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write your own review of the Ten-Tec Omni V.
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W5IEI
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 4, 2007 05:15
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Old warhorse
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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What can I say that hasn't been said.Very quiet reciever,nice to look at,the recieve audio is wonderful.QSK of course is the best.
I've gotten many unsilicoted compliments on tx audio as well.
Most reports on PSK31 as IMD in the minus 30's.
Now Carl N4PY has a new V9.2 chip and it is on par with most modern rigs.
A definite keeper.
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N7WR
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 13, 2006 19:06
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Impressive
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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48 years as a ham and have owned Kenwood, Yaesu and Icom HF radios of many sorts. Just picked up my first Ten Tec for a couple of reasons. One, I've heard very good things about them and their factory service/support and, two, I have decided in my old age to "buy American" whenever I can.
Picked up a very clean Omni V loaded with filters. Supurb receiver and am getting great TX audio reports as well. On CW I can only say WOW!
Impressed enough that I have tracked down a 961 power supply/speaker and the 301 remote tuner and am looking forward to building a complete, primary staion out of this. My principal on the air time is spent DXing and contesting. I think I'm going to enjoy both more with this rig.
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KI4DTV
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 24, 2006 20:17
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Great rig!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've owned my omni v for about 3 years and I just can't find a rig that performs better or I would buy it.
I like to trade rigs every year or so. I trade other rigs but I always hang on to my omni v.
It has fantastic receive and transmit audio.
DSP ruins the receive fidelity for me on any rig.
In fact, it's well known that the omni v is the only rig that the addition of DSP couldn't make an improvement.
If you're a newer ham who doesn't know how great the rigs sounded before DSP you won't notice it.
I tried the omni VI but didn't like it as well as the omni v because of the DSP.
There's other ways to get rid of noise, etc. than using rig degrading DSP.
I had another thing happen recently that is interesting and has to do with Ten Tec.
I have a Kenwood rig and the processor went bad. They don't make that part anymore and the rig is only five years old!
It took me several weeks and lots of calls to find a replacement part. Kenwood was no help at all and it cost a lot of money to get it fixed. A lot of waiting and aggravation to.
I'm not picking on kenwood. Icom and yaesu are no better in that department.
This is another reason to buy Ten Tec. They still service their rigs that are over 20 years old.
For reference I've been a ham for over 46 years. I've had most of the popular rigs.
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K8BVJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 1, 2005 12:51
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Every bit as good as the newer rigs today.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I finally bought an Omni V fully filtered. It really performs excellent on CW when hunting for weak DX stations. QRM is almost never a problem with the excellent stages of filtering.
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K3TE
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 3, 2003 14:16
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First class Amateur Transceiver
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have owned my Omni V since 1997. The rig has performed flawlessly over the years. The receiver will pull signals out of the hash. My rig is loaded with all the necessary filters for operating CW and SSB. The only useless feature is the noise blanker, which appears to do absolutely nothing!!! I use the rig with a stock Ten-Tec hand mic and I consistently receive unsolicited good audio reports on SSB. On CW, this rig is heaven - the PassBand Tuning and the flexible filter options make copying weak CW a delight. The voice board and the FM board are nice additions.
I prefer the sound of the Omni V audio over most newer rigs (Ten Tecs included) It sounds REAL - this may be a psychoacoustic issue, but it affects me.
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GW4JPC
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 7, 2003 15:42
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A Serious Ops Rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I got my Omni V new in September 1990 and immediately encountered problems that were only cured by doing some factory approved mods.These were to get rid of some LOUD birdies on 15 meters and some hum induced into the receive audio.
I already owned an Omni-C so I found the extra facilities such as BPF/Fade,PBT and selectable AGC a treat to use.The receive audio seemed bright and hissy after the Omni-C but I got used to it.It is a first rate receiver,if it is there then the Omni V will pull it in.
I use it mainly for sideband,which is a bit of a waste,so I have the 2.4KHz filter at 9MHz plus the 1.8KHz at 6MHz.This works really well.The transmit audio gets good reports(unsolicited) all the time.I use an electret as the desk mic or a Heil HC5 cartridge as a headset boom mic.
I read with interest other contributors comments on the N4PY CPU upgrade.This could work wonders as I have not upgraded the software since 1991 (Version 3-11 changed to 5-1).Its' nicely put together in a way that makes it easy to work on.
The after sales service has been superb.Even though I live several thousand miles from the factory, parts are usually obtainable in 3 to 4 days.
One problem has occurred lately, I lost the bottom segment of 10 meters.I have not checked it yet,so don't know whether it is the crystal or its' associated transistor in the band oscillator that has got lazy.I would consider this to be a good reliability record in 13 years.
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KY6R
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 30, 2003 08:38
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Wow!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I picked up a mint Omni V for $550 and see why so many CW ops still rant about this rig. It is sensitive, very selective (just as good or better than my TS-2000), and most of the controls are right on the front panel - not buried down in menus. A classic and a keeper.
