[TenTec] Orion and mics

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

A few folks have stated that they run this or that sort of configuration and 
have never had any reports of any RF in their audio.  At the risk of 
becoming unpopular, I'd just like to use this as an opportunity to point out 
that while this may be certainly true, it's also possible that other hams in 
qsos were being too polite to say anything critical.

It's a fairly common problem.  I've read the mail on qsos before where a ham 
who sounded pretty bad got told he sounded great.  Some hams don't want to 
be the bearer of bad news, and do others a disservice by giving inaccurate 
audio reports, or maybe their ears aren't that critical to begin with.  In a 
way it's understandable--I've told some guys they sounded pretty bad, 
describing the sound and telling them what may be the problem and remedy, 
and receiving anger for my trouble.  I got great audio reports until a good 
friend in a qso told me I had problems with RF.  I investigated and he was 
right, and after a lot of reading about RF feedback and experimentation I 
cleaned it up.  If it hadn't been for him I'd have gone on operating with RF 
fuzzed speech.  I learned from that to listen to myself and get reports from 
a few guys whom I know will tell it like it is.

To anyone who has not done it, I advise monitoring your own signal and 
finding someone you can trust to give you a competent straight-shooting 
audio evaluation.  Bad news is unpleasant but getting things fixed is a 
pretty good feeling.

Rob Atkinson
K5UJ

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