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

[John Buck]

It is my opinion that Carl gives this group extremely well thought out advice.  But I think his comment quoted below needs some clarification.

As a KH7 prefix call I sometimes end up on the receiving end of a sizable pileup.  I guarantee you that I will work clean intelligible signals long before the heavily processed signals that sound gravelly and have poor intelligibility.  

Some limited processing can increase the usable power without hurting the signal intelligibility.  Too many people crank the processing knob to the right, the meter goes up, the intelligibility goes down, and the number of repeats goes up.  Often room background noise is a major problem as well.

I do agree that the overly processed signals often increase the obnoxious factor and the high average power may cover up "lesser" signals for a time.  But what good is getting the DX stations attention if he cannot easily copy your call.  Worse, he may even decide to tune right past that station because of the obvious lid operator who does not understand how to optimally adjust his equipment.

Aloha,
John KH7T

Carl Moreschi N4PY wrote

"In a DX pileup, the strong gravelly sound of heavy speech processing is essential to break a pileup.  Rag chewing vs DX'ing pileups for rare stations require very different audio setups."