[TenTec] Orion Repaired and Back to V1.373b5

[fraz1]

Thanks for the post Merle.....I still personally prefer v 1.372.  Next would 
be v 1.373b5.

One would think that with Elecraft moving forward, TT would be releasing 
some upgrades.

73 John K4NP
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Merle Bone" <merlebone at charter.net>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:07 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Orion Repaired and Back to V1.373b5


>I recently sent my Orion back to Ten-Tec with a problem I had been chasing 
>for over 6 months. I had been running V2.062a while trying to find the 
>cause of losing the main receiver and transmitter when the band was 
>changed - first thru the computer control port and then  thru the front 
>panel buttons. The Service Department quickly isolated the problem to the 
>digital board and then to the EPROM chip - I should have sent it back 
>earlier! Ten-Tec Service group is great!
>
> While the Orion was at Ten-Tec, I was using my FT1000MP. I found the 
> FT1000MP audio to be much less fatiguing when operating the radio for 
> several hours (With the rain,ice and cold weather I am spending more hours 
> on the radio!). When the Orion came back - with V2.062a - I noticed that 
> the audio sounded "overdriven and somewhat distorted." After a day of 
> operation I reloaded V1.373b5. To my ear, V1.373b5 audio sounds much 
> smoother - regardless of the RF gain or audio gain setting. Of course I 
> much prefer the performance of the Manual Notch Filter in the V1 code 
> (Removes the carrier from the IF bandpass as well as the audio tone so 
> that nearby strong signals do not "pump the AGC" - making it hard to copy 
> weak signals). Additionally I find the sidetone to be much  clearer on V1; 
> the V1 Noise Reduction code is much more effective - to my ear - on SSB; I 
> much prefer the operation of the S-Meter/RF Gain in that the S-Meter still 
> correctly reads the signal strength even with the RF
>  gain reduced (I know that some prefer the V2 mode where the S-Meter 
> needle moves to the right side of the S-Meter as the RF gain is reduced). 
> I don't know if the audio issues I observe on the Orion are due to the 
> changes that were made in the V2 AGC operation/take-off-point or because 
> of the code changes made in an attempt to reduce the adverse effect of 
> burst QRN, or something else.
>
> I hope that Ten-Tec will soon devote some  resources to continuing work to 
> improve the V2.062a (May 2007) firmware. I remember early Orion 
> discussions, on this reflector, that discussed expectations that the Orion 
> firmware would be continuously upgraded to add new features and functions 
> to the radio. There have been very few functional improvements to the 
> Orion/Orion II (Letters for the stack memories; a strange "sloped AGC" 
> function; etc.), while numerous performance issues have emerged as 
> artifacts of the V2 firmware re-write. Certainly those early expectations 
> have, thus far, gone unfulfilled. What would be most welcome would be 
> Ten-Tec releasing a new digital board for the Orion and Orion II with the 
> much faster - with larger memories - follow on processors to the current 
> Orion SHARC (Which are code compatible with the current Orion/Orion II 
> DSPs). That would allow new code to add new features to the Orion/Orion 
> II. However, it doesn't look much like that is in the works.
>   Hopefully this isn't the end for the Orion firmware.
> Merle - W0EWM
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