[TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue

Sat Mar 22 00:05:25 EDT 2014

art,

your youtube video says private 

Mike, WB8VGE
SunLight Energy Systems
The Heathkit Shop
http://www.theheathkitshop.com/
J e e p
o|||||||o 

A man with one clock knows what time it is. A man with two clocks is never sure. 

On Mar 22, 2014, at 12:00 AM, art N4UC <n4uc at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I de-mated, cleaned, and re-seated all connectors, both the TMP coax as well as board connectors to the backplane.  No joy, situation unchanged. Then I resorted to the old fashioned push and jiggle test on all the boards and connections. Again no luck. 
> 
> For what it's worth I uploaded a crude video to youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=287q99crPjY&feature=em-upload_owner) showing the problem in real life. The video begins with a cw signal being received by the SUB receiver and then I bring up the audio of the same signal on the MAIN Rcvr.  Keep in mind this is happening on 20M only. 
> 
> Any comments or thoughts are welcomed. In the meantime, I brought the old TS-940 down off the shelf. I'd forgotten how heavy those old radios were!
> 
> 73, Art   
> 
>> From: Rick at DJ0IP.de
>> To: tentec at contesting.com
>> Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:26:10 +0100
>> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue
>> 
>> The original "pre-production" Eagles did not have gold contacts either.
>> Carl, you probably had one of these, as did Bob and I.
>> I later sent mine back to the factory and had the motherboard swapped, so
>> now I have gold contacts too.
>> 
>> ALL PRODUCTION UNITS HAD GOLD CONTACTS, so if you bought an Eagle, don't
>> worry!  Yours has gold contacts.
>> 
>> I doubt we will ever see any non-gold contacts again from these two
>> companies.
>> 
>> 73 - Rick, DJ0IP
>> (Nr. Frankfurt am Main)
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carl
>> Moreschi
>> Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 1:42 AM
>> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
>> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion 565 Main Receiver Issue
>> 
>> 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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