[TenTec] Orion II v 2.042A: Not Ready for Prime Time!

[Ron Castro]

I keep hoping that it's something simple like a hiccup while I was flashing 
the new firmware, so I'm interested if anyone else finds the same things I'm 
finding in the behavior.

            Ron  N6IE
       www.N6IE.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene Henderson" <wb9hla at comcast.net>
To: "Ron Castro" <ronc at sonic.net>; "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" 
<tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 7:26 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion II v 2.042A: Not Ready for Prime Time!


> Ron,
> Looks like someone forgot to install this on a radio and see if it worked.
> I agree with you
> not even close to Prime Time
> Gene WB9HLA
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ron Castro" <ronc at sonic.net>
> To: "Ron Castro" <ronc at sonic.net>; "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment"
> <tentec at contesting.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 21:50
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion II v 2.042A: Not Ready for Prime Time!
>
>
>> Addendum to my post:  on problem #1, I'm referring to the RX audio.  TX
>> audio (other than more drive needed and processor problem) still sounds
>> broadcast quality.
>>
>>            Ron   N6IE
>>       www.N6IE.com
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Ron Castro" <ronc at sonic.net>
>> To: <tentec at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 6:41 PM
>> Subject: [TenTec] Orion II v 2.042A: Not Ready for Prime Time!
>>
>>
>>> Here are a list of problems I found right off with the v. 2.042A, even
>>> after doing a battery reset and two master resets and memory clear:
>>>  1.. Very noticeable distortion on all audio.  Sounds like overdrive in
>>> IF
>>> or DSP section.
>>>  2.. AGC hang in AF AGC.  S-meter goes up and never comes down!  At same
>>> time, RF gain goes down and does not come back up.  If you manually turn
>>> the RF Gain all the way to 0, then back up to 100, the radio is
>>> essentially muted.  This will not happen if the "AGC Hang" setting is 0,
>>> but then distortion is really bad.
>>>  3.. NR does not work in AF AGC mode.  Does seem to work well in RF AGC
>>> mode.
>>>  4.. Much more audio drive needed on AUX input for SSB.  It looks like
>>> about 10 dB more.
>>>  5.. AM carrier= 1.25 Watts max!  That's at 100% PWR setting.
>>>  6.. FM carrier= 6.4 Watts max.
>>>  7.. SSB Speech Processor gives only around 50 Watts max peak output.
>>> You
>>> can get it up to 100 Watts when you crank it to "way beyond reasonable
>>> distortion".
>>>  8.. Could not find any sort of S-Meter calibration
>>> Here are the good points so far:
>>>  1.. Side tone is louder and spot level is too.
>>>  2.. Waterfall display is much improved.
>>>  3.. Difference in frequency between Main and Sub improved, but still 
>>> not
>>> "phase locked".  I detect about 0.1 Hz differential which should make it
>>> fine for true diversity antenna work.
>>>  4.. In RF AGC mode, the NR really does seem improved, although it's 
>>> hard
>>> to tell with the audio distortion mentioned above.
>>> So that's the good, the bad and the ugly of it!  I'm QSYing back to v.
>>> 2.039d, the last one that worked right...
>>>
>>>            Ron  N6IE
>>>       www.N6IE.com
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TenTec mailing list
>>> TenTec at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>>
>>
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