[GE] New GE Radio help - Orion

[Geoff Fors]

Jack,

The Orion will work on 6 Meters but it requires having the programming
software first, and then making modifications to what are called the SC or
the SC4 files to fool the radio so that the upper limit becomes 54 MHz
instead of 50.  This makes every channel programmed, really 4 MHz higher.  I
believe some mods to the VCO and the transmitter power amplifier low pass
filter are also necessary.  In other words, this is not a plug-and-play
conversion.

The software seems to be only available from M/A Com and it is expensive.
There are two types, one is DOS and the newer one is for Windows.  The
software packages program more than just the Orion, it's sort of an
all-in-one package.

The accessories go for quite a bit of money on eBay because they are far
harder to get than the radio drawer itself.  This is a supply and demand
situation created when a large eastern state police agency (Indiana, Ohio,
something like that) surplused all the drawers but kept the accessories for
use on a newer radio which uses the same head and cable.  That put a couple
thousand drawers on the market with no accessories.

I suggest you join the GE Orion group over on Yahoo Groups.  There is a lot
of information over there, including some details on the 6 Meter conversions
in the "Files" section.

Geoff
WB6NVH