[TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue

[Carl Moreschi]

Elecraft had the same problem with the K3.  But they now do a free 
upgrade to gold contacts.

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

On 3/19/2014 8:08 PM, Bob McGraw - K4TAX wrote:
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TenTec mailing list
>>> TenTec at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>>
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