[TenTec] Orion SSB Challenge: why no Orions heard?

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

Maybe they were all bought up by contesters so you never hear them because they are intended to be
rigs for competitive operating.  To put it another way, if 95% of my operating were just hanging out
with the guys on the phone ragchew bands (these days 20 - 160) which BTW is 95% of my operating, I'd be running a ragchew rig, something $1.5K less.  So, since casual ragchewing is where hams talk about their rigs and listeners find out what they are running and the Orion isn't a rig for that, you don't hear about them.  They may be on the air, but in pileups and guys saying CQ contest over and over again.  Just out of curiousity, for everyone who owns an Orion but isn't into dx paper chasing and contesting, but mostly ragchews, why did you purchase such a high end rig?

Rob Atkinson
K5UJ