[TenTec] RE: [Orion] ORION PERFORMANCE

[BarryG]

 I also generally agree with Eric's settings, with perhaps the one exception being my use of narrower bandwith.  The widest I went all weekend in CQ WW SSB was 1650hz and in a few cases went down to 1500hz.  The Orion's receiver has the most intelligible audio at narrow filtering of all rigs I've ever encountered.  As mentioned, the use of significant +PBT is essential (+200). Also, I tended to use less (none) AGC hang and slower AGC decay. I'd like to try Bill's suggestion of RX EQ in the next SSB contest, perhaps -10dB or so. The Orion's transmitter wasn't mentioned, but I find the speech compressor excellent (I set to 8). In summary, the Orion is a superb ssb contesting rig.  The subreceiver holds up as well for SO2V dual receive use and N1MM Logger is a great tool for assisted SO2V operation. 73,Barry N1EU--- On Wed 11/03, Bill Tippett < btippett at alum.mit.edu > wrote:From: Bill Tippett [mailto: btippett at alum.mit.edu]To: tentec at contesting.com, orion at contesting.comDat
 e: Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:17:05 -0500Subject: [TenTec] RE: [Orion] ORION PERFORMANCEEric you accidentally posted this to Ten-Tec instead ofOrion, so I'm copying your post below for benefit of theOrion reflector. Your settings are quite similar to mine forSSB contesting, so I'll just note differences:a. Agree.b. Agree. I've even gone to 1600 Hz at times.c. Agree. I also set RIT -100 when doing S&P tocompensate for rapid zero-beating when I typicallyundershoot on USB. LSB would be opposite (+100).I also set Audio RX EQ -15dB which "processes"received audio to have enhanced highs (like a HeilHC-4 in receive).d. Mostly agree. Threshold for my 10m stack is typically4uV or higher. On the low bands, Threshold would be MUCHhigher. I set Decay a bit lower (30 uV) and vary Hangdepending on conditions, typically 0.30 (default) to 0.04.e. Agree except I've found the HW NB improves S/Nnoticeably when the band is almost dead (early AMand late PM). Of course it should never be used whenth
 ere are strong signals present (which is never thecase at the times I mentioned).f. Agree. AN is sometimes useful for CB carriers orintentional QRM on 10, but I would turn it off as soonas possible.I'm amazed how similar our SSB setups arefor contesting!73, Bill W4ZV>Well, I'm going to stick my neck out on the reflector and describe what I have been using for SSB contests. Probably some otherpeople can point out how my settings can be improved.a) In the "Filters" menu, turn off auto-select and force the use of the 1.8 kHz filter. (Don't forget to revert back to auto forCW - hi!)b) Set bandwidth to ~2000 Hz, according to degree of band crowding and your taste. I've run the bandwidth all the way down to 1700Hz in horrible crowding. On a less congested band like 10m, I'll open it up to 2100 or 2200.c) Set passband tuning +150-200 Hz. This shift compensates for the narrow filter choice to improve intelligibility.d) AGC: use "prog" setting with parameters like these:AGC Hang: 
 I tend to keep this short, <0.20 seconds, in a contest on a crowded band, where I want to be able to at least hearthe presence of a weak caller in the gaps between loud signals overlapping my listening frequency. 0.12 seems OK, and I've evenused 0.00. This is certainly not a good setting for conversational QSOs.AGC Decay: I run pretty fast decay, again to allow the AGC to drop down quickly to catch a weak stations. ~50 dB/s seems OK.This is definitely NOT a conversational setting!AGC threshhold: I start with this value at its maximum (191.48 microvolt), and reduce it until I start to hear band noise justcome up on an empty frequency. Tune outside of the band if no empty frequency can be found. On a very crowded band like 40m, Iwill use an even larger setting. There is no value, and some harm, in setting this parameter too low on a band full of loudsignals. Set it just low enough to reliably copy the weakest signal detectable among the QRM or QRN. This value is the mostvar
 iable -- it depends on conditions, local noise, and your antenna in use on the band.e) NR and NB: off unless absolutely necessary. Why do m
 ore processing on the signal than one needs?f) AN: I leave this off unless I encounter a situation where a notch filter is needed. Same idea: do the least amount ofprocessing on the signal for the conditions.I'm looking forward to hearing others weigh in...73,-- Eric K3NA-----Original Message-----From: Eric Rosenberg [mailto:wd3q at starpower.net]Sent: 2004 November 3 15:54To: eric at k3na.orgSubject: RE: [Orion] ORION PERFORMANCEEric --Can you be more specific about your changes?As I said in my email, I lose track of my expectations... and then getmessed up trying to figure out if the radio sounds as good as it should!Parameters like NR (which was great on the Omni-6+) just didn't seemright to me; I haven't gotten the hang of the AGC, nor do I reallyunderstand the HW NB and the H vs L in re: PBT.I suspect I'll eventually get there...Eric_______________________________________________Orion mailing listOrion at contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/orion

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