[TenTec] My Orion

[Lee A Crocker]

>I would like to close my part of this thread because
there 
are several new methods available to get my problems
resolved, with which I  am 
proceeding at this time. Once the problems are
resolved, I would be glad to 
share the information with anyone interested<

Now this is something worth writing about.  Solutions.
  I for one will be interested in your solutions to
your particular application.  

Tommy, apologize if I was a bit short, but I note
there is a thrice a week requisite rant (not
necessarily from you) regarding the "reliability" of
this radio that hasn't been "fixed" in over a year. 
To what end is this thrice a week rant?  Does it make
the new code come out any faster?  Does it increase
the reliability of the radio?  Is the state of the art
advanced?  

I'm not sure a "software" driven system of this type,
that is a consumer grade hobby radio, will ever have
the "reliability" that seems to be expected as a given
by some participants on the list.  This radio is never
going to be a 75S3.  By its very nature the system is
a digital approximation of a multiple analogue
systems, and as such it will have implementation
errors that are worse than the analogue systems it
models.  That is the engineering constraint of this
kind of system.  The advantage of the system is its
vastly increased flexibility in what is implemented. 
An example is the variability of bandwidths and the
quality of close in rejection of adjacent signals, a
remarkable engineering feat.  Try implementing that on
your 75S3.

You can tweak the firmware to gain some marginal
improvement, but the processing power and the A/D is
fixed, and short of plugging more powerful hardware
there will be ONLY marginal improvement in the radio. 
The Orion is not going to be 100% "better" a year from
now than it is today.  If that is the expectation,
then my expectation is we will be treated to another
ten years of thrice weekly rants, while waiting for it
to get "fixed".

If this is the case, then I think choosing more
appropriate hardware is the rational solution to the
problem.  One advantage of a crystal diode radio is
that it always works.  It is essentially 100%
reliable.  Of course the disadvantage is that there
isn't much choice in what you hear.  A 75S3 is a
"reliable" radio except when the tubes go out, and you
can't find replacement tubes and it needs to be
aligned and its drifting down the band, etc. etc.  If
you try to drive a Ferrari as you would a 4x4 you will
be stuck on the first sand dune.  Each system has its
own shortcomings.  

Again my heart felt apology and my best to you in your
endeavor to solve your particular communication
problem.

As to this radio being a gas, I'm an anesthesiologist
so that's how I spend my day, sitting on a stool
passin' gas.

73

W9OY