[1000mp] Ten-Tec Orion - Initial Impressions
Dick Green
[email protected]
Wed, 21 May 2003 11:31:16 -0400
Earl,
Thanks for the detailed review. I'm considering an Orion and your
information helps a lot. Please let us (me) know how the receiver does in
WPX!
73, Dick WC1M
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 10:50 PM
> To: [email protected]; [email protected];
> [email protected]
> Subject: [1000mp] Ten-Tec Orion - Initial Impressions
>
>
> I receive my new Ten-Tec Orion last Friday (16 May) and I've
> had enough time to play with it and let you know my initial
> impressions about the rig.
>
> After playing with it for a few hours, it was apparent that
> there were a few bugs in the software (v1.337) that was
> installed in the radio. The next day I downloaded the latest
> software update (v1.341) from http://www.rfsquared.com and
> loaded it into the radio. This task was painless and went
> without a hitch. The new software cured the few bugs I
> noticed, but it also introduced a new minor bug related to
> one of those the software fixed. I'm sure the next software
> update will correct that one.
>
> The ability of being able to upgrade this radio without
> pulling the cover and getting out the soldering iron is new
> to me and I like the idea.
>
> Transmitter:
>
> My Orion's transmitter puts out a bit more than 100 watts (as
> indicated on my Drake W-4 wattmeter) into a 50-ohm dummy load
> on all 9 bands. The power output is easily adjustable in
> one-watt increments from 1 to 100 watts (as read on the LCD
> display). While transmitting, the SWR is displayed as "SWR
> 1.0:1" or whatever the value might be. I used an MFJ-4322
> power supply which is rated at 13.8VDC and 22 amps
> intermittent duty and 20 amps continuous duty. The power
> supply didn't glitch when I checked the output power into the
> dummy load.
>
> On my antennas, the SWR can be much higher if I transmit far
> from the antenna's resonant frequency. I did this out of
> curiosity to see if the Orion's power output would
> automatically be reduced like it is on most other rigs.
> Transmitting with an indicated SWR of 5:1 showed that there
> was no cutback of the power output. I ordered my Orion
> without the optional built-in antenna tuner, so this was gratifying.
>
> The PA transistors draw more current when transmitting into a
> high SWR and my 22-amp power supply would trip at full power
> under these circumstances. I recommend using a 25-amp (or
> greater) power supply.
>
> SSB:
>
> I bought the optional Heil microphone that Ten-Tec sells for
> the Orion and I set the MIC Gain and TX EQ to the values
> recommened in the manual for that mike and made a few DX QSOs
> on SSB. The audio sounded okay to me using the monitor
> feature the radio has and I did not solicit nor receive any
> comments about the audio.
>
> The next day a local friend who is a DXer and I got together
> on 10 meters to try to "tailor" my audio using the several
> different things you can set up in the Orion in this respect.
> It seemed that no matter what I tried, he said the audio was
> "mushy and bassy". He recorded one of my transmissions and
> when I went to his QTH and heard the playback I was stunned
> by how terrible it sounded!
>
> Disappointed, while driving back home (with thoughts of
> returning the radio and getting a refund), I remembered that
> I had hit the "Panic" button the night before (this is the
> RECALL button on the front panel which resets the radio to
> the factory defaults). I then realized that I forgot to
> reset the TX EQualization back to -14dB which was recommended
> in the manual.
>
> As soon as I got home I checked that setting and is was
> indeed at the factory setting of 0 dB. When I called my
> friend now on 10-meters, his first words were, "What did you
> do? It sounds great!" There are several things you can
> adust in the Orion's menus which affect the transmitted
> audio. TX EQ is the most important one!
>
> From what I can hear in the built-in monitor, the audio seems
> to have plenty of punch and even moreso when the speech
> processor is turned on.
> The Orion uses RF compression and with the speech processor
> set at 3 or 4 (it's adjustable from 1 to 9) seems about
> right. The way the audio sounds, I would think that the
> radio would do quite well on SSB in pile-ups and under weak
> signal conditions. My FT-1000MP's transmit audio doesn't
> sound anywhere near as punchy in its monitor.
