[TenTec] Orion QSK

[Joseph Trombino Jr]

Howdy fellow TenTec'ers:

Interesting discussion going about QSK in the Orion with the new 1.370
version.

In my OMNI VI/3, Argonaut II and Argonaut V the fastest QSK settings
produced real QSK...that is, I could hear characters/audio noise between
dits.

Under high QRM conditions this was too fast and caused audio
artifacts/clicking/clacking between dits during keying.

The SLOW QSK setting on my Argo II was perfect in countering the above
effects.  My Argo V's next delay setting completely eliminates QSK....there
need to be more steps between full QSK and less than full QSK.  This is
something I have sent to "ditsnbits"....the engineers response indicated it
required too much work to make it possible.

I just tested my Orion with 1.369.  I used no AGC, no sidetone, no NR,  no
AN, no notch.

Turning up my audio on the Orion I could hear audio between dits only up to
18 wpm as indicated on my Super CMOS III keyer.  This was with "0" delay on
the Orion.

I checked next my K2.  With no delay I could hear audio between dits up to
40wpm using the same keyer.

Does the above procedure really check for full QSK???  It seems to, and
given the performance of my K2 it indicates to me that the Orion is not
operating at full QSK even with "0" delay.

In previous discussions with TenTec techs about QSK they state they never
really measure for "less than 20ms" TX to RX return speed.  They design the
gear for that speed but no discrete measurement is made to validate the QSK
speed.

Thinking about this, I recall never hearing full QSK on the Orion going back
to the original version of software.  Hmmmmm.

Comments are welcome.

                                                73, Joe W2KJ