Topband: Ten-Tec Orion, et al

[k6se at juno.com]

John, W3ULS wrote:

"In my shack, the Icom IC-746 PRO has exhibited the best receiver
characteristics of any HF transceiver I've owned. I wonder how it would
stack up against the competition? Especially on 160 CW?"
==========
Someday in the near future a local friend is going to bring his IC-746
PRO over to my QTH to give it the infamous "K6SE A/B test".  This test
uses local steady weak on-the-air signals on both 160m and on 10m to
determine how well a receiver can dig weak signals out of the noise.  It
is *not* a receiver sensitivity test.  Some receivers do a good job of
bringing signals up out of the noise and some don't.  So far the original
FT-1000MP (with INRAD mod) and the Elecraft K2 are tied for first place
on 160m.  When I test the 746 PRO, I'll post the results here.

I also hope to run the same test on the Omni VI+, the FT-1000D and the
IC-756 PRO II soon.

73, de Earl, K6SE