminating any external problems, I packed the Orion up and it should arrive at Ten Tec today for them to take a look. 
     
    In attempting to trouble shoot this problem Ten Tec and I discovered a firmware bug.  I use two amplifiers, both of them are Ten Tec 425's with full QSK.  We discovered that both amplifiers must be set in Orion menus to keying loop on or keying loop off.  If you want to use one each way, then keying loop 1 must be off and keying loop 2 must be on.  The other way around does not work.  This is with release 1.367.  73 bob de w9ge