[TenTec] Omni VII Filters

Wed May 16 08:54:24 PDT 2012

I agree, Rick. I have both the Orion II & the Omni VII. The Omni is a very intuitive rig to operate. Plug it in & use it. The Orion II is a wonderful rig. I use it daily, and the Omni gets very little use. The reason for that is that if I am ever to get the most out of the Orion, I must master it and that takes time & practice. I probably would not have many fewer points in contests (I'm more than casual, but not viral ) if  I had never owned the Orion. However, there ma y have been some entities missed in my DXCC chase (I have 300+) if it were not for the ability to dig a new one out of the mud with chaos all around, & that's the rea l forte' of the Orion. 

I've got two Omni VI+'s gathering dust. They're full blown with 600 Hz roofing filters and mostly Int'l Rad filters in the IF's. Outstanding rigs, but I've fallen in love with the Omni VII & the Orion II. BTW, the reason I chose the Omni over an Eagle (still want one to play with someday) is the availability of the remote tuning knob. I like my rigs raised above the operating desk (you can see that on QRZ.com) and the convenience of a tuning knob to the left of my keyboard with my paddle & key to the right can't be overstated for my personal style of operating. 

Yes, it is the ANTENNA. A good antenna on a mid-range receiver will beat a mediocre antenna on a great receiver. 

It is very cool to read what others use & their reasoning for it. As has been said on this reflector many times, there is no right choice for everybody 

Good DX & good rag-chewing 

73 

Dave 

WA3F 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP" <Rick at DJ0IP.de> 
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 8:58:58 AM 
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Omni VII Filters 

These are very nice, realistic observations, Paul. 
Nobody will ever lose a contest or even lose a few points in the standings 
buy running an Omni VII instead of an Orion.* 
The OM7 is as good or better than a lot of the other radios people win 
contests with. 

The one place where the OM7 will be at a disadvantage is if you are trying 
to use it at a multi-multi station where you have at least 6 max legal power 
stations on the air simultaneously from a location the size of a football 
field, or if you have a field day site with 2 stations operating on the same 
band at the same time, one on CW and the other on SSB. Then every dB of DR3 
makes a difference. 

I also had 2 Orions and about 6 Omni V/VI/VI+ over the years, but I prefer 
operating the Omni VII over all of them. 
Don't tell anyone I said this, but I even like it a wee bit better than my 
Eagle, but the Eagle has other advantages - size, weight, and simplicity. 

*The exception would only be a top notch 160m operator with great antennas 
in a 160m contest.  The rest of the time, the rest of the contests, the 
operator makes far more difference that the tiny bit of difference in the 
radios. 

And my favorite slogan:  "It's the ANTENNA stupid!" 

In my books, the Omni VII is the best all-around radio on the planet today 
for 98% of all hams. 

73 
Rick, DJ0IP 

-----Original Message----- 
From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] 
On Behalf Of Paul DeWitte 
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 1:51 PM 
To: tentec at contesting.com 
Subject: [TenTec] Omni VII Filters 

I recently bought a used Omni VII from TT.I got both the 500 and 300hz 
filters. 

I had an Omni VI+ for several years, and then an Orion for about 6 months. 

The Orion had the best receiver, but I did not care for its ergonomics. So 
it went. 

Now I have the Omni VII which I like very much. Very good receive audio. 
Much better than the Omni VI+ on SSB, of which I do very little. 

I had the Inrad 600hz roofing filter in the Omni VI+, and in a contest it 
was great. 

I do not feel that the Omni VII has as sharp of filtering as the Omni VI+ 
had, and definately not as sharp as the Orion. This is just a gut feeling 
with no A/B testing. I will have a chance to try it out in the WPX CW 
contest to get a better opinion. 

As for what filters to buy for James, I would buy at least one or the other 
to start with. 

Even in casual ragchewing you sometimes get some guy that moves in and 
starts calling CQ while you are in QSO with someone. So a filter plus PBT is 
nice to have. 

The Omni VII is not at the top of the list on receiver performance but so 
far it meets my needs. 

Just my observations and opinion (for what it is worth). 

Paul K9OT 

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