[TenTec] Orion TX trouble

[Dick Green]

Saturday night, after one contact in the ARRL 160m contest, something went
wrong with my Orion's transmitter. It now produces no more than about 20W
output when set to 60W to drive the amp. Increasing power to 100W results in
no more than 50W output, and if I send a steady carrier at max power the ALC
light begins to flicker, the meter needle sways wildly back and forth, and
the power output fluctuates all over the place. I can hear some fizzing from
inside the rig.
 
I've tried master reset, firmware reload, memory clear (battery reset),
etc., etc. This does not appear to be a firmware problem. Tried a different
power supply, too. It looks like one of the finals is gone, something's
wrong in the driver chain, or something's wrong with the ALC circuit. No
obvious damage inside, though. Almost certainly the rig will have to go back
to Tennessee for Christmas :-(
 
I'll be calling Ten Tec on Monday, but meanwhile has anyone else seen
symptoms like this? What was the cause/cure?
 
Does anyone know whether Ten Tec plans to publish a service manual for the
Orion? Have they done so for other rigs?
 
BTW, it's kinda silly to have to post this to three different reflectors
(and get messages from three reflectors nearly every day!) Can we Orion
owners settle on one way to communicate with each other?
 
73, Dick WC1M