[TenTec] Two week observations

[Gary Tuck]

I'm just back on the air after an absence of more than half dozen 
years.  I now live in an antenna restricted area so built an 80 m loop 
using #18 copperweld which is nearly invisible and with the apex up a 
tall fir tree.  I only run 100w from this QTH.  Have had the Orion for 
two weeks and have the following observations and adjustments I've 
made:

1. Screen darkening.  As my rig warms up the upper left quadrant starts 
to darken.  Adjusting the contrast from 50% to 55% takes care of it for 
a while.  Finally I tried going from the black on white screen to the 
white on black screen and not only found the darkening affect to be 
much less noticeable but the screen easier to look at for hours.  White 
on black is now my default.

2. AGC pop on attack of strong signals--overshoot?---I'd experienced 
this on a TS 940 and on a TS 850 to a lesser degree. I added 100 ohm 
resistor in each of the hot leads of my favorite headphones--HS-6- 
after rewiring for stereo.  That helps.  Unless I am trying to work a 
weak signal with strong signals in the passband, I've added .3 seconds 
hang and typically use 10 db decay.  Receiver gain doesn't return as 
quickly and the pop is lessened.

3. Clicks and thumps between words and elements in QSK.  This is the 
most annoying of the issues.  I find it very distracting while sending. 
  It appears to be caused by how the receiver handles the quick return 
on a noisy band.  If the band is quiet or I'm transmitting into a dummy 
load, the sidetone is pure and no clicks/thumps.  So, I either adjust 
the AGC threshold to quiet the background noise,  adjust QSK delay to 
40% or more or desensitize the receiver with turning off the pre-amp if 
it is not necessary, use NR or whatever else seems to work.   I hate 
turning Ten Tec's famed QSK system into something like vox keying by 
adjusting the delay to the point where you cannot hear between 
characters and words.

4. While I don't  find any real use for the sweep function --I can't 
compete in a pile up anyway--I have found that if I start up with the 
NR function active, sweep works until the moment I turn the NR off.  
Then sweep freezes.

5. Unless I'm trying to work split a 1 kc or more, I find using the sub 
receiver to be very confusing.  When using the sub receiver, I 
typically have "Main" selected for the left earpiece and "Both" 
selected for the right earpiece.  That way I can hear the target 
station in both ears and the transmitting frequency in the right ear.  
If the separation between the frequencies is such that you can hear the 
same signal from both receivers--in your right ear but at slightly 
different frequencies, my brain gives up.  I've taken to using the main 
receiver alone in both ears, receive on VFO A, transmit on VFO B and 
switching momentarily to receive on VFO B when looking for the right 
transmit frequency.  This is akin to how I used  "T/F set" on the 
Kenwood rigs but they were frankly easier to use because the button was 
a momentary switch and you didn't have to change to a different VFO 
knob.  Ah well.  The Orion is so much better than the Kenwoods in many 
other ways. I understand that Carl's software makes this easier.

I am wondering how others have dealt with these issues.  In most cases, 
I got leads on how to handle them by searching the Archives.  For new 
Orion owners, a single discussion of these common ailments may be 
helpful.  I've heard there may other issues but only running barefoot 
and only CW, I've not encountered them.

Gary, W7TEA