[TenTec] Orion v2.055

[Chuck Chandler]

Well, I like it so far.

The SP is working much better, a bit of twiddling with the mic gain and SP got me sounding OK to my ears.  I can key the mic and not have it take off on me.

The NR, as many have mentioned, does not work the same as 1.372.  Hitting that button was like unplugging the antenna until a signal came along.  Impressive.  I haven't played with this version enough to tell if if is more or less effective in terms of digging out the weak ones, but it lets more noise through.

I have settled for now on NR of 6, which seems to drop the background noise some yet not distort signals.  I need to use it more before I can see which works better.  

Other than that, no quibbles here.  I mostly work CW, some SSB.  No digi modes yet but will play with them sooner or later.  

One oddity, sometimes with v2 I see SWR High on the Orion screen when driving my amp (500W).  It can change every TX from 1.0 or 1.3 to 4.8 or HIGH.  The antenna is resonant, the amp meters and 2 SWR meters are agreeing that all is well, and the amp is chugging away happily.  My first thought is a bit of RF getting in but it never happened with v1.372.  Anyone else notice this?

All in all, I like this version.  The sweep has stayed fixed, the SP is fixed, the narrow BW audio is fixed.  Make the NR work like 1.372 and we are getting awful close to a winner!

 Chuck
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73 de Chuck, WS1L
charles_chandler at comcast.net
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