[TenTec] Orion II Questions

[Barry N1EU]

I'd like to see a plot of actual behavior of those AGC slope settings.

I'm on the receiving end of a lot of packet pileups of Europeans calling
during dx contests and it's a BIG struggle because the Orion (and K3)
really tend to make mush out of pileups. I know Elecraft worked hard on
this specific issue without much success.  I tend to think it's inherent to
the similar rx architecture of the two radios.  The ONLY thing that I've
found to help a bit is to quickly switch in 12dB or 18dB of attenuation to
just kill all but the very strongest callers, or else to run split and tune
the rx up or down to hear the off freq callers.  I put my Corsair II into
service in a recent dx contest to test this one behavior and its rx handled
the pileups SO much better.

I was playing with the AGC slope on the 566 the other day.  It seemed that
strong cw signals sounded "smoother" with 1:10 slope than the other
settings, but I need to experiment further.

Barry N1EU

On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 8:35 AM, Kim Elmore <cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:
>
> Isn't this part of why TT provided AGC slope in the RX menu? I find that,
> depending on conditions, either 1:10 or 2:10 allows me to separate signals
> rather well in a pile-up. A strict adherence to AF-gain-high/RF-gain-low
> acts to minimize AGC action.
>
> Kim N5OP
>
>
> On 12/19/2014 7:13 AM, Barry N1EU wrote:
>
>> You WILL have AGC compression unless RF Gain is throttled because the AGC
>> threshold will be too low.
>>
>> It's a simple matter of how much audio dynamic range you want to present
>> to
>> your ears.  You have to make that determination first and then from there,
>> set up the rig's RF/AF gain distribution properly.  I'm evangelizing for a
>> wide audio dynamic range (with headphone listening) and my comments should
>> simply be seen in that context.
>>
>> Barry N1EU
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 7:59 AM, Carl Moreschi <n4py3 at earthlink.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Why wouldn't just setting AGC to medium or slow solve all the problems
>>> you
>>> are trying to fix.  That way you never get blasted, you don't have to
>>> find
>>> a very strong signal to set audio gain, you never get AGC compression on
>>> speech, and you don't get band noise between words.
>>>
>>> Carl Moreschi N4PY
>>> 58 Hogwood Rd
>>> Louisburg, NC 27549
>>> www.n4py.com
>>>
>>> On 12/19/2014 7:47 AM, Barry N1EU wrote:
>>>
>>>  On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 7:42 AM, Carl Moreschi<n4py3 at earthlink.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> But the biggest problem with the scheme of using high audio gain and
>>>>> low
>>>>> RF gain is you can still get blasted by a very strong signal as you
>>>>> tune
>>>>> the band.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> That's why the very first step was turning RF Gain to full max, tuning
>>>> in
>>>> an s9++ signal and setting the AF Gain so the signal is comfortably
>>>> loud.
>>>> You leave the AF Gain right there (always) and you never get "blasted."
>>>> All
>>>> adjustments after that are with RF Gain.
>>>>
>>>> Barry N1EU
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> TenTec mailing list
>>>> TenTec at contesting.com
>>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>>>
>>>>   _______________________________________________
>>>>
>>> TenTec mailing list
>>> TenTec at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
>> TenTec mailing list
>> TenTec at contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>
>>
> --
>
> Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP
> SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)
>
> /"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in
> practice, there is." //-- Attributed to many people; it's so true that it
> doesn't matter who said it./
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>