[TenTec] [Orion] Orion II and headphone audio distortion UPDATE & solution

[Barry Gross]

I find it a good practice to routinely isolate all audio lines between
the rig and computer (or external audio devices, etc.)  I use
inexpensive isolation xfmrs but there are more expensive solutions if
that's your preference.

73,
Barry N1EU



On 8/22/06, dbp at tds.net <dbp at tds.net> wrote:
> Hi-
>  A phone call to Paul Clinton at TenTec has helped alot!
>  He suggested that I disconnect all of the extra connecting cables like the amp relay, the computer interface cable, the remote knob etc. from the rear of the ORION II. There was no distortion in my headphone audio.  Then I reconnected cables one at a time until the audio distorted again.
>  BTW I had been using a commercial computer interface with a home brew interface cable set with my ORION I with no problems. But with the ORION II, specifically the I/O connector cable was the problem. To find which specific wire was the culprit I cut one wire at a time from that connector until the distortion ceased. When I cut the "Line Out" wire, that stopped the distortion. It also ended my ability to copy signals using the computer.
>  With some experimentation I found that a 1uF/50V capacitor in series with the "Line Out" wire (pin 4 of the I/O connector) cured the problem. I was able to get the cap. inside the DIN connector shell, no problem. It works now as it should. All's well that end's well.