[TenTec] Orion II Freqency response graph

[Grant Youngman]

> I was talking to a guy on 60 meters using my O2.  Rick N8MFN 
> if anyone wants to verify.  Oddly, he understood everything I said.  
> 
> I am not sure what problem we are trying to fix in this thread.  

My next door neighbor and I (when we were 5 or 6) used string and tin-cans.
We could understand everything each of us said as well :-)

The "problem" is two-fold.  Of course, that depends on whether you think
there's a problem or not.

First, the implemented frequency response of the II/v2 is incorrectly
documented in the manuals, AND on the radios SSB menu.  The manuals and the
menus indicate that the SSB transmit frequency response can be opened to
50-3900 Hz at -6db points.  This is not the case. 

While it true at the high frequency end, the low frequency adjustment -- in
practice -- ranges from about 250-450 Hz, as opposed to the 50-300 Hz
indicated on the radios controls and the documentation.  I admit that one
could choose to chalk this up to "documentation error".  I choose to call it
a problem.  It would still be a problem if the documentation were updated,
too!  If you had a v1 Orion, and traded it in on a II, thinking you were
getting an upgraded version of the same radio and not a "new" radio that is
totally different in many key ways you might also consider it a problem.

Second, while the II/v2 now boasts a sort of flat response in AM mode from
around 20-3500 Hz, the SSB response curves have been substantially degraded
as indicated above.  And in fact, even the AM curve falls short on the high
frequency end.  Not only that, it is fixed and no longer adjustable in the
50-3900 Hz range that the SSB bandwidth in the v1 Orion was adjustable, and
that is  claimed for the II/v2 (but which is claimed incorrectly).  In the
v1 Orion, one could EQ audio once -- and know that one sounded about the
same in either AM or SSB.  That is no longer the case in the II/v2.  One
could choose to chalk this up to "I only operate SSB so who cares".  I
choose to call it a problem.

YMMV
Grant/NQ5T