[TenTec] Orion bug video AND important information from ON6CV

[Toby Pennington]

Good news Eric!  This also needs to be reposted on e-ham.  Toby W4CAK

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric SENSI" <eric.sensi at skynet.be>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 5:15 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Orion bug video AND important information from ON6CV


> Hi,
>
> On this "bug" video, the VFO A is a little bit "out of band", okay, but 
> the
> problem is not coming from this fact because the Orion is a radio which 
> can
> transmit 10KHz up and down of band edges (from firmware 1.328 to cover 
> some
> MARS frequencies).
>
> What is strange with what you said is that : how the radio knows that you
> are "out of band" ? These limits are not programmed into the radio, band
> limit is just a "human decision". The 40m band, for example, in the USA is
> not the same than in Europe, on "your" upper 40m band whe, in Europe have 
> a
> broadcast segment, and for us, it is totally impossible to communicate
> starting at 7.105Khz (the first BC station there with bunch of KW !). I 
> mean
> that "out of band" for me is not specially "out of band" for you and vice
> versa !
>
> The problem was the same on any band, in the band or, like in that video, 
> a
> little bit out of the limit, but don't search there for the cause.
>
> Anyway... now the good news !
>
> To be frank, before sending the radio back to the dealer as I don't give 
> up
> so easily (Hi !), I put the radio back on the table, I uploaded the 1.370
> firmware, doing a master reset and RAM clear procedure as explained by my 
> TT
> dealer... then I uploaded the latest firmware (1.371) again, master reset,
> RAM clear procedure, etc...
>
> When I started playing with the Orion, I recorded my callsign and a DX 
> call
> into the "send 1" and "send 2" DV memory.
>
> Send 1 was "CQ DX From Oscar November Six Charlie Victor" for a total of
> 3.26sec
> Send 2 was simply "Oscar November Six Charlie Victor" for a total of 
> 2.30sec
>
> I started making some contacts (finally !) and from time to time, I pushed
> the "send 1" or "send 2" regarding the situation and the radio NEVER fails 
> !
>
> I did NOT experienced any screen layout bugs at all - sometimes the layout
> was messy after leaving the MENUS.
>
> I did NOT experienced anything strange with the sweep display which was 
> NOT
> showing the peaks even when a 20dB over S9 signal was detected ! I
> experienced this strange thing only on the 40m band, but I must recognize
> that the sweep display is not mandatory at all for me, and of course not
> very useful on the 40m band where there's lot of activity !
>
> I did NOT experienced any receiver/transmitter crash after using the DV
> memory buttons even at full power.
>
> By the way, I think that the problems are gone for good now (I keep my
> fingers crossed) because this radio is "THE" radio that meets my demand at
> 100%. It is a joy to operate, very easy to me, well layed out to my 
> opinion,
> two real receivers (not the case on my FT-1000MP), menus are in plain
> english so don't need the manual to decipher what you're changing, really
> love the continuously variable bandwith in any mode, the optical encoders
> are a great idea to me - love that and much, much more.
>
> Now, a question, do I have to apologize for what I've written last week on
> my Orion ? No, I don't think so because the problems were real problems,
> this was not my fault in any way, I'm using a nice power supply (Kenwood
> PS-52) and a ground connection made by a specialist, RF feedback is almost
> impossible here with tuned antennas and remember, the DV memory crashed 
> also
> with a power as low as a value of "1" !
>
> A word on the manual, this 61 pages document is, IMHO, the best manual 
> I've
> read so far !
>
> There's everything in it to learn the radio, arranged in a very logical 
> and
> simple manner, well written with lots of explanations regarding the AGC
> system and Hi-fi SSB transmissions, etc...
>
> The kind of manual which I am able to write if I were to do it !
>
> Voila, that's all for now, hope my message will bring some peace in the
> forum. :-)
>
> To all, best regards and thanks for reading this long information.
>
> 73's, Eric de ON6CV.
>
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