[TenTec] Original Orion Firmware

[bill ogden]

I am using 2.062a

My wish list includes the following:

1. More useful NB and NR, especially for CW
2. More linear adjustment of recorded CW messages as the speed is changed
3. Spread the audio processing control better. It seems to do little up to "5".
4. The subreceiver audio always seems a little muffled, even with the bandwidth wide open
5. A more stable SWR number -- it seems to jump around quite a bit
6. A radical suggestion: move the RF gain to the "Cut" control. I find the "cut" function not very useful
7. Please -- provide more suggestions/recommendations for AGC settings. I realize that a few people can fine tune the controls very well, but many of us are a bit lost without spending countless hours trying variations on the settings.
8. Fixed volume (independent of the gain controls) for sidetone and monitor would be good.

Like many others, I normally work CW with the audio gain at maximum and use the RF gain for the major control. If possible, take this fairly common usage into consideration. I seldom use the sweep display. I have never used the User 1 and User 2 controls. Perhaps a chart showing exactly what is "remembered" by these controls would help.

I have a problem that seems unique to my unit. After some period of operation the receive signal for the main receiver goes almost dead. Turning on the HW blanker restores the signal.  Doing a full master reset also restores the signal for a little while and then it goes into the lockdown mode again.  I am currently leaving the HW blanker ON all the time, as it does not seem to have any side effects in my environment. Your various service people suggested noise on the power supply as a potential cause, but the power seems clean when viewed with a good (100 Mhz) scope. I doubt that your firmware rewrite would affect this situation, but we never know. (I have been in the mainframe business for 40 years and you never know what a code change might affect!)

Bill Ogden
W2WO