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Reviews For: Ten-Tec Omni-VII

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : Ten-Tec Omni-VII
Reviews: 110MSRP: 2850
Description:
Ten-Tec Omni-VII Model 588AT (with Autotuner) 160 thru 6 meter Transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://radio.tentec.com/amateur/transceivers/588
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001104.9
W4WFB Rating: 2007-07-31
Great Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After experiencing some hardware and firmware "growth pains" I believe the Omni VII is the best radio I have ever had. The AGC in the receiver is like nothing else I have experienced. Properly set, the receiver is so quiet you think it is squelched. Signals seem to pop out of nowhere. The quiet receiver reminds me of my K2. I receive very good audio reports on SSB, and CW QSK is the best there is. I highly recommend this radio. Roy Morris W4WFB
N2BEE Rating: 2007-07-22
fantastic radio-room for some improvements Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great radio on cw or ssb. easy to operate and understand. A keeper in my book.
Improvements?? Yup!! but then what radio doesn't??
#1 I would like to see the up and down buttons on the front to change frequency in .1 steps instead of holding the step button in then tuning where you want to go and holding the step button in to get back to your original tuning status.
#2 It could use an audio out jack on the back for plugging in audio accessories instead of having to wire each one to the accessory plug
W9AC Rating: 2007-06-28
Excellent Overall Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Been using the Omni VII for the past month and the OMNI VII is a very worthy successor to the classic Omni series. Some operating observations:

- Totally stable operating system. No worries about radio re-boots;
- Excellent CW keying wave-shape and fast QSK;
- High quality manufacturing with extensive use of SMD circuitry. This radio leaves little empty space inside the box;
- Good use of aluminum and steel construction;
Extraordinary Rx and Tx audio quality. Gone is the grungy audio associated with other DSP-based transceivers as a result of PA biasing issues;
- Probably the most ergonomically-correct transceiver available. Nearly no need for an operating manual with very intuitive controls;
- Superb filtering through a combination of Collins mechanical filters and sharp IF DSP skirts;
- Very easy networking and Internet interface. My only radio connections are antenna, DC power and Ethernet. With the Omni VII and local PC connected to a router, all audio and CW is transferred through the digital Ethernet port. When combined with S/PDIF optical audio equipment, the only analog audio exists between the mic and external pre-amp. No ground loops, No hum, No RFI;
- Outstanding antenna port isolation - as good as PIN diode switching;
- When combined with N4PY software, very powerful Internet remote capabilities;
- Smooth front panel digital encoders. All controls and switches work as expected;
- Band optimized ALC;
- Quad band-stacking registers;
- Easy firmware upgrade interface through a choice of Ethernet or serial RS-232;
- Receive audio is quickly "dimmed" during certain switching functions to save our ears from unnecessary clicks (e.g., band changes)

Overall, a very impressive transceiver. In the future, Ten Tec will be offering the Model 610 CW interface to allow remote Internet operation of a straight key, bug, or iambic paddle. It will also incorporate a port to attach the Model 302 remote tuning knob.

K4JAF Rating: 2007-04-17
Great Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned the Ten Tec Omni VII for about a month now. I am very pleased with the radio, selectivity is great, audio on receive is as good as any radio I have owned. CW operation is pure pleasure. I can control the radio over my local LAN and enjoy radio anywhere on the property. I think this is a terrific radio for the $$$. Ten Tec has a winner!
K7ERQ Rating: 2007-03-20
Outstanding! Magical on CW! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ten Tec is to be congratulated. I believe they have stepped forward with this design. This GEM has very impressive features. I own an Orion II and and IC7800...the Omni VII is superior on CW reception and transmit. Quiet receiver on weak signals, Lightning fast and dead quiet QSK, Noise blanker much better than my Orion II. Menu and controls are very easy to learn and adjust. Several nice operating features that are not available in the Orions.
W7CKW Rating: 2007-03-12
great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
great radio. also had Orion I and IIs. This is a keeper. GUI will need improving, but that is expected.
WB4QDA Rating: 2007-03-12
Amazing Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had my Omni VII about 3 weeks now. I ask for and received Serial #7. I had 2 well known contesters after operating my Omni VII say that they were really impressed with the lack of any relay noise when transmitting CW. I think they were really shocked at how smooth and easy operating the radio was. As far as I am concerned the Omni VII is only a notch under my Orion II in the ability to hear weak signals under crowded band conditions. From the reports I have received, the transmitted audio is better than my Orion II. I think the one-plug Graphical User Interface ("GUI") and the Omni VII remote base will change the way we think about integrating Ham Radio with the Internet. There are 3 more empty slots in which the Omni VII can boot. What will they become? Maybe color slowscan TV, on screen rtty, PSK31, or digital voice. This transceiver lets you dream about the future and have a say in what it becomes. I want to thank TenTec for thinking outside the box and to John Henry for for some really impressive code writing. As you can tell I am really "jazzed up" about this radio and guess what? This is just the begining! It is only going to get better and better. Keep up all you old hams like me. The world of Amateur Radio is changing and we need to keep up.

