[TenTec] Orion and phase noise

[John Rippey]

The ARRL lab has found the Orion's transmitted phase noise to be the lowest 
of any rig ever tested there. It's -140 db/Hz from the get-go. If I read 
the ARRL Handbook correctly (2004 edition), transmitted phase noise is a 
critter that is much harder to tame than receiver phase noise because you 
can use crystal filters in the receiver signal chain to limit the bandwidth 
getting to the IF, etc. So going by this reasoning, the engineers at 
Ten-Tec have set a new very high bar on transmitted signal junk while the 
RECEIVER phase noise of the Orion must be below the ability of any lab to 
measure . . . (?)

But what does this get you when the airwaves are full of solar and man-made 
junk? Looking at past ARRL Lab reports, all but the ICOM PROs show quite a 
lot of transmitted phase noise. So in a contest, such as the upcoming 160 
meter deal, there are lots of signals transmitting a lot of junk. Nirvana 
would be if all the contestants were using Orions, or ICOM Pros, but 
they're not. So the wonderful low phase noise of the Orion's receiver sits 
there underneath all the signal traffic that is being received and processed.

Isn't the end result that a receiver with much less attractive phase noise 
numbers can probably perform just as well as the Orion in the current noisy 
signal environment? Is this truer for phone than CW?

Am I missing something?

73,
John, W3ULS