Topband: A/B Testing Limits

[Jim Reid]

Earl, K6SE,  has written,  about his Orion rig tests:

> 1) Time of year:  All receivers are compared with my MP
> and/or K2 in real time, which has nothing to do with the
> time of year.

And on May 20th,  to the Topband reflector he posted the 
following:

"On CW, the S-meter reading is about S-1 on 160m because 
I have the receiver bandwidth set to 100Hz (fully adjustable in 
10Hz steps from 100 to 6000Hz) and you can't see any 
difference in S-meter readings when you switch the NR on and 
off.  I have a very weak signal on 1830kHz (3rd harmonic from 
a local AM BC station on 610 kHz) that I use to "test" receivers 
on 160m.  With the NR off, the signal is barely audible.  With
the NR on at its lowest setting, the signal appears to jump out 
of the noise.  Turning the NR to 9 (wide open) makes the signal 
Q5 copy (if were a CW signal).  This is FAR superior to my 
FT-1000MP and Elecraft K2 which, up until now, have tied for 
first place in the "test" compared to a number of other modern 
rigs.  I'm impressed!!  None of the DSP "thingies" are heard at 
the 100Hz bandwidth when the NR is set to "9"."

And,

"My big problem now is deciding whether to sell my MP or my 
Elecraft K2/100.  My main dislike about the K2 is its non-steep 
filter skirts (other gripes I had were taken care of wonderfully 
well by mods developed by the K2 engineers).  The steep skirts 
achieved with Elecraft's new audio DSP module may be enough 
make me keep the K2 and sell the MP.

73, de Earl, K6SE"

This was followed,  on June 18th with the following on the Topband
reflector:

"My Ten-Tec Orion arrived about a month ago and I posted my 
initial impressions, mostly favorable, on this reflector a few days 
afterwards.

I had not tested that radio at that time for my main criterion in 
what I want out of a receiver, which is its ability to dig weak 
CW signals out of the noise, mainly on 160-meters.  When I 
A/B'd the Orion with my FT-1000MP and Elecraft K2, it did not 
come close to those two radios in the ability to dig the weak 
ones out of the noise on CW."

BUT,  Earl,  you DID report on that test on May 20th!!!??  See the
archives,  or the above quote.  And in May you report that the
Orion far exceeded the two comparison standard rigs.

You have been asked two or three times by posters about
this change;  you have so far ignored this inconsistency,
and requests for explanation.  Don't you believe it would be
fair to Ten Tec and the engineers there to do so??  In May
you were considering selling either your MP or K2,  why then
and not now?

You also just posted: "My ears determine how much out of the 
noise a signal sounds when doing the comparisons."

Just believe a real explanation about why is deserved.  Maybe
your ears were different in the test run and reported on May 20th
and the test reported on June 18th?

73,  Jim  KH7M