[TenTec] ORION shows strange behavior, like drift during TX

[PA5MW, Mark]

Some more info from last weekend:

During the ARRL X SSB, similar failures were noted during the first day.
It was found that when our BOG antenna was connected via a RIP-1 K9AY 
front end protector, things went wrong.

On sunday morning, we opened up the ORION and performed the actions with 
all cables as you described below.
One hour later we were back on the air and things went OK till the evening.
At that point the issues showed up again. Carefull investigation by the 
team showed that:

Connected BOG antenna via K9AY front end protector in the PTT circuitry 
+ using the PTT footswitch for TX =  intermittent problem

Same but using F1 CQ button in N1MM for TX= never any problem

That exact combination proved  why similar problems during our national 
PACC contest early feb(where the footswitch was used), and the 160m SSB 
turned up.
  From here on we need to investigate further.
But we are getting closer :)

73 Mark, PA5MW



On 27-2-2013 23:36, Carl Moreschi wrote:
> My best guess is the cable connections behind the Orion front panel 
> need cleaning.  There are a lot of microprocessor cable connections 
> there and you can get almost any symptom if one of the connections 
> starts to fail.
>
> Remove the front panel which is not difficult.  Then unplug the cable 
> connections, spray them with a good cleaner, and then plug them back 
> in and out about 10 times to clean them.
>
> That fixed my Orion and my son's Orion which had strange symptoms.
>
> Carl Moreschi N4PY
> 121 Little Bell Dr.
> Hays, NC 28635
> www.n4py.com
>
> On 2/27/2013 4:49 PM, PA5MW, Mark wrote:
>> The ORION at our clubstation PI4TUE recently showed some issues:
>>
>> Weekend before ARRL during 24hr PACC contest:
>> - abt 30 times RX quiet
>> - sometimes TX-freq slowly drifted away during transmission by couple of
>> ten's (different bands and modes)
>> - at some point RX seemed deaf for abt 5min and we noticed we got
>> spotted on 6995-ish instead of being in the 7030-7040 range
>> We had to shutdown each time to solve the issue
>>
>> ARRL DX CW contest:
>> First hour in the contest offered same RX anomolies
>> Changed PA timing settings in N1MM and raised TX delay on the ORION 
>> to 65%
>> No single issue noted during the remaining 46hrs
>>
>> Last weekend:
>> Main operator noted during transmission (160m SSB) the TX drift is back
>> again
>>
>>
>> Remarks:
>> None of the equipment (ORION, PSU, PA, PC's, Winkey, SteppIR) in the
>> shack is linked on their ground connections.
>> Equipment is effectively grounded via their mains connection to 1 mains
>> supply group, the several interlink coaxes and the antenna coax
>> connections to the building grounding system on the 220ft high roof (
>> huge matrix of professional lightning protection).
>>
>> Several other coax interlinks have been used, but the current Aircell 7
>> (especially the PL259 for that) proved intermittent at some gnd
>> connections in the past. Cables have been cut and re-installed.
>>
>> ORION is an early 2002 (?) model with slightly darker s-meter compared
>> to my own 2004 model at home.
>> Has had the PSU board upgrade with the exact required specced low ESR
>> caps in 2008 from Digikey
>> Defective headphone opamp on front pcb was exchanged in 2011, not a
>> simple operational task
>> DC supply molex connection+25 ampfuse contacts are cleaned and ok
>> DC suppy is normally set at 15VDC
>> DC supply cable has a #31 ferrite with abt 11 turns for CM rejection
>> Amp is an Acom 1000 set for 400W ouput
>>
>>
>> Anyone any clue about the strange behavior mentioned above?
>>
>> 73 Mark, PA5MW
>>
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