Stryker 955HPC?

Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by The Gryphon, Dec 4, 2012.

  1. The Gryphon

    The Gryphon Heavy Load Member

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    Your thoughts/opinions on the Stryker 955HPC?
     
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  3. Mad Dog 20/20

    Mad Dog 20/20 Heavy Load Member

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  4. The Gryphon

    The Gryphon Heavy Load Member

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    Then what's a better value?
     
  5. handlebar

    handlebar Heavy Load Member

    Better for what? The opening question is sorta like "How long is a piece of string?" or "How much does a boat cost?"
    Aside from the obvious answer of "for talking with", how do you wish to use it? What kind of niche would it fill for you?
    The wifey's car has a Pro510XL and a 102" whip. My van has an 8-band, 100-watt mobile that I got for under $300 (second owner, but 20 year old radio), and a returned-from-the-grave Cobra 25, also with a 102".
    We can talk reliably between the vehicles up to around 8-10 miles. We could have spent a bunch more for radios, but bought decent antennas and pocketed the difference for VHF/UHF gear.
    Kinda depends on what'cha wanna do.
    73
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2012
  6. The Gryphon

    The Gryphon Heavy Load Member

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    Point well taken.

    I'm a truck driver and really just want a good sounding/receiving radio with about a 8-10 mile range.

    Can't put 102' whips on the truck and don't want to mess with linear amps, etc.

    Just want a single box solution that sounds/hears good.
     
  7. Logan76

    Logan76 Crusty In Training

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    General lee is a good 10 meter radio that will hold up well in a truck and can be bought for a reasonable price.
     
  8. The Gryphon

    The Gryphon Heavy Load Member

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    So, if I get a 10-meter radio, I have to have it modified to be able to use the CB channels too, right?
     
  9. The Gryphon

    The Gryphon Heavy Load Member

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    Would a regular CB radio with some mods, like say an RFX-75, do what I want to do without me having to mess with the 10-meter stuff?

    If so, maybe a Uniden 880 with RFX-75 (yeah I know someone who has figured out how to put the RFX in this new Uniden radio), or a Cobra 29 with RFX-75?

    Or something else?
     
  10. Big Duker

    Big Duker "Don Cheto"

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    The Stryker is a 10 meter and will have to be modified. Nothing unusual. Shops do it everyday. Most they sell to drivers are for CB only. Not too many venture off into the sidebands and other places they will go. Looks like a nice rig. Know nothing about them. Bells has some test videos. Like the easy read panel on it. There are lots of in the know radio heads on here. Sure they will let you know.
     
  11. handlebar

    handlebar Heavy Load Member

    If you go the 10 meter radio conversion route to try to end up with a better performing CB rig, keep in mind that having more transmit output isn't necessarily going to make your receiver better. And many of the "export" radios sacrifice receive performance (in both sensitivity, or the ability to hear weak signals, and selectivity, or the ability to keep signals separated) in the process of making them so broadbanded that the radios can be made to work across the frequency range from the 12 meter ham band (around 24 MHz) up through CB (centered around 27 MHz) and into 10 meters (which goes up to 29.700 MHz). I've had a few "converted exports" come in to me where all that has been done was to clip/move/install the appropriate jumper to add the CB range, but nothing was done to align the receiver. It only takes 10 minutes more for an experienced tech with a commercial lab grade service monitor to align the receive stages; possibly a little longer for the ones with only a single RF stage that have to be stagger-tuned to cover the entire range. Not everyone knows how, and certainly not every vendor even has the appropriate gear or training to do it.
    Having more power on transmit will make up somewhat for a lower efficiency antenna for outbound signals, but it will be really difficult to make up for the receive signal levels which are never presented to the radio by that same antenna. If *everyone* were using 50- or 80-watt radios (and assuming they were aligned properly so that all that power were actually on the desired channel), then the field would be leveled, and the relatively poorer receivers would be made up for by universally higher transmitter powers.

    Given the goals you describe with the restrictions, I think you'd be way ahead ($$ and performance) by sticking with a transceiver designed for CB in the first place, whose receiver circuits can be "concentrated" on the frequency range you really care about. Then after you optimize whatever antenna you're able to fit on your vehicle so it works as well as it can, if you still need a little more transmit range for reliable close-in performance, add a *separate* modest outboard power amplifier. By "modest", I mean like 60 or 100 watts; I've had good personal luck with the RM Italy amps, as I've got some 10 meter radios that I've made by converting *from CB* TO 10 meters from many years ago.
    By not having a bolt-on amp strapped on to the rear of the stock CB radio, none of the original components have be altered in the radio, which could degrade the basic radio's performance in order to get the "famously known bolt-on package" to put out published power ratings, that users then often try to inflate even further, apparently under the assumption that "even more swing ougth'a be killer, dude!" And an awful lot of those bolt-ons are installed by people with no more service equipment than a DC voltmeter, a soldering iron, and an inexpensive SWR meter.
    And with an outboard amp, if something goes wrong with either the amp or the radio, it's easy to figure out which one it is with a jumper swap; if the Uniden or Cobra has died, the spare comes out of a box and gets swapped in. If the amp dies (haven't had one quit yet, personally), just run the antenna straight to the radio until the amp can get looked at. It's been the rare '29 that I've taken out of the box that actually needed any improvement in its receiver alignment, and the difference between 3.5 and 4.1 watts output only makes a difference in how warm the part gets.
    Sorry for the long post, but you can probably tell I do this stuff a lot -- 50 years now since my first license to transmit, and almost 40 with the ticket to do this stuff commercially. Hope it helps some.
    73
     
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