[TenTec] OMIN VII

[Barry N1EU]

On 11/3/07, Bob McGraw - K4TAX <RMcGraw at blomand.net> wrote:
> As to the Orion and Orion II . . . It is one
> fantastic radio, but..... with caution I add, it is not a radio most would
> enjoy using on a casual basis.  It is a serious high performance contest
> radio.  It provides the utmost in flexibility with regard to receiver
> performance attributes.   Here is an area where most hams get in trouble.
> There's enough user available infinite adjustable parameters that it is easy
> for one to get in deep trouble with this radio.  At that point typically one
> hasn't left a trail of bread crumbs to follow back to the beginning an thus
> a master reset is done and the need to start all over.  Again, unless one is
> very careful and often making detailed notes of the changes they apply,
> again when things get strange, there's no clear path to reverse the changes.


I appreciate the Omni VII's virtues being extolled in this thread.
But I'm not buying the Orion "is not a radio most would enjoy using on
a casual basis.  It is a serious high performance contest radio.  It
provides the utmost in flexibility with regard to receiver
performance attributes.   Here is an area where most hams get in
trouble."  I just don't buy this.

Since v1.372 firmware (Nov '04), users don't give up anything by
staying out of the AGC menu and simply using the RFGain control.  You
don't have to be "very careful" and you're not going to get into "deep
trouble" and the controls seem very straightforward to operate as far
as I can tell.  Sure, you don't want to open up menus ad infinitum and
randomly set all the parameters to nonsensical values - but it doesn't
take THAT much intelligence to see that would be a dumb thing to do.

73,
Barry N1EU