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

[Merle Bone]

Bob - K4TAX said:
"On item that I've discovered with the current Omni  VII on the desk, thus I 
no longer have the Orion II available, is that the RF Gain must be run 
lower, actually much lower, than one would expect. "
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It is certainly true that adjusting the RF Gain on the Orion is important to optimize the 
performance. On 20M with a tribander I reduce the RF gain quite a bit -  while on 
160M, with a K9AY Loop, I add a pre-amp in front of the Orion (Not required on 
V1.373b5 due to the higher overall gain of that firmware over V2.062a). However,
I don't find that I am able to eliminate the "overdriven audio" sound by changing the RF
Gain setting. There was a lot of "juggling" of gain levels in the V2 rewrite - and as various
issues were addressed throughout the 8 production V2 firmware releases. It seems that 
may have left one or more of the internal gain levels incorrectly set. A careful review/fix of
remaining issues with the V2 firmware would be most welcome by the Orion/Orion II users.
Merle - W0EWM