Topband: Ten-Tec Orion Specs

[k6se@juno.com]

For those interested, Ten-Tec has released their specs for the new model
565 Orion HF transceiver.  They looked good enough to me, so I placed my
order for one.  Expected delivery is in October.  The specs are posted at
http://www.tentec.com/TT565.htm .

The close-in IMDDR3 spec for the main receiver is 101 dB, which is
significantly better than the best that the ARRL lab has ever tested -- a
worst-case figure of 88 Db for the Elecraft K2.

I e-mailed them asking why they have not included the BDR specs and their
reply was:

"We have a difference of opinion on how BDR is spec'd between our
engineering staff and the ARRL - and this is enough of a difference that
we've elected to leave a BDR spec off the spec sheet, and go with the
number that the ARRL Lab measures when they do a Product Review.  It will
be easy to infer from our other numbers, when published, that the number
is in the same category (higher than anything else available today, at 5
kHz spacing)."

Apparently Ten-Tec is able to achieve these excellent specs because the
roofing filter in the Orion is actually the selected xtal filter.  I'm
now wondering if the noise blankers in the Orion will also outperform
other receivers because of the narrow roofing filters.

73, de Earl, K6SE