[TenTec] Orion 1 & 2 "Talk Power" problem

[Dennis OConnor]

An average of 800-900  with a 1400 peak is heavily, heavily compressed, is going to sound heavily compressed, is distorted <look at it on a scope>, and is not doing the transceiver or amp any favors, and is certainly not doing any favors for the folks who have to listen to it....  I have to say that I do not understand this need to see some big average number on the watt meter when talking, and have the sound of your breathing roaring in my ear, and your dog in the background, and the cars going by your house...... 
  Put the radio into tune... If the amp gets 1400 watts out under 100 watts of CW drive, then it is making 1400 watts PEP on voice, assuming you are getting blips on the ALC light on the Orion...   The PSK guys know that they have to limit the average power to 25% of peak, or their distortion number goes way up...  We need to learn from their experience...
   
  The interesting thing the day I got my Orion... I got on 80 meters on phone barefoot and found some guys I have talked with before on the MK-V and the Omni 6, and jumped in... I did not mention I had a new radio... Within a minute someone commented, gee you sound really good... What are you running tonight?...  Of course the cat was out of the bag then...  On my Bird meter I was showing about 25 watts average and 90 some watts PEP...  They were all running amps and speech processing and were averaging S9+10... I was S9... The group agreed I was the best sounding signal... I noticed that one of the group quietly turned off his compressor without saying anything and his audio improved considerably... Loud is not good if it is gained by sacrificing fidelity...
   
  denny / k8do
   

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