[TenTec] cw rcvr fundamentals

[Frank Brady]

Greetings to all of you lucky TenTec owners.

I hope this is the right forum for a question I cannot resolve because I 
haven't found a way to make an on-air comparison of my TS-140 and FT100D 
with a TenTec xcvr.

During a recent contest, while trying to dig VERY weak dx signals out of a 
pile of 9+20 contest guns and power line noise, I began to wonder if there 
was an affordable (used) rig out there that would do the job.

Problems this (CW only) operator hopes to solve:

With the only two solid state rigs I've owned, if the noise blanker 
threshhold is high enough to silence the power line buzz, then a strong 
signal almost anywhere on the band chops up the weak signal so bad I can't 
copy it.

With my narrow (250) CW filter, the ringing degrades copy almost as much as 
it helps.

I know a "notch filter" would be great, but is that an obsolete term with 
all of the new DSP enhancements and things like "Roofing Filters" (?)

SO.... my question is:
Is there a whole lot of difference between a "loaded" Omni 5 and the state 
of the art Orion when it comes to pulling that weak dx signal out of the 
line noise QRN and strong signal QRM?

73 and best of luck to you Orion "1" owners.

Frank W0ECS