[TenTec] Suggestions for N4PY/Orion Control Program

[James C. Garland]

Gang,
I've been using Carl's great program with my Orion for the past week and
wanted to offer some suggestions for future revisions. First, let me
confess that I'm not a power user, so some of my suggestions probably
would change with more experience. The idea is mostly to greatly
simplify the Radio View. IMHO there are too many buttons and
indicators, which make it hard to see at a glance the Orion's status.
There's a tradeoff between versatility and user-friendliness, and I'd
recommend more of the latter. Anyway here are ten suggestions,
offered in the spirit of constructive criticism.

1.Delete most of the indicators in the frequency display window (LSB,
filter BW, etc.) since these mostly duplicate information already
shown on highlighted buttons or sliders. The "VFOA" indicator
strikes me as minimally useful.

2. 12 filter bandwidths are too much of a good thing and clutter up
the panel. I'd reduce it to six.

3. Separate the STORE, SCAN, RECALL buttons from the filter
bandwidth buttons. The buttons are the same shape and clustered with
the filter buttons, which is confusing.

4.Delete the AGC threshold slider, since the threshold can be set in
the Settings menus. For most (not all) users, the AGC threshold is a
set-and-forget adjustment. Personally, I'd also get rid of the noise
limiter and notch fliter sliders, or at least make them
optional. Large, well-separated On/Off buttons for ANL, NR, etc.
would be sufficient for most people. The sliders should be reserved
for frequently used functions, such as keyer speed, volume, transmit
power, etc.

5. Have provisions in the Settings menus for blanking out buttons
which aren't frequently used (such as the previous example) by many
people. Another example would be the AccInp button. The
attenuator/preamp buttons are confusing, since it's not clear what
they do from looking at the label.

6. Eliminate the VFOA buttons and VFOB buttons, which up/down step
the frequencies when clicked with the mouse. Instead, one could
up/down step the frequencies by moving the cursor over the desired
frequency display and left or right clicking, as desired. As I
recall, the Kachina software did this and it was very convenient.

7.Separate the tuning step buttons from the AGC buttons.Grouping them
together is confusing, since they pertain to different functions.

8. Simplify the band selector buttons. Thirty-three band buttons is
too many! I'd get rid of the separate CW and SSB bands and use the
band-stacking register concept that Yaesu and Icom use. Thus, one
would press, say, a single 20m band button, and then repeated presses
would toggle through two or three different band segments within the
20m band. For SWL use, I'd use a single SWL button, with a drop-down
menu to select the particular band.

9.The Control Bar at the top of the sceen has a mish-mash of
functions. The MUTE button should be a large button near the volume
controls on the front panel. The SPEECH (processor) button should
also be on the front panel. The EXIT button is unneeded.

10. Delete the FWD-REF-SWR button to the left of the S-Meter and
instead use a Settings menu for this option. It's a confusing button,
since it refers only to the meter scale during transmit, and yet most
of the time sits next to the receive S-meter. The Kachina handled
this problem very well.

I know that one can't please everybody, and that some users will
dislike some of my suggestions. Generally, however, I think it's
better to provide a simple, easy-to-use instinctive layout. One of
the problems of the Orion is that it's not a very intuitive radio to
use. The LCD menus aren't designed very well, and it requires too
many button pushes to do simple things (like change the mode). Seems
to me Carl's program has the potential to solve many of these shortcomings.

So that's my pitch. Now I'll get off my soapbox.

73,

Jim Garland W8ZR


*************************
James C. Garland, President
Miami University
http://www.muohio.edu/president/
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