[TenTec] New Orion II and FSK Cable

[Dusty Chapman]

     My brand new Orion II arrived about three weeks ago and I finally got around to taking it out of the box and plugging it in.  WOW, aren't the colors bright?  Since I am a RTTY nut, I decided to make the cable for FSK before doing anything else.  Had I missed something in the Orion II manual?  I decided to use the cable (46176) that Ten-Tec sent along, that is useless to me as is, since the FSK wire is not connected, but a "not used" wire is.  It makes no sense to me, but I am just a user.  I cut the the useless five pin plug off the cable and decided to put on the supplied 8 pin DIN plug, which wasn't in the box(they also sent the wrong color #302, but that's on it's way to me).  Fortunately, I had a spare and used it.  I read the manual, #80 AUX I/O on page 27 and wired the plug.  I am not the greatest solderer to start with, but I got it done.  THEN, I decided to get the Fluke out and check my handy work.   Whoa,  it didn't check out.  As fate would have it, after almost throwing my Fluke, the cable and the DIN plug into the trash can, I found that the yellow wire was connected to the White RCA receptacle and the white wire was connected to the Yellow RCA receptacle.  Yea, yea, I know I should have checked it out first, but I never gave it a thought that a factory cable would not be wired correctly.  My wife tells me I'm losing my mind, and for a few short moments, I thought maybe she was right(for 40 years, she has tried to convince me that she is ALWAYS right).  
    There has been no antenna connected to it yet, but have already noticed that the S-meter reads S-1 on the VFO-A and S-0 on VFO-B and a definite difference in the sound coming out of the speaker.    After reading the reflector for a few months, I can see that I am in for a real challenge to become proficient with this rig.  
73 de Dusty, K3WC