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

[Kim Elmore]

I've also found the same things that Ron has found. I haven't 
verified audio quality in SSB yet, though I have briefly tested in 
SSB. I found that the H/W mic gain needed to be increased by 3 to 6 
dB with the panel mic gain set to 75. FM generates about 20 W output 
while AM generates about 8 W output, both with the TX power set to 100.

AF AGC "sticks" as if the hang time of the AF AGC is set to "infinity."

The noise blanker works better than it did and may even be useful in CW.

Both the waterfall and spectrum displays look much better.

What's the address that we use to send bug reports to TT?

73,

Kim Elmore N5OP

At 09:44 PM 4/13/2010, you wrote:
>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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> >
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>
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