[TenTec] Strange De-sense of Orion II

[Paul Rubin]

Hi All:

I have a strange problem with my OII. When I power it up it works as 
advertised. Both the main and sub-receivers operate normally. After a short 
time (minutes to an hour) the main receiver suddenly becomes almost deaf as 
if someone had thrown 30 db of attenuation into the signal path. I can only 
hear the strongest signals that I see on the band scope, and they sound very 
weak. When this happens the S-meter goes to 0 and never moves even though 
the band scope is showing that the signal is very powerful. Throughout all 
this the sub-receiver continues to function normally.

While the main receiver was working I quickly fed it 1uV and 50uV at 14.060 
from an Elecraft XG-1 signai source. The main receiver heard the 1uV well, 
but showed no meter movement. with the 50uV the receiver showed S7-8. The 
sub-receiver with its bar-graph signal strength display showed full scale.
When the main receiver went quiet the sub-receiver still showed full scale. 
The main receiver could barely hear the 50uV, and couldn't hear the 1uV at 
all.

This all happened while running 2.039. I have reloaded 2.039, done a master 
reset, a battery reset, and even opended the rig and removed the battery.
The behavior also happens with 2.034.

Any ideas before she makes that trip to Tenn?

By the way while I was pulling the cover, I noticed a sticker on the back 
showing a garbage can with an X through it. Glad they told me. I was already 
half-way to the door to throw the Orion away.

TNX
Paul N8NOV
Houston