[TenTec] BCC Orion Test against 746PRO

[Rick Westerman]

Hi Adam,

Here is Rick - the guy who tested the two rigs.

Yes, in the meantime many OM's have questioned me about which rig
I tested.

Please allowme to shed some light on the test and why there is
some confusion about the Icom.

Dieter and I set out to test the Orion against a couple ok
"known" rigs.
We used my K2 and Dieter's 746PRO.

I am very familiar with the K2 and have never used a 746PRO
before.

Let me assure you and everyone reading this that the rig was
indeed a PRO but NOT a PRO II or an older 746.

I made the statement about cascading SSB crystal filters and that
was based on my assumption that the PRO was built like the 746
(without the PRO), meaning crystal filters at both IF
frequencies.  That's the rig I personally knew.

In the meantime I have learned that the PRO has:

a monolithic filter (FL231) at 64 MHz, two filters in the 455 kHz
IF (FL271 & FL272). These are ceramic filters.  And DSP filters
in the third IF at 36 kHz.

Regardless of the accuracy of my "guess" of the filter setup
(having used the rig for the first time), the results are as I
reported.

YES, perhaps I should have taken more time to look into the
IC746PRO, but hey guys, I can assure you, I was much more
interested in seeing how the Orion performs.  Sorry that my lack
of 101% perfection distracted some of your form the true context
of the message.

73
Rick
DJ0IP / NJ0IP