The spectrum of an Orion2 keyed at full power on 14 MHz. The time constant is set to 5 ms, the default setting. The serial number is 09C1096 and the software version 2.37.

Amplitude and frequency as a function of time. The orion is keyed in the same way as in the spectrum above. The time from 10% to 90% is 1.6 ms and the time from the onset to full power is about 3.6 ms. The time constant 5 ms is the shortest key closure time that will generate a morse code dot at nearly full power. This corresponds to about 1100 letters per minute. At this setting the keying speed should not exceed about 200 letters per minute. A speed that few operators run above except for high speed meteor scatter on VHF bands. (Not common any more because of digital modes.)