President McKinley

So far haven't been able to make any contacts on this radio on 38 LSB. I can hear just the same as on my N4... just not enough power to make it to the top of the pile.

 

I haven't had much of a chance to test transmit distance or clarity other than when I first hooked it up, a guy that was 10 miles away in a campground said it sounded clear as a bell.

The stock 6-pin microphone seems to work well although it's very light because it doesn't have any metal weights inside. It does have channel up/down buttons.

Right off the bat, the things I really like about this radio:

1. Automatic Squelch Control works unbelievably good. If there is a signal out there, it lets it through with no choppiness.

2. Scan and Dual Watch... the scan is much quicker than my N4. It also has the ability to listen to 9/19, or one other channel and 9 or 19.

3. The internal SWR meter agrees with my RigExpert and is very easy to use. You can set the SWR function and it will display the SWR on the screen and generate a beeping tone. If SWR is greater than 1.0, it generates a beeping tone that progressively becomes faster until you hit 1.0, at which point the tone becomes solid. This is handy to adjust your antenna without having to look at anything.

4. It has three memory presets which also retain other settings used on a particular channel. So I can set two memories for 19 and 28 on AM, and then one for 38 LSB with a little less RF gain and Hi-cut enabled.

Now for the bad...

1. I don't like the fact that mic gain and rf gain are buried in one of the multi-function buttons and are not very quick to access--rf gain especially.

2. The multi-function buttons... these are not something you're going to be fiddling with while driving down the road unless you have a memory like an elephant. For instance, to set the mic gain, you have to short press F/Mem while simultaneously keying the mic. Then short press F/mem two more times, turn the channel knob to adjust it, then long press the channel knob to retain the setting.

If you're like me and your memory is as short as your johnson, you're going to be digging out the manual if you need to adjust something that's buried a few levels deep.

Now for some features I wish it had...

1. An electroshock device on the mic that will shock the piss out of you if you turn on the roger beep.

2. A skunk oil spray nozzle that will come out of the mic and spray you directly in the mouth if you turn on the roger beep.

3. A 450 decibel siren that will cause you to simultaneously #### yourself, piss your pants and vomit on the inside of the windshield if you turn on the roger beep.

And that's it in a nutshell... a VERY large nutshell.

 

A couple of other things I like...

The radio is a single DIN and will fit in the space where your current FM advertisement and propaganda box resides.

The mic input and speaker are on the front of the radio, making it especially suited for use in a car.