[TenTec] Omni VI version 3 - which Inrad filters to buy for CW use?

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On 9/1/2010 2:05 AM, Chris Wagner wrote:
> Hello
>
> I'm Chris, presently HS0ZFE and in Nonthaburi, Thailand. Yesterday, I bought
> an Omni VI on eBay.
> It will be my first TenTec transceiver. Although I admire the company for
> its continued support of amateur radio.

That manual is available for download from TenTec.
>
> Without the manual, I was unable to use a modern handheld Kenwood radio,
> unable to go to a simplex frequency.
> Anyhow, my expectations are high. and the seller knocked off $ 300 for the
> filters.
>
> Q1: the seller says, the Omni VI needs *2* 250 Hz filters, not one. why?

Two filters achieve better skirt selectivity, if you really need AND can 
stand 250 Hz selectivity. These filters don't ring so much as Kenwoods did.
>
> Q2: should I choose the 400 Hz filter instead, as a beginner?

You can achieve narrow selectivity with the stock SSB filters using the 
bandpass tuning. You don't get to select the center frequency that way 
though and the skirts won't be as steep as either one or two of the 
narrow CW filters.

There are at least as many opinions as filter selections and operators 
combined.

 From past experience I've come to prefer 400 or 500 Hz bandwidth (and 
the TenTec filters are not bad filters nor the Inrad filters necessarily 
better filters) because I've found the narrower filters like 250 Hz led 
to ear fatigue after a few hours of FD CW operation because that 
particular (Kenwood) narrow filter rang a bit on noise giving me a 
narrow spectrum of noise with a CW signal of the same pitch that I had 
to separate by ear. Had the filter been wider (that particular radio 
didn't allow selecting the filter independent of mode), I wouldn't have 
faded as soon. But I'm not trying to copy one signal amongst a thousand 
in a pile up or to copy the weak DX signal next to that slightly off 
frequency pile up.

Experiment with the bandpass tuning before you plop for CW filters and 
then consider TenTec filters as well as Inrad filters.
>
> I would be happy to call, if someone prefers talking to typing. Here is my
> voice mail # : +1 760 820 4980
>
> Mni tnx es vy 73 de Chris (aka KF6VCI and MI1ESG)
> ______________________________________________________________
>
73, Jerry, K0CQ