[TenTec] guide to adjusting Orion receiver; filters and performance

[Jim Reid]

Carl, N4PY,  wrote:


> Maybe noise is the difference.  I live out in the country 
> and in very quiet radio location.

Same,  but on sort of an isolated island,  hi.  Anyway,
just now,  mid-afternoon,  my noise levels on the
20 meter band (using a little C3,  2 el. beam) and
on the 40 meter band (using a tuner matched 132
foot center fed doublet) are the same: about
S1 to 1.5,  or something like -118 dBm or so
(estimated using the very accurately calibrated
Ten Tec RX-340's S meter which is calibrated
in dBm) or around 0.3uV or so.  And,  on the same
doublet,  matched on 80 meters,  the noise level
is about S2,  or 0.4uV,  -115dBm,  these at
2:45 in the afternoon,  HST (00:45 UTC).  These
are the usual noise levels here.  How do those
compare to yours,  Carl?

I also find Carl's AGC settings to be very satisfactory;
and I have tried Sinisa's settings in his "Using Orion's
Receiver" posting.  Problem was,  I never had enough
noise to achieve the 2 S unit or so noise deltas with
the antenna connected or terminating the Orion in my
Bird dummy load!  Just too quiet out here,  or........ am
I still doing something incorrectly?

Anyway,  my 2cents on that topic.

BTW,  don't ever push either the User 1 or User 2
buttons UNLESS you have read the manual and
know what they do/how to set them up.  Should
you have the rig just the you want it (all adjustments
to your pleasure) and you inadvertently push one
of those buttons ---------- blam,  you are back
to some sort of default,  factory settings,  I guess,
and no way have I found to recover where things
were before!!  Doing that wiped out everything I
had set up for the stacking registers in every band,
and all the stuff that stays the same when changing
bands,  etc.  Just all was gone!

73,  Jim  KH7M