RES: [Orion] ORION PERFORMANCE

[Eric Rosenberg]

Oms -- 

Greetings from Washington! 

I'm an Orion user, too, and also not as comfortable with the radio as I'd
like to be. 

The documentation is not as good as it should be, and while the video
helps, it doesn't make up the difference. Aas a result, I have tried to
take the time to play with the radio before actually using it under
contesting conditions.  I followed Fred K3ZO's advice in doing so. 

This is a slow and somewhat painful process, but as Eric and Bill have
shown, is worth the effort.  Part of the prblem with the Orion, and with
any new and different radio is that expectations are so inflated ("It's
the greates receiver since the creaion of radios") that you lose track of
both real expectations and what you're comparing it against.  It's a bit
like when you replace simple dipoles in trees with yagis on towers, or
single yagis on towers with monoband stacks.  It *should* be better, but
is it? And it it always better?  Well, not all the time...

What I'd like to see is the ability to configure the display screen to
show the features I want and not the ones I don't want.  Unfortunately,
that isn't going to happen anytime soon, I suspect. 

My advice is to hang in there and don't rush to judgement.  I've tried to
write down all of the problems or issues or questions I've run into. 
What I'm hoping to do is gather the Orion users in this area (Washington,
DC) and have the experienced ones go through the radio to show me how the
various parameters are adjusted and then let me try to do it myself.  I
realize that you probably don't have any other Orion owners in Brazil,
but  somehow I think you can do something similar.  Email correspondence
or phone calls to knoweldgeable folks (Eric, Bill, Scott at Ten Tec) can be
equally helpful. 

I hope I've given you some food for thought. 

Good Luck, REgards &73, 

Eric W3DQ 
Washington, DC 

(btw, I left Iridium just before last year's Dayton Hamvention and now
work for the US government -- much calmer!)

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 18:19:05 -0200 
>From: PY5EG <py5eg at iesa.com.br>  
>Subject: RES: [Orion] ORION PERFORMANCE  
>To: "'eric at k3na.org'" <eric at k3na.org>, Bill Tippett
<btippett at alum.mit.edu>, orion at contesting.com, PY5EG <py5eg at iesa.com.br>
>
>Hi Eric:
>Thanks for your comments. I appreciate that very much.
>
>I´m operating with this rig for about 4 months, and no way to get good
>results. Probably my Orion has some problem.
>
>I did read all reports on the adjustment with AGC, NR, roofing filters, 
>BW and PBT, and the reception still not good comparing with the MArk V.
>Others operators came to my shack at the same contest. People who are
>using YAESU and ICOM, and all of them didn´d like the ORION.
>Thanks and 73
>Oms
>