[TenTec] OMNI V Questions

[Tim and Nancy Logan]

Hi Folks - 

I've been in Ham for about a year. I had a K2 built for me last fall as
my first rig. I recently sold it so that I could build one myself
(coming along nicely BTW). A few months back I bought my Omni V. It was
bought from Ten-tec and has a complete compliment of filters aimed at
the CW user. When I got it, I replaced the Ten-Tec 2.4 filters with
Inrad 10 pole 2.4 filters. Otherwise it is stock.

With that background here are my questions:

1 - On CW, which is 99% of my operating, the Omni is a DREAM. The last
month or so I've been listening to SSB, just for fun, and it seems as is
there is always a great amount of static......far more than I ever
remember hearing on my K2. I never had my K2 during the summer. Is it
likely that summer propagation is just been full of a LOT of static or
is a fair amount of static characteristic of the OMNI on SSB? I simply
don't have enough experience and years of operating to know what's
propagation and what's my rig. My other rigs don't have SSB (a K1 and an
OHR500) - so I cannot compare. I have a quiet horizontal loop antenna. I
don't generally backoff the RF gain. Other controls are set per manual.
What's the best way to reduce static on OMNI SSB?

2 - Squelch- the squelch control has two positions - you hear everything
or total silence. When, if ever, is it ever useful, or do I need to
learn something about its use here?

3 - Noise Blanker - same here. It either shuts out everything (ie
silence) or nothing. Can someone give me insight here?

Thanks in advance. The experience of all you folks on this net is a
goldmine.

Regards, Tim Logan KB7OEX