[TenTec] My new ORION

Mon May 23 22:36:30 EDT 2005

Roger an all:

The Omni VI+ with the INRAD #765 will out perform most any radio on the 
market today.  Granted it doesn't have dual receivers and other options and 
variable  customizable configurations as many new radios possess,  but in 
real on-air performance there isn't anything better.

In my case, I have taken lots of pains to "de-birdie" the processor board to 
clean up the 15M, 12M & 10M bands.  With that done, if it's a signal 
arriving at the antenna port, it's heard.  I've also changed the BFO to TXCO 
devices which greatly improve stability and frequency accuracy.

Not bad for a 10+ year old radio design.

73
Bob, K4TAX

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Borowski" <K9RB at bellsouth.net>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] My new ORION

> Considering that Rolls Royce went into receivership in 1971 and was
> eventually acquired by Volkswagon, who spun the struggling company off to
> BMW in 1998 while Ford and Chevrolet div. of GM have been around since 
> their
> humble beginnings, I find the relevance of comparison a mute point.
> Icom has many other products of various cost and performance levels, which
> Rolls Royce had no low end products. The IC-7800 is their flagship, top 
> end
> transceiver, while TenTec has the Orion, which costs significantly less 
> but
> seems to fill the price notch for folks who don't mind waiting two and a
> half years and still having an unfinished product with a number of bugs
> which have gotten to a point that a total rewrite of the software package
> was decided to be necessary. Anyone who thinks that this will finally be 
> the
> answer to all your prayers is in for another disappointment. TenTec 
> doesn't
> have the deep pockets of ICOM, YAESU, KENWOOD, or some of the other
> manufacturers of Ham Transceivers.
> The biggest problem with the Orion is the fact that Doug Smith wasn't
> allowed to complete the project to perfection. With 2-3 years of R&D that
> went into the first prototypes and now another 2 1/2 years of production, 
> it
> seems that many folks are quite happy with their Orion's as they developed
> so far. Personally, I found the one I bought used, about a year ago, too
> cumbersome to comfortably set up and operate under all the various
> conditions and modes that I use. It was truly not user friendly and did 
> not
> respond as any other transceiver I ever used, making the learning curve 
> too
> steep for my old mind. There must be a lot of Orion advocates that are 
> quite
> a bit sharper than I, even after being in this hobby nearly 45 years now. 
> I
> also must commend them on their patience with the releases of software
> upgrades that actually turned out to be downgrades in quite a few cases.
> I have no real commitment to any one manufacturer and over the years, I've
> used more equipment made by different manufactures than most others I know
> with like seniority in this hobby. When the Orion was in my shack, I also
> had my trusty Omni VI Plus, my 12 year old Kenwood TS-950SDX, an Icom
> IC-7800, and a TS-830S. Every rig has all available options and filters as
> applicable, along with the SM-230 monitor/bandscope.
> Every review is somewhat subjective as to ergonomics, appearance,
> performance, and ease of operator use of all the design features as
> required, so I can only give my opinion, for what it may be worth.
> The Omni VI Plus is the leader of the pack in the reception of weak 
> signals.
> It is lacking in some of the desirable bells and whistles, especially the
> lack of dual VFO's, but is my favorite for CW DX'ing on 160 & 80 Meters.
> TenTec should have never discontinued the manufacturing of this 
> transceiver,
> but continued with more refinements as an Omni VII. It hears better than 
> all
> others but is very close in all but the most extreme conditions. I just
> ordered and received the #765 INRAD roofing filter kit for it, but due to
> other priorities, I haven't gotten around to installing it yet, but I
> anticipate even more versatility with this in conjunction with the TenTec
> #221 I've already got in my model 564 VI Plus
> The lack of the dual VFO has been overcome by using the Omni VI Plus as an
> external RX to the TS-950SDX, which has 150 watts output to amply drive my
> HF-2000 Amp, where 100 watts falls a bit short. The TS-950SDX is the top 
> dog
> for most everything else than weak signal CW DX'ing on 160 & 80 Meters, 
> but
> at times I've found it equal to the Omni VI Plus in that area. It has the
> best SSB audio, both RX and TX, with it's adjustable DSP and Comb 
> filtering.
> The ole TS-830S has a great low noise RX and plenty of goo on TX, but it 
> is
> circa 1980 and still requires "tuning" the 6146's to resonance. It's also
> needed its share of repairs over the decades and I have kept it around 
> more
> as a backup and the fact that it has a great receiver and isn't worth all
> that much on the used market today as most hams of the past couple of
> decades would not want to go through a tune up procedure whenever any 
> large
