[TenTec] E-Ham Bad Orion Review

[John L Merrill]

Bill Tippett wrote:

> KT0DD wrote:
>  >I am also amused by the posts on here By Sinisa Hristov...
> 
>         Todd, if you ever get to the point of actually owning
> an Orion, you will find Sinisa's article here of great help:
> 
> http://www.geocities.com/va3ttn/UsingOrionRX.pdf
> 
> I've owned my Orion since August 21 (a full 6 months prior
> to Sinisa's original publication of his article) and I found
> his comments on AGC to be extremely helpful.  Although I had
> discovered most of the issues he identifies with Threshold,
> I was unaware of the effect Decay and Hang can have when
> copying extremely weak signals (bottom of page 4).  On balance,
> I believe Sinisa's comments have been far more helpful than
> harmful.  I sincerely appreciate them and hope he will continue
> the contributions he has made.
> 
>         I normally wait at least one full year before purchasing
> a new electronic product of any kind.  In the case of Orion, I
> decided that was unnecessary because of the firmware update
> capability, and I have not been disappointed.  Sure, there have
> been many issues, some major along with many minor ones, however
> the tradeoff of having a vastly superior front-end for
> contesting and low-band DX-ing was worth the trade-off to me.
> 
>         Regarding eHam reviews, I pay very little attention to them
> since they tend to be more of a beauty contest than actually
> based on any factual measurements.  If you want to read one
> of the most insightful reviews by a guy who has been doing these
> for years, read G3SJX's review in RSGB's June Radcom cited here
> previously.  Peter Hart has been testing radios for at least 15
> years using a very consistent methodology.  When he says what he
> did about Orion ("truly awesome performance" in the headline),
> I would pay a lot more attention to that, as well as measurements
> by Sherwood Engineering, ARRL and W8JI than some random review on
> eHam.
> 
>                                         73,  Bill  W4ZV
> 
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I think we get it that the radio has a great receiver, but someone ought 
to review it from an operational standpoint. There is more to a radio 
than the receiver.

John N1JM