>
> One thing that I noticed is that the mike gain must be set
> much higher on SSB to deive my Alpha 76CA amplifier than it
> does on CW. About 50 watts drive is required to get about
> 1300 watts out on CW. With the mike gain set to "45" It's
> adjustable from 0 to 100) as recommended in the manual for
> the Heil mike, the amp did not put out the same power it
> would as compared to using my FT-1000MP as the 50-watt
> exciter. Turning up the mike gain "cures" this. Although
> the manual doesn't mention it, perhaps the power output
> reverts to peak power rather than average power when in the
> SSB mode. The S-meter (a real meter) becomes a power output
> meter when transmitting, and indicates approximately the same
> on SSB as it does on CW.
>
> I found out that there is an internal adjustment in the Orion
> to compensate for microphones with low output (the Heil
> dynamic mike spec says "-55 dBv into 600 ohms". Not sure how
> that compare with Ten-Tec's electret mike). The adjustment
> is accessible through a smount hole in the bottom cover near
> the rear of the radio. Someday I'll try it.
>
> The transmitted SSB bandwidth is menu-adjustable from 900 to
> 3900Hz. The factory default is 3000Hz, which I fear might be
> a bit too wide. I have set mine to 2700Hz, about the same as
> most modern rigs. It made very little difference in audio quality.
>
> CW:
>
> On CW, the radio is a pleasure to operate. It's built-in
> programmable memory keyer works well and the dit-dah
> weighting is easily adjustable.
> The CW waveform rise/fall time is easily adjustable from 3ms
> to 10ms (the factory default is 5ms). I haven't set it up
> for the "K6SE key click test" yet, but I intend to and will
> let you know the results.
>
> Although I have never really used QSK (the Alpha 76CA can't
> do that), I did try it (barefoot) and I can say that you can
> hear the other guy while you're transmitting at any speed.
> The keyer is adjustable from 10 to 60 wpm.
>
> The sidetone audio (front panel level adjustable) sounds
> good. When you set the pitch of the sidetone, this
> automatically sets it up so that when you tune in a signal at
> that same pitch, it is centered in the receiver's passband.
> The SPOT switch is automatiically set to the same pitch as
> the sidetone.
>
> I presently have my sidetone pitch set at 410Hz. CW signals
> at that pitch stand out and sound much louder and clearer
> than they do on my FT-1000MP (where I have the pitch set at
> 400Hz). I plan to try the Orion with the pitch set to 310 Hz
> and see what it sounds like (I can hear weak CW signals
> better at the lower pitches because the higher-pitched band
> noise is then attenuated. Also, you don't hear any of that
> ringing that narrow filter users complain about when they
> have their tone set to a higher pitch). The sidetone/spot
> pitch is adjustable in 20-Hz steps from 310 to 1210Hz.
>
> Receiver:
>
> The more I use the receiver, the more impressed I am. The
> adjustable noise reduction is truly amazing. On 160m SSB
> with the NR turned off, the S-meter reads about S-8 on
> ambient noise. Turning the NR on at its lowest setting (it's
> adjustable from 1 to 9) lowers the noise to about S-5. At
> "9", the noise is S-4 (although you hear the usual DSP
> "thingy" at the high NR settings). The FT-1000MP doesn't
> even come close to this. My JPS NIR-12 outboard audio DSP
> does a good job on the MP, but does not appear to work nearly
> as well as the Orion's NR.
>
> I have a "tick-tick" noise from my neighbor's electric fence
> which is eliminated by the Orion's adjustable DSP noise
> blanker at its lowest setting (adjustable from 1 to 9), but I
> also notice that the NR also eliminates it at its lowest
> setting, so the NB stays off. I haven't played with the
> hardware NB yet.
>
> 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".
>
> The receiver has a RX EQ control in the menu which works
> identically to the TX EQ control. These controls act like a
> bass/treble tone control acts like on a hi-fi audio system.
> This enhances the receive audio output almost as much as it
> does for the transmitter audio. The receiver really sounds
> great on SSB, even with BW set as narrow as 1800Hz.
>
> There are four band stacking registers for each of the nine
> bands covered by the Orion (the FT-1000MP has two). This
> makes it convenient to set up for quick QSYing , so I set
> mine up for two CW frequencies and two SSB frequencies for
> most bands. You can set the Orion's tuning step from very
> slow to very fast (7 different ranges). Mine is set to the
> slowest rate, so punching the bandswitch button makes it
> easier to QSY from one end of the band to the other.
>
> I learned an early lesson on the Orion. I was using the
> "User" memories to store the parameters for which I had
> everything set up for. Pushing the "panic button" ("Recall"
> to factory defaults) does not wipe out what you store in the
> User memories, so it's easy to restore your favorite setting
> by punching just one button (User1 or User2).