> excursion in frequency or band change was desired. I saved the IC-7800 for
> last. It is probably the fanciest transceiver I've ever had the 
> opportunity
> to have in my shack. The bandscope still didn't seem to equal that of the
> SM-230 and the display actually hurt my eyes. The rig did everything the
> specs indicated it would. I got it at a magnificent price, but still 
> nearly
> 3 times that of an Orion. As hard as I tried to like it, it looked more
> impressive than it actually worked. I even hooked it up to a Viewsonic 21"
> LCD monitor for awhile, but I think they went way overboard with bells and
> whistles, although still quite user friendly, I put it on an equal
> performance with the TS-950SDX and not quite as good with the total DSP 
> and
> I guess I like the sound of crystal filters. I actually broke even on the
> sale of it and that wasn't a bad experience.
> The Orion was also sold off as I just couldn't see myself waiting for more
> software upgrades when I felt it didn't hear any better than the Omni VI
> Plus or the TS-950SDX, nor did it have enough RF output to drive my amp to
> legal level. I'm probably talking about a fraction of a dB there, but 
> again,
> the Omni VI Plus, with a bit of tweaking, puts out about 115 watts, which
> seems to be just adequate to get 1500 watts output on every band without 
> the
> concern of overdriving or flat topping. I run the ALC with the TS-950SDX,
> but that seems to change a bit on some bands.
> Those who stuck in reading this so far, I hope you've gained some insight
> that the IC-7800 is not the ultimate answer to being the best transceiver
> available, but my feelings are that neither is the Orion, although I hope
> some day it may be. To those of you happy with their Orion's as they exist
> today, I am happy for you. Bottom line is that is exactly why some of us
> drive the brands and types of cars that we do. Some like GM, some Ford, 
> some
> Chrysler, and others might like the Rolls Royce. FYI, I once drove a 
> Silver
> Shadow Rolls Royce about a decade ago. Back then I owned a Goodyear
> certified Auto and Truck service center and had lots of opportunities in 
> the
> upscale neighborhood that my store was located to drive some real exotic
> vehicles. That included Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, and Roll's. The Rolls
> Royce was by far the nicest, smoothest, quietist vehicle I ever drove, but
> now we're quite far away from the subject and again it's all subjective 
> and
> we're all different in out likes and dislikes. FYI, I drive a Buick (with 
> an
> IC-706MKIIG).
> 73, -=Rog-K9RB=-
> A-1 Operator's Club, active all bands and modes.
> #1 DXCC Honor Roll - Mixed, Phone, and CW.
> 312 on RTTY, 5BWAZ, 5BWAS, 206 on 160M.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Joseph A. & Ruth O. Ryan" <ablee at bellsouth.net>
> To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 7:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] My new ORION
>
>
> I don't think comparing an Orion at $3,300 or so with an ICOM 7800 at,
> what, $11,000.00 is
> worthwhile.  To me it's like comparing a Ford or Chevrolet to a Rolls
> Royce...but then.....whatever
> rings your chime...I personally appreciate my Orion above all others....It
> replaced a Kenwood TS950SD.
> 73's
> Joe, KX4JR
>
> At 07:26 PM 05/23/2005, you wrote:
>>Grant,
>>1.I'm talking about narrow dynamic range as well.
>>Right now Orion will not handle week signal at 1kHz or 5kHz spacing from
>>the strong signal S9 +35dB. This is the fact.
>>Everything is distorted-period.I'm not talking about specification. This
>>is real life test with 1.372 firmware.
>>IC7800 will handle week signal under the same condition.
>>I know -I did it.
>>2. Orion will handle week signals close to strong one
>>perhaps even better than IC7800 but only with different firmware. I will
>>not go back to 1.371 I will take  new one 2.0.
>>3. I don't care about your radio I care about majority of Orion's with
>>1.372. This is known problem and Bill has described it very well.
>>4. Everybody would prefer to turn the function ON or OFF
>>with one PUSH of the botton-this is normal way.
>>You should not need to push "AN" first to get black backround on it and
>>than push it again to turn it "ON".
>>
>>Also, tell me how many times do you have to turn the knob
>>in order to lower  the AGC treshold from 10uV to 0.37uV- is it about 200
>>times? This needs to be corrected as well.
>>Anybody else has this problem???
>>
>>I like my radio but it has problems.Even Ten Tec will tell you that.
>>Also,I'm sure that Ten Tec will improve ORION.
>>But they need good feedback.
>>If everything is so good like you are trying to tell everybody, than why
>>good number of ORION's was returned to Ten Tec for refund. We need to help
>>Ten Tec to stop this
>>trend. We will not do good job if we close our eyes and pretend that
>>everything is great.
>>Ten Tec and Elecraft are the only two Co. that understand
>>how to design good RX. So, Ten Tec just needs to finish
>>this great radio.
>>Mark WQ7X
>>
>>
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
> 