[Orion] RX problems

[Ulrich Hilsinger]

Hello,

I remarked the same problem as that one described by Terry. To me, it 
happened three times on 40m - I own the ORION for one week now... In 
total, I had to execute a "cold start" 5 or 6 times in this period. 
Three due to the RX problem, one due to a crashed voice keyer, and one 
due to a somehow missleaded automatic-notch. At least the voice keyer 
crash could be a RFI (EMC) problem, but the first RX failure has not 
been a EMC caused problem for shure, as it occured before transmitting 
for the first time at all.

This, of course, is somehow reducing a bit the overall impression I got 
from my new #1.

But, in fact, the ORION is performing very very well (as long as it 
doesnt crash...):
IP3 on 40m is drastically better compared to my "reference" TS850 
(important point in Europe with the neighboured BC band). In CW, the 
receiver sounds MUCH quieter than that one from the TS850, and the DSP 
filters behave extraordinarily well. No artefacts from nearby signals, 
and in fact, it is true, the DSP NB even kills key clicks (which were 
THE argument to not buy a yaesu ft1000xxx...).
Receive and transmit audio quality is really good.
QSK operation sounds very smooth. The only really important problem I 
have is while using a VHF transverter, obviously, there is no T/R hang 
time available for the Xverter PTT - but as usual, the long signal chain 
on VHF is not QSK proof ... Some other minor things I remarked will be 
reported to TenTec in a few weeks, let's see what happens during the 
next firmware upgrades. By the way, as long as they do functional 
improvements on the firmware, it seems normal to me that there may be 
new bugs appearing...
A word about the sub rx: In fact, it is performing almost as well as the 
TS850 receiver, or, in some situations, even much better due to the DSP 
possibilites. Of course, in the evening hours, there are intermodulation 
products on 40m and 30m. Would be fine if one could switch off the 
preamplifier to reduce them.
Another point is the out-of-hamband-sensitivity: below 500 kHz, the 
Sub-RX is dramatically deaf. That's not really an important issue for a 
contest TRX, but on the other hand it would be nice to be able to listen 
to the LF ham band (around 137 kHz) we now have in most european 
countries ...

73,
Ulrich dh0ghu