>
> After I set up the band stacking registers (which takes a bit
> of time for 36 frquencies/modes/BWs, etc.), I hit the Recall
> button to get back to the factory default settings. I
> pressed User1 to restore my favorite settings, which it did,
> but I was chagrined to find that I lost all of the band
> stacking work that I had done. I redid all of the band
> stacking again and then I stored everything (hoprfully) in
> User1 memory). Then I did a Recall. After the radio reset
> itself to the factory defaults, I pressed User1 to get
> everything back to my preferences. The first thing I checked
> were the band stacking registers -- they were all there just
> where I had set them!!
>
> Moral of the story: Whenever you change ANYTHING, make sure
> you store it in one of the User memories before you do a
> factory default recall. The User feature seems to be very useful.
>
> This coming weekend I plan to put the receiver to the
> ultimate test during the CQ CW WPX contest.
>
> Now, the down side:
>
> Hardware bugs:
>
> 1) There is an annoying tone from the front panel headphone
> jack. My guess is that it's around 1500Hz. It's more
> noticeable with narrower bandwidths (because the received
> noise level goes down). It's there when the audio gain is
> turned all the way down and increases as the the audio gain
> control is turned up. There is also a very weak audio hiss
> saudible. I use a Kenwood SP-230 speaker which the
> headphones plug into and the tone is much weaker there. It's
> obvious that the output at the radio headphone jack is much
> greater than that at the external speaker output jack. The
> SP-230 has selectable audio filters in it which eliminates
> the problem. However, this prohibits using the Orion's
> "panoramic stereo reception" feature (which I haven't tried
> yet) because the external speaker output is monoaural.
>
> 2) There is a feature in the menu to adjust the center
> frequency of the narrow (250Hz and 500Hz) crystal filters.
> The factory default setting is "0" (adjustable from -250 to
> +250 -- Hertz, I assume). I have both filters (Ten-Tec - not
> INRAD), and both of them require the -250 setting on UCW and
> the +250 setting on LCW. I have the UCW setting stored in
> User1 memory and the LCW stored in User2 memory so that I can
> choose either. The down side of this is that if I want to
> switch from upper to lower CW to eliminate closeby QRM, It
> takes about 5 or ten seconds for the User recall to complete.
> When it does, the signal has to be tuned in again because of
> the ~500Hz shift due to the xtal filters requiring an offset
> correction, so to speak. The only answer to this that I see
> is that any narrow xtal filters that you use in the radio
> must be exactly centered without resorting to any "fudge" factor.
>
> Software bugs:
>
> 1) After doing any Recall (either User or Factory reset), the
> LCD contrast dims noticeably when the recall completes.
> Going to the menu and adjusting the contrast immediately
> restores the LCD brightness.
>
> 2) When you go to the menu to adjust the CW sidetone pitch,
> as soon as you change it the readout goes to 5 digits (where
> it is normally 3 digits, i.e., below 1000Hz). The reason for
> this ids that the 3-digit reading jumps two character spaces
> to the left, and the last two digits of the original reading
> are still there and are not overwritten. It was ok with
> software v1.337 (where the sidetone pitch and the spot pitch
> readouts differed by 10Hz, which was fixed by v1.341), but
> appeared when I loaded v1.341. If you exit the menu and then
> re-enter the menu, the display is ok. You can also change
> the sidetone pitch by adjusting the spot pitch (they follow
> each other), which is easier to do anyway (you don't have to
> enter the menu to adjust the spot pitch).
>
> 3) To do a split operation (transmit on one VFO and receive
> on the other) requires doing three things:
>
> a) Press the A/B button to put both VFOs on the same freq.
> b) Select one VFO for rx and the other for tx.
> c) Adjust the tx VFO for the split offset.
>
> With the FT-1000MP, this is a one-button operation, where all
> you have to do is press the SPLIT button and it enables VFO-B
> as the tx VFO and puts it up 5 kHz from VFO-A (offset is
> adjustable in the MP's menu). I believe that Ten-Tec can do
> this in the software by adding an item in the menu to turn
> on/off the capability for the A/B button to split tx/rx on
> the two VFOs and another menu item to set the amount of +/-
> frequency offset the user desires.
>
> My K2 works fine on SPLIT, but it's also not as easy to set
> up for split use as the MP is.
>
> The first 2 software "bugs" I've mentioned are minor
> nuisances. The third one is a major nuisance (IMO).
>
> 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
>