[TenTec] poor harsh audio on OMNI-V

[Rob Atkinson]

Before you tweak any little trim pots etc. in the rig, take careful
notice of the position of each one before you do anything.  The reason
is that in one of the rigs (might be the omni VI but not sure) the
manual has at least one error where it says which pot aligns for which
mode.   If you are tweaking the pot for USB for example and nothing
seems to be happening, then the manual is wrong and you are tweaking
something else so you'll want to be able to put it back just like it
was.  Might be that the manual for the Omni V is okay but better to be
safe than sorry.

I never owned a V but I have an Omni VI and I have had a Corsair II
and there was a huge difference in tx audio between them.  I ran the
Omni VI for a few years and then when I was showing a ham the Corsair
II in selling it to him, I put a mic on the Corsair II, fired it up on
a 40 m. antenna and let the ham listen to it on a separate rx while I
had a qso with someone.  I listened to it too.   The mic was one of
those older Heil dual element Goldlines with the wider element and I
was blown away with how good the Corsair sounded.  The audio on tx was
smooth and natural, almost like AM.  I think all those old Ten Tec
rigs from the 70s and 80s that had single conversion and 2.4 or 2.7
KHz IF filters were like that.  I know the Omni VI is much more
restricted.  Not sure where the Omni V fits in on the wide to
restricted progression (regression?) though.   Back in the 70s I owned
a Triton II.  I used an EV banana mic on that rig and always got
compliments on how good it sounded on phone.   If you wonder what the
banana mic was here's a photo (but mine had a PTT rocker switch on the
front) http://images.marketworks.com/hi/15/15147/ev727mic_unit2a.jpg
I had been a ham back then only 7 or 8 years so it wasn't until years
later I learned that my old Triton had a 2.7 KHz single IF.  No wonder
it sounded good.  That was my first transceiver with QSK that really
worked.  The other ham transceivers of that day were klunky and up
until I owned the Triton I had assumed that if you wanted real QSK you
had to run separate tx, rx, and separate antennas.  It also had
modular pc boards you could pull out and swap or send in.  It was a
real advanced rig being solid state and all, and I wish I had never
sold it but I did around 1980 when I went to college.

73

rob / k5uj