John/WB4QDA


VE2XX Rating: 2007-03-11
Omni VII -amazing radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I owned this radio for just over a week and managed to use the radio remotely over the internet while on my business trip, AMAZING, once everything is up and running it is truly a great radio.
The GUI(graphical user interface) is very easy to use , and will only get better with time.

IP setup is not too complicated but it helps to have some background in IP,or have someone to help you there are a few settings which can be tricky.
Once you've done the setup , looking back its very simple.
The receiver works very well, this is my 2nd Tentec Radio and it is a few notches up from The Jupiter.
The menu is VERY easy to setup,and intuative, , the main screen is a wopping 4"x5" , making it easy to see what you are doing.

The radio has 100w on 6 meters with its own antenna connection, making it real easy to switch from HF to VHF.

Where this radio will shine is for those who cannot operate from a condo or apartment building and have access to a remote site where antennas are permitted ect.

For me the selling point was having remote access, a true gem!

Tentec support was amazing, extremely helpfull, and went beyond the call of duty in overcomming some initial issues.

This radio may be the radio which helps the younger "crowd" get interested and keep HAM RADIO alive, it mixes internet savy and RF in a stylish unit.

Congratulations to all the designers at TenTEC, and a huge thankyou to John Henry for his expertise and dedication on making the GUI "talk to" the radio as well as it does.

Stu VE2xx

KY6R Rating: 2007-03-10
Amazing Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My all time favorite transceiver (Orion - I and II) now has some competition.

I have my Omni VII out in my garage shack and I am sitting inside controlling it from my PC. This is a major breakthrough for me - because as a DX-er at 314 entities (and where my only burning interest these days is working all time new ones), I like to sit in my very comfortable home office looking at cluster spots, surfing the web, listening to music - maybe even doing work. When I see a spot for an all time new one - instead of running out to the garage, I can simply access the radio over the network and see if I can hear the DX. My family appreciates the fact that I am not always "hunkered down" in the garage shack too. They can see me, interrupt me, so they are happier with me (hi hi).

I have the 300 and 500 Collins filters, and the receiver seems very similar in sensitivity as my Orion II. The transmitter is also very similar, and I think the big difference is that the Orion II gives me more accessible control over all receiver parameters. Honestly, I don't utilize all of the parms in the Orion II that I could - I have a setting that seems to let me work DX in just about any condition. In that regard - this makes the Omni VII an amazing value!

The OMNI VII gives me something the Orion II doesn't - ethernet "network appliance" remote access, and 6 meters.

I won't be selling the Orion II, but I can see where Ten Tec is going - and it is fantastic. I almost bought "another" PC controlled / remote accessible SDR (software defined radio), but I didn't like all of the external connections and the fact that I couldn't take that radio with me on DX-peditions or vacations - at least not as easily as the Omni VII will.

The OMNI VII lets you access it as a PC controlled black box or as a "regular old fashioned" radio - with knobs, screen, etc.

Ten Tec remains the absolute leader in innovation and with the best service department ever in ham radio.

The instructions were clear - I was able to get the radio on the network using UDP port forwarding by reading the manual - otherwise - I didn't need the manual at all to learn how to use the radio in "old fashioned" mode. The PC GUI is simple, but seems to have everything you need to control the radio.

My guess is that others will enhance the look and feel of the GUI so it doesn't look as "utilitarian" as it does - but I got over "fluff" a long time ago.

The only improvements I would suggest would be to have a rear mounted CW key and mic connection (there is only one on the front), and I would rather not plug anything into the front, and I wish the GUI were written in Java as a web app so I could run the remote GUI on a Mac, Linux or a PC. I switched to Mac's recently (I think the BSD OSX is way better than any PC OS - and it took me all these years to switch, and I use Linux, Solaris and Windoze at work).

N4PY Rating: 2007-03-04
Fntastic Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received my new Omni VII last Thursday. I have been going almost 24/7 programming away enhancing my software to take advantage of this great radio. Several things impress me about this radio. From a programming point of view, it is the first radio I have seen that allows 100 percent control from a computer. I should be able to do some really neat things under computer control. From an operational point of view, I am extremely impressed with the CW QSK. Listening while you are sending CW, you cannot tell the difference between the transmitter being off or on. There are no clicks or pops of any kind. I was listening to a CW S3 signal on 40 meters. I set the keyer at 43 wpm and transmitted a continuous dit stream at about 5 watts. I could easily still hear the CW station through my sidetone and tell he was there even though my sidetone was louder than the signal. This is fantastic. I also find the receiver to be very quiet and yet it hears real well. On phone, I am finding SSB stations sound very clean even with the 2500 hertz Collins filter engaged. I also bought the 500 hertz filter and that is working well too.

The human factoring on this radio is amazing. Reading the manual is completely optional. The controls are very intuitive. The scheme they used for the Alt button with the 6 buttons at the bottom of the control is one of the best I have ever seen. I can see I am going to really enjoy this radio.