[TenTec] Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment

[Merle Bone]

Bob (WB2VUF) said:
> Traditionally, that is true. Ham-band-only receivers were superior. Tuned
> circuits could be more selective because they tuned over a narrower range.
> VFO's, too, could be made more linear and stable, since usually they tuned
> only over a 0.5 MHz range. Designs are different today. Broadband front ends
> are the rule. There is no "preselector" tuning and VFO's are synthesized.
> There is no longer a big performance difference between general coverage and
> ham band equipment.

I think that depends on what you call a "big difference." The outstanding performance of the Orion, with close in interfering signals, is largely made possible by the narrow roofing filters ( 1KHz, 600hZ, 500Hz, 300Hz) for CW operation (And of course excellent receiver design). Most "general coverage" receivers use an upconversion to 45+MHz as the first conversion and then use a VFO that allows continuous receiver coverage from 3MHz to 30 MHz. With the upconversion to 45MHz it is not really economically possible to build a crystal roofing filter at that frequency with a 500Hz bandwidth. Thus they have wider, 3KHz+, roofing filters and you get the poorer close in  3rd order IMD performance of the ICOM 7800 and the Yaesu FTDX-9000. 

If you don't plan to operate CW, in crowded bands, maybe not a big issue. So I think it depends on your definition of "a big performance difference."

Merle - W0EWM