[TenTec] Omni VI+ classic

[SS409SS at aol.com]

   For lack of a better example, I can say this.. As a young and silly ham I hadnt a clue what a good radio was.. I was more interested in bells and whistles and not what TT had to offer in the way of RX performance. I had the opportunity to bring my TS-850 back then to the home of a friend with an Omni V and compare the two.. 

  Holy $%it, it sounded like I was mixing cement with my 850 when compared to the rx on the Omni V. I was sold!! I then went and bought my first TT, it was an Omni VI which just came out a few months before and at first I thought it was broken, I didnt hear anything thru the speaker and immediately became concerned that I made a bad decision. Being used to the "cement mixer" I once had, I soon found out that I had to actually turn the VFO on the VI to get it to pick up stations on the band, anything else would yield pure silence. 
    When I first picked up a station, I practically jumped from my chair as the radio came alive and blared full blast with a freshly tuned QSO on 20m. Since then its difficult to listen to other radios with noisy rx's. I become annoyed and fatigued easily as the TT rx has spoiled me and "tuned" my brain to listen a certain way. Anyone who owns an OMNI V,VI or Corsair series knows what I speak of.  There are a few radios (ie. FT1000)which match the rx quality of the TT but most others cant hold a candle to it. 

 The one thing I did find out  was that I liked the VI better than the VI+. I found that my VI was much quieter as it lacked the generated internal noise from the added DSP unit and some cpu chirps from the logic board when pressing keys on the + model. May have been just my VI+ but your perception becomes that good when making the swith from one TT to another.. 

  I will never buy one of those high end Icoms or Yaesu's, there is simply no need to spend 10-15k on a radio when the performance of a TT is available to you for 1/3 the price. In fact one can make due with a used Omni series and enjoy the same if not better rx quality the newer radios boast about in their ads.. I am not much of a contester, but I appreciate a good quality radio that performs well on the bands... TT fits the bill.. Richy N2ZD


In a message dated 7/12/2004 1:47:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "Rob Atkinson, K5UJ" <k5uj at hotmail.com> writes:

><<<While its always nice to hear another Omni VI on the air whose owner 
>loves it, I've never quite understood why they didn't outsell everything 
>made by the import radio companies.>>>