[TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue

[Bob McGraw - K4TAX]

It's not only related to Tentec products or Orion radios.  For years I've 
dealt with service and maintenance on products costing  5X to 10X or more of 
what the Orion's. cost.  These products have been found to have the same 
issues.   Some interconnection methods are better or worse than others.  It 
is a matter of cost vs. space along with a few other factors.

Just exercise the connectors, clean the pins and apply a very small amount 
of contact cleaner.  It will serve you well until next time.

73
Bob, K4TAX


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl Moreschi" <n4py3 at earthlink.net>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 3:16 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue


> The Orion and Orion II have shown a history of problems related to 
> corrosion building up on the cable connections in the radio.   These 
> connections should have been gold plated but they are not.  In particular, 
> the cable connections behind the front panel have over 100 connections. 
> Many times the solution is to remove the front panel, which is not at all 
> difficult, and unplug the cables, spray them with a contact cleaner, and 
> then while they are still wet, plug them in and out 10 times or more to 
> clean them.  This fixed all the intermittent problems on my Orion.  And 
> with so many connections, almost any symptom is possible.
>
> Carl Moreschi N4PY
> 58 Hogwood Rd
> Louisburg, NC 27549
> www.n4py.com
>
> On 3/19/2014 3:38 PM, art N4UC wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Here's a brain teaser for all you Orion experts. My 565 running ver 3.032 
>> has developed a couple of problems that I was hoping would be a firmware 
>> issue but it's looking more and more like a hardware problem. I'm looking 
>> for some ideas about where to start troubleshooting.
>>
>> In a nutshell the two problems (which may just be different symptoms of 
>> one problem) are these:
>>
>> 1. All signals received by the main rcvr on 20M only are extremely 
>> garbled and distorted. This condition is not dependent on mode and all 
>> other receiver functions such as S-meter operation, AGC, BW and PBT 
>> functions seem to be unaffected. Operation of the sub-receiver is normal. 
>> One interesting note is that a signal disappears when I engage the 
>> hardware NB, which is probably just an indicator that the NB thinks it's 
>> seeing noise and just doing its job.
>>
>> 2. When both VFO's display the same frequency, there is a difference in 
>> received frequency between the two receivers. This is present regardless 
>> of band, but the difference is not the same from band to band. The worst 
>> I've noticed is 200 hz offset on 20M, but other bands exhibit 50-100 hz 
>> delta between the receivers in spite of displaying the same  frequencies. 
>> It doesn't matter how the two receivers arrive at the same frequency, 
>> either by pressing the A>B button or configuring both Main and Sub recvrs 
>> to be controlled by VFO-A.
>>
>>
>> This all came on as an intermittent condition. I would notice that during 
>> operation on 20M, received signals would suddenly jump by 100-200 hz and 
>> I would have to re-tune to get back on frequency. I was assuming that the 
>> transmitted frequency was jumping as well, but I haven't verified that as 
>> yet. Anyway, after the "jump" occurred, the signals would sound warbly 
>> and quivery (technical terms for "trashy"). No matter their signal 
>> strength they sounded watery like they were coming from over the North 
>> Pole. If I were to select a different band and then return , the receiver 
>> would "slide" a few hertz back onto frequency before settling.
>>
>> I have
>> sometimes noticed that just before this would happen there would be a 
>> rise in noise
>>   level, like precipitation static. While the rcvr  is off-frequency, 
>> there is a
>>   lot of noise/hash that is in sync with other signals some as far
>> away as 50 khz. It resembles being at field day in close proximity to
>> several
>>   transmitters. Even though they are way out of the bandpass of the
>> filters and too far away to hear a cw tone, I
>> can copy them by listening to the hash.
>>
>> I have re-flashed the firmware and performed a few master-resets, etc... 
>> with no change. The problem is no longer intermittent and I'm looking for 
>> ideas while I decide how much $$$ I want to put into repairing a really 
>> fine, but old, radio.
>>
>> 73, Art/N4UC
>>
>>
>>
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