[TenTec] Omni VI Plus freq. readout

[Steve Ellington]

I've found this thread to be enlightening. Over the years we have seen huge
improvements in dial accuracy with and TenTec has been no exception. From
their PowerMite series with virtually no accuracy to the Jupiter with 1hz
digital readout. The highly revered Omni 6+, a $3,000 rig, used technology
carried over from earlier models resulting in low phase noise but suffering
from microchirp, slight drift and readout inaccuracy that further
deteriorates with crystal aging. I find this to be factual and worthy of
discussion, not melancholy.
My favorite rigs are the Omni C and Delta 580. Why? Purity of cw reception.
There is no phase noise, hiss, filter ringing or harshness. I can listen to
cw as if it were fine music for hours without fatigue. Static is not an
annoying racket but a soothing, gentle crackle in the background. Do these
rigs have shortcomings? You better believe it! I only wish these rigs had
all the modern features like internal tuners, DSP, memories, accurate dials
and memory keyers but such is not the case. The old Delta's readout varies
several khz from band to band. I'm installing a fancy digital readout from
Almost All Electronics that cures this problem but guess what? ...While
solving the accuracy problem, it produces some birdies so I'm building an
amplifier between the new readout and xtal oscillator to help isolate them.
So my point is this. Some threads interest some of use and some don't. I
hate threads about Heil microphones. They keep popping up but I realize
there are bunches of TT owners who want to use them, for some reason, so I
don't complain. The Omni 6 has always frustrated me. I've had 2 of them.
They have great receivers but cw doesn't sound a pure as my older TT rigs
and keying was far inferior. QSK smoothness varies between Omni 6 units,
some being quite smooth and other producing clicks and other strange noises
in the speaker. In my opinion, TT kept adding features until they totally
ruined the rig. So now they have starter all over with a clean slate and
thus the Pegasus. The Pegasus seems to have cured the microchirp, dial
accuracy, choppy qsk and crystal aging problems but suffers from phase noise
on both transmit and receive. The Jupiter is just a repackaged Pegasus and I
don't detect any improvement. So here comes the Orion and Argo V. Let's see
what happens.
73

Steve Ellington N4LQ.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Farson" <farson@shaw.ca>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 6:09 PM
Subject: RE: [TenTec] Omni VI Plus freq. readout


> Gentlemen,
>
> Is it not high time we gave this melancholy thread the decent burial it so
> richly deserves?
>
> Best 73,
> Adam, VA7OJ/AB4OJ
> North Vancouver, BC, Canada
> http://www.qsl.net/ab4oj/
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>