[TenTec] New Orion

[Toby Pennington]

Skip, The display on the Orion should come up each time you power up with 
the same look and contrast. Be sure your power supply is capable of  25 Amps 
and is working properly.

You need to set up your band stacking registers. There are four for each 
band.  Program the registers with the appropirate mode and BW setting, and 
the Orion will remember these setting when you go back.  I have one setting 
on each band set up for CW mode and 500hz BW, set up of course down in the 
cw protion of each band. Then If you have the registers all set up you just 
push your band stacking register for a particular band. Repeated pushes of 
the band  selection button goes through all four of the registers on each 
band. ie/ Push the 20 meter button four times to go through your band 
stacking register memories. There are also the regular memories but I will 
not get into that here. I don't have Carl's program so don't know how all 
that will work with his program.


The sales dept. and the repair dept.at Ten-Tec are always very responsive. I 
would suggest that you just pick up the phone and call for what ever dept. 
you need to talk with. E-mails are slower and the phone is more immediate 
and more useful. I have been on the phone with the repair dept. for up to 30 
to 45 minutes on occasion. That's a long time for any business to tie up one 
person on the phone, but TT is a very customer service oriented business.

I wish you luck with your new purchase -- It seems you are sounding more 
positive. I think after you learn the radio you will be well please d with 
the Orion.  Toby W4CAK


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "skip" <k3cc at fast.net>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 10:09 PM
Subject: [TenTec] New Orion


>I have contacted Ten Tec sales department and e-mailed them about the
> problems when I opened the box.  I have not received any reply from them.
> The sales department was sort of indifferent or maybe this is par for Ten
> Tec.
>
> Many years ago I used the 509 Argonaut and loved it.
>
> Yes, I have found the front key input where I put my bug  the question of
> mic's well I have as many as I use.  As for the Orion I use a Heil boom
> setup.
>
> The display problem still bothers me.  If you set the contrast and leave 
> the
> radio on for a few hours it's fine.  The next day when you turn it back on
> it needs to be adjusted agn.
> Is this normal.
> Oh, as for color, B/W is fine if it's stable.
>
> The Orion is a very simple radio to use with a well laid out panel.  Once
> you have set all the controls you don't need to go back and reset them
> unless conditions change drastically.
> I guess I have a newer manual, it tells me enough, however it's very poor
> for a newer ham or older ones with very little DSP experience.  I don't
> remember if you get a schematic ?????
>
> I use Carl's software, it's very helpful because you can set multi 
> controls
> using the slide pots on screen.
>
> I'm amazed at the antenna tuner.  The noise, sounds like relays clicking 
> in
> and out rather then an inductor tuning. It works very well over a wide 
> range
> of impedances. Although slow.
>
> Roofing filters:  I'm going with the Inrad filters.  I did get a 500hz Ten
> Tec filter installed from the factory to start with.
>
> The receive performance has been excellent in cw use.  I have not heard 
> any
> AGC pumping as with the Icom 756 ProII among strong stations.  Weak 
> stations
> pop out of the noise with the Noise reduction with no distortion or 
> pinging
> caused by the DSP.
> My only issue was with higher speed CW and the agc set to fast.  I have to
> practice to get it the way I like it.  That's the beauty of the rig with
> it's many states of tuning.
>
> SSB has been fun.  I have a very low voice and I had to adjust the 
> controls
> for my voice.  It sounds very natural and looks nice on my scope, an old
> Yaesu YO 100.
>
> Another question, the mode doesn't change all the time when I switch 
> bands.
> If I'm working CW on 80 and change to the 20 mtr cw band the mode goes to
> SSB.  Is this normal ?????  Has anyone noticed this ????  Also, if I tune
> from the SSB portion to the CW portion pf the same band it stays in the 
> SSB
> mode.
>
> Well, that's my 2 weeks worth.
>
> de Skip    K3CC
>
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