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VE3IOS
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 5, 2003 14:04
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Excellent Receiver
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have been up and down the Ten tec food chain. Started with the Omni V, traded to the Omni VI with the Opti 1 upgrade looking for the that ultimate receiver. I then traded to the Jupiter. Well after taking the Ten tec rig tour I traded the Jupiter in for another Omni V.
After using the other rigs I realized just what a great receiver the Omni V really is. Or should I say the best receiver. It does not suffer from adjacent station interference which was a big problem with the Jupiter. The Jupiter has some nice receive audio. But with the Omni V's superior receiver and it's own great sounding audio it's the clear winner. A notch and noise blanker that really work. It can pull any station out of the noise and tune out the interference. The notch will take out any hetrodyne thrown at it. It has a second receive antenna connector in the back which is great for experimenting with other antennas. There is a chip upgrade for the CPU available very cheap to upgrade this fine rig. AND this rig is available on the second hand market at a great price even through the Ten tec factory. Service and support is still available and always will be from Ten tec.
This is a great receiver. If you can't hear them you can't work them.
jeff
ve3ios
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K2TA
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 5, 2002 18:43
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Best Rig I've owned/used
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Dusted off the rig last weekend after being QRT for 6 years. Threw up an antenna and was tuning the transmatch when whisps of smoke appeared at the back of the OMNI-v. The braid of the coax was shorted to the center conductor at the antenna and most of the power arced across the final broadband transformer in the PA section of the OMNI-V charring the PC board material so it became a carbon resistor across the primary of the transformer reducing power to near 10 watts at full current. After unsoldering the xfmr I used a Dremmel cutting disc to remove all the PC board between the 2 powdered iron cores and soldered it back onto the board. The next time it arcs (hopefully there won't BE a next time!) there won't be any PC material to char and conduct RF.
I agree with others - Best CW rig ever. I found the audio circuit to be a bit noisy however and if the AC supply is placed on the left side of the rig that hum is heard in the headphones. Even with the volume turned down there is hum/hiss. So I took the N4UAU Switched cap audio filter board (1.5" x 1.5"), mounted it over the IF/AF board and ran wires to the filter selection lines. Now my audio passband tracks the IF. I use 200Hz audio bandwith with the 250Hz IF filter. NOW its TRULY an incredible radio with the ability pick out the desired signal from an interfering signal that is anywhere short of exact zero beat.
I have contacted Carl N4PY and am considering plunking down the $70 for the new CPU and having his software upgrade performed. Then do the RS-232 mod and get my logging software talking again.
An aside... I've been ham since 1966. Bought the original Power Mite boards (vfo, rx, tx, audio) for $7.95 each. Then got an Argonaut. 10 years later I sent the Argonaut back for a new output transistor. When I got the rig back it had been upgraded with a NEW front panel, new trim, new wood grain cover. NO cHARGE! It was ser #36 and I guess the earliest one out in the field and they thought it should be given special treatment I suppose. Great company!
My previous rig was a TS-930 - Nice radio, Nice general coverage, built like a tank and as heavy. But no mobile operation, no easy repair etc and lousy opposite sideband supression when the bandpass tuning was cranked down with the Kenwood 250Hz filter in place. When I tried the OMNI-V next to the 930... I sold the 930 and bought the OMNI.
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WQ8Q
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Rating: 5/5
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May 29, 2002 18:33
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A Real Radio!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I picked up an OMNI V a couple of months ago, after reading about how wonderful it was here on eham. I did the N4PY Omni V.9 modification, and indeed, this did improve this 13 year old radio. But, I thought, it's a 13 year old radio that works very well, but (yawn) what's the big deal? Then this past weekend, I decided to try it out in the CQ WPX CW contest, just to see if I could pick up some new DX. Well, let me tell you fellas and gals, this is one serious CW machine. Using the crystal filters to their extreme, and the audio filtering to zero in on the crowded band, I could pick out CW stations and pretend they were my own personal signals. This radio, when set up properly, will completely IGNORE nearby CW signals. I did indeed work some new ones, including a New Zealand that was so far down in the mud, not moving the meter, buried by other close-by signals, that he was calling CQ and nobody was answering. Well, I zeroed in on and got him first call, with me running barefoot to a 1/2 sized G5RV up about 20 feet. Buoyed by the response of this rig, using the .500 and .250 6mhz IF filters and the audio filters, I figured, how could it get any better? I ordered the .500 9mhz IF filter from TenTec yesterday (and got it today! There's TT service for you!) and have been playing around with it between thunderboomers. Incredible! Yeah, this rig will run SSB, but who cares? If you are a CW op, this is the rig for you. It's priced right in the market right now, and if you can find a clean one, snap it up. TenTec still services these (and every radio they've ever made, let's see the Oriental companies top THAT!) and this radio will run rings around many modern rigs. Yep, I've got another rig sitting in the shack, a Ten Tec Pegasus (which replaced a yaesu) and while the Pegasus is fun, the OMNI V is a REAL RADIO. Remember those?
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