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Show all reviews of the Ten-Tec Orion II
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You can write your own review
of the Ten-Tec Orion II.
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NA1A
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Rating: 5/5
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May 15, 2008 21:33
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Outstanding ESSB Radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I first saw the Orion II up close (but not too personal) at the 2007 Dayton Hamfest. Recently, I was fortunate enough to purchase a second hand (6 months old) unit with the most current software. I spent two hours at the seller’s QTH evaluating this radio against his newly purchased Icom IC-7700. I tuned around on 20M and 17M, trying to find some weak signals to see how the two receivers compare to each other. I found a New England station in QSO with a station in the midwest. The New England was very weak with some fast and furious QSB. Both radios (Orion II and IC-7700) were able to pull that weak station from New England through with no problem. However, I noticed that the when New England station went into deep fades, the Orion II was able to capture him clearer than the IC-7700. Now, this did not mean that the IC-7700 could not pull that weak signal through, both rig were able to pull it through but the Orion II just had a better clarity, thus made the readability easier.
When I brought the Orion II home and hooked it up to my audio rack (I’m into Hi-Fidelity audio), this radio just came to life! The receiver was so smooth and quiet, it literally surpassed my Flex radio.
Coming from using the Flex Radio for more than three years, I find maneuvering through the menu in the Orion II a breeze. It definitely is different from any other radios that I have had in the past (FT-1000MP Mark V, FT-2000, FTDX-9000D, IC-765PRO III, TS-950SDX), but by no means to say that it is difficult. Like most if not all menu driven transceivers now a day, one needs to spend time to read the manual and get acquainted with the menus. There is simply no quick and easy way around it.
Some of the negatives comments I’ve heard from other Orion II owners such as, the transmitter was not good, the monitor audio was tiny. I’m pleasantly surprised with my Orion II that not only the transmit audio sounds fantastic, the monitor audio is dead on accurate as well.
I’m not into contesting nor DX-chasing, so my review shall omit on how the Orion II performs under those conditions. One thing I can tell you for sure is that this radio has a brick-walled front end. I put this radio to several tests on 75M where I have a neighboring ham who is very big into AM. He has big tube transmitters that runs KW easily and he runs wide AM broadcast quality audio. Worse yet, he is only five houses away from me. Every time this OM keys up, my 75M operating is pretty much gone. For several months, I was in the dog house with my Flex radio when this happened. I could not even hear anything even when I was 100KC away! Now with the Orion II, that problem is solved. I can copy the station whom I'm in QSO with even at 15KC away from my neighbor's big AM transmission. The Orion II is a real winner in this case.
I truly believe that there is no other tranceiver in the world today that can top the Orion II, even in the 5 digit dollar amount.
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