[TenTec] Orion I V2.055 Spurious Response

Merle Bone merlebone at charter.net
Fri Mar 10 00:22:38 EST 2006


"Just loaded 1.373b5 and it appears the same as 2.055.


73,

Sinisa  YT1NT, VE3EA"

Sinisa,
I saw the note that you had seen the "reverse spur" on V1.373b5 so I went back to try the tests again today - Barry also said he had found the same "reverse spur." Tonight I re-ran the test on 80M, then 20M and then 30M. I ran the test in both USB mode and LSB mode - following Grants comments. I was ready to give up and suggest that I must have a "superior" Orion that showed absolutely no signs of the "reverse spur." As I indicated in my earlier note, I did find some spurs on 80M and 20M - up from the main signal - but they were very very weak and not "reversed."

However, before I quit, I tried the test one more time on 40M - LSB - (S9 Signal 7074.9-7078) and I did find - but barely perceptible (I had to run the test several times to even get the frequency range due to the signal weakness) a "reverse spur" from 7078.9 to 7081. This spur was really at the edge of the "minimum discernable signal" from my observation - I did not do a calibrated attenuation to see where it was not discernable. I then switched to USB. The S9 signal was from 7075 to 7071.8 and the - again the barely perceptible - reverse spur was from 7071.4 to 7068.4 . The spur range measurements have more digits of precision then accuracy due to the very very weak levels. 

So I can find the "reverse spur" on the Orion with V1, but I could not find it at all on 80M, 20M or 30M. And the signal strength on 40M was right at the noise level. The tests I ran last night with V2.055 found the reverse spur at very easily heard audio levels - much stronger then I see in the one case where I found it on the Orion running V1.

One radio does not a "statistical sample" make. But I think it would be useful for TenTec to look at this further. I certainly see a very - very - large difference in the bands I find this on and the spur signal level on V2.055 VS. V1.373b5.
73,
Merle - W0EWM



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