[TenTec] Wish List for ORION-III

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

Carl, Yes AND NO!

For all of us operating at home (alone), YES.  At least as far as technology
goes.  Not sure if operator acceptance is there yet.

But, for a Field Day, especially a larger club with 5 or 6 transmitters, you
often find yourself in the situation that there are two stations operating
on 40m at the same time (1 in CW, 1 in SSB), and two stations operating on
20m at the same time.  Under THESE circumstances, the BDR3 of a Flex 6500
radio (or similar) drops by 20+dB!  
A K3 under the same circumstances does not drop in BDR3 at all and will
easily out-perform the Flex.

As it turns out, precisely the components that helps this technology achieve
the great performance (by avoiding Crystal filter, additional oscillator,
mixer, etc., all of which can cause additional IMD), are the cause of the
drop in BDR3 in this specific case.  Not having these components in the
radio causes this drop.  A decent crystal roofing filter would avoid this
drop.
IT'S A DOUBLE SIDED SWORD.

It's described in one of Rob Sherwood's presentation (I forgot which one,
but it's on my web).  In that specific case it was the Flex 5000, but the
6500 will behave just like this.
It was in one of the "BARC" presentations (probably 2009) and came up in the
Q&A session after the slides were finished, so you have to listen to the
long audio of the Q&A at the end of the presentation to pick this point up.

Most likely Rob will read this at some time and jump in with more info on
this point.

Unfortunately there is still no silver bullet.

AND, if Ten-Tec were to do this, it would be "outdar" ahead of the power
curve taking arrows in its back.
Seems there are still an awful lot of people who want to have real knobs,
especially amongst contesters.
I have yet to see anyone using an SDR (knobless) radio win any major
contest.

My hunch is, at a Multi-Multi station where you have 6 stations running
1.5kW at once, you will see a similar drop in BDR3 - again due to missing
roofing filter, BUT I DO NOT KNOW THIS TO BE FACT.  JUST A HUNCH.

Finally, as for size, if the radio must be larger to fit everything in, then
make it higher.  My problem is with real estate on the desktop.  I had to
buy a new desk when I bought the Orion.  I'd have to do that again if the O3
were that big again.  (sold the old desk when I moved to the states in
20007)

73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carl
Moreschi
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2014 2:24 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Wish List for ORION-III

Rick,

This is all too outdated a way to make a transceiver now.  The new best way
is to create 100% digital data right at the antenna connection. 
Then everything is done in software.  The new Flex 6500 does this and the
results are totally amazing.  No more crystal filters at all and the
2 khz dynamic range is above 100 db.  I believe in a few years all good
radios will be made this way.

Carl Moreschi N4PY
58 Hogwood Rd
Louisburg, NC 27549
www.n4py.com