TenTec Orion II, the radio of my dreams!
This is where I'll keep a sort of a diary about my experiences with my new radio
17.12.2008
Today my XYL, Jytte told me that I was getting my numero uno wish for
X-mas:
a TenTec Orion II radio, and told me to order it myself.
It's now on order, scheduled to arrive sometime between Christmas
day and New Years Eve - I can hardly wait ....
05.01.2009 My shiny new Orion 2 arrived today, and I'm in love already!
Only complaint so far are the puny Send1 and Send2 memories - far to
short for even a contest CQ, and I'm too lazy to use Send3 (needs to be
reprogrammed after each off-on)
Maybe the SW guys at TT have fixed it in the upcoming release?
Incredible Rx audio (I'm mostly a phone guy + some Digital (WSJT, WSPR,
PSK31 and RTTY)) and reports on Tx audio (I bought the 708A desk mike
with it) excellent.
Spent about 12 hours with it today, trying out stuff, reading the manual and QSO'ing.
08.01.2009 Taking a leaf from the FT-847 book: Keying the
transmitter from the AUX (called Data by Yaesu) port enables AUX-In and
disables Mic-Input, and vice versa - should be a very small matter to
implement in SW, but immensely useful for the occasional Digital-mode
user.
A question for the O2 owners: Is the threaded part of your Mic socket
kind of loose too? (the central part with the pin receptacles is firmly
seated) or should I worry enough to take the front assembly apart to
fix it? (09.01.2008 Update: Several have responded on the mail reflectors, that this is perfectly normal!)
10.01.2008:
Several have suggested to use the "User1..User4" personality storage
for supplying a quick personality change - excellent idea! I now have
"User1" set up for phone with all band, frequency, Mic input and mode
settings appropriate for this, and "User2" for Digital modes with
"Aux-In" as input etc.
Checked frequency accuracy against my 10,000,000.000Hz Rubidium
standard today - seems that my radio is abt 34Hz low on 30m. I guess
I'll let it burn in a while longer before attempting an adjustment.
The spectrum display sometimes freezes after extended period of usage
(running WSPR 2min periods with every fourth period Tx). Simply turning
Sweep Off and the On again will cure it.