[TenTec] Orion Voice Memories

[Bob Henderson]

I am currently at F/W rev 1.366 and having tried the voice memories, I 
am struggling.

This is what I find:-

Recording to a voice memory is erratic.  Sometimes it records and 
sometimes it doesn't.  Sometimes in the recording process, things hang 
up and a reboot is necessary to clear the problem.

I successfully recorded my call as a voice message in Send 1.  Today it 
is still there and sometimes if I press Send 1 it is sent.  Sometimes 
the Orion switches to Tx and nothing is heard.  Sometimes when the 
message is finished the Orion comes back to receive and I can hear noise 
but no signals.  Again a reboot clears the condition.

This seems to be something of a mess.  Is anyone else sharing any of 
these experiences or should I just go back to paddling my key?  I 
haven't tried the message buffers on CW yet, as I use an external keyer.

Send1 and Send 2 memories appear to be fixed length at 4.54 seconds.  If 
you have a longer message that's tough.  If you have a shorter one, 
you're stuck on transmit until 4.54 seconds is up.  Is this kind of 
fixed length memory useful to you guys?  Shouldn't there at least be a 
message end control, so you can return to Rx when your message has ended 
rather than having to wait?

I've never been much of a phone man, so perhaps this is all down to 
operator incompetence and I should leave well alone!

Bob, 5B4AGN, P3F