[TenTec] omni vI plus

[Duane A. Calvin]

The speed of the processor in your PC makes absolutely no difference on
the performance of the interface to the Omni (or ICOM, for that matter)
unless it is a 16 MHz or slower one - and then not much of anything will
run well - HI!  I guess I shouldn't even say that as I know someone who
is using an old IBM PS/2 286 for his shack and he's pleased with it.  The
serial port interface speed is set independently of the processor speed,
so you don't need to be worried about that.

>From my viewpoint, I like the Omni VI+ just fine so far.  It has a
noticeably lower noise floor than my previous rig which I really liked
(IC-765).  I have found what I think are a couple bugs in the firmware
related to RIT/XIT and REV functions, and T-T is looking at those.  (Only
one RIT value regardless of VFO, and REV switch results in correct main
freq readout but the actual receive freq is ~300 Hz off the displayed
value.)  These should be relatively easy to fix, I suspect.  Otherwise,
compared to the IC-765, I would prefer if the Omni had:  1) SSB monitor,
2) variable passband tuning instead of "IF shift", 3) IF notch, and 4) RF
speech processor.  That said, I've found I may no longer need my JPS
NIR-12 since the main use I've found for DSP's is random noise reduction
and the Omni's NR is superb.  Likewise on the auto-notch.  The receive
sensitivity is wonderful, and the receiver is a joy to listen to (my
IC-765 had so much "sizzle" in the IF/audio chain that a DSP was required
to reduce stress during long operating runs).  Ergonomically, I'd like
buttons that "stick out" more as the ones used are relatively flat to the
front face.  But that is a nit.  Programmability of so many features from
the front panel is great.  Sidetone setting with offset tracking is
perfect.  Overall, I rate it as an upgrade to my IC-765, something I was
worried would not be the case.  Oh, I use it with a Heil boomset on SSB
and have found there to be no problem other than a little less gain than
needed on the VOX - but then I'm not much of a VOX user, and had the same
problem on the IC-765 with this mike element (HC-5).  I haven't tried the
settings posted by someone here on the reflector recently, but plan to
check them out.

I guess you could say that after four days use, I'm pretty happy with the
rig so far.  The CQ WW CW DX this weekend should tell me all I need to
know about selectivity, weak signal performance in high QRM, etc.  So
far, so good.  Hope this is useful to someone as I was looking for this
kind of "subjective" information before I made my purchase.

	73, Duane

Duane A. Calvin, AC5AA
ac5aa@Juno.com -or- duanec@prodigy.net
Day:  dcalvin@austin.ibm.com

On Thu, 27 Nov 1997 11:26:02 -0700 john hall <teila@amigo.net> writes:
>does the OMNI VI PLUS Interface with the faster pentium computers? I'm 
>
>thinking about getting a used one (already own a Paragon).I'd 
>appreciate 
>any of your feedback on this,and how you like the radio.>John Hall 
>N0JWJ
>
>
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