[TenTec] Orion "anomalies"

[Bill Ogden]

I have been using my Orion for about 6 months now and, like many, have noticed a few anomalies --- none of them really serious.  For example, my stereo CW reception seldom works.  (To my surprise, I did not like it when it did work.)  The wide range of anaomalies reported makes me wonder about the underlying programming. So many different little problems seem to point to problems in something very basic, such as a thread dispatcher or routines that save/restore system state.  I hope the next release clears up some of these erratic nits. 

One of my first comments about the Orion was, "Where is the RF gain control?"  The answer was, "The AGC is so wonderful that you do not need an RF gain control."  After trying to live with that situation (high RF gain, fooling with AGC parameters) I finally gave up.  I now operate with AF gain at full, AGC on "program" with the threshold set as low as possible, and use the Multi control as my basic gain control.  This performs well, but I have essentially lost the use of a Multi control (since it is now mostly dedicated to RF gain).

I would like to see the Cut controls moved to a menu function and the Cut knob put to better use, perhaps as an RF gain control.  I very seldom use the Cut control, and find the interaction between Cut, BW, and PBT offset to be a bit irritating.

Bill
W2WO