What is the WORST rig you've ever had?

[WF7I]

After years of reading through ham radio bulletin boards, mailing lists, and magazine reviews, I've come to realize one common theme: #few, if any, said anything negative about the rig in question. #How many rig reviews have you read that have been scathing, or at least moderately pessimistic about a new rig offering? #How many hams have you seen lambasting a rig they just bought? #Outside of some minor grumbling, usually followed by a trade at a swapmeet or (rarely) a return to the store, I myself have witnessed few such situations. #Certainly none with the reviews done by the mags.

So, this begs the question, what IS the absolute WORST ham radio that you have ever purchased or had the misfortune of using? #Something that was new and just out of the box, and just never performed? #Perhaps you purchased a new rig, only to have it immediatly fall apart, and you couldn't get any help from the manufacturer. #Or maybe the thing was so poorly designed and so frustrating, that you tossed the thing into the trash bucket!

The worst rig I've come across? #I would say it had to be a tie between an Atlas HF rig and a Swan 2-meter. #The Atlas I found to be unpleasant to use, underpowered and flat out UGLY! #The Swan had noisy audio and was prone to any and all intermod from nearby paging towers. #Fortunatly I didn't own the Atlas (belonged to a ham club) and I unloaded the Swan on someone else (I think for free, if I recall).

Let 'er rip!

[K9ROD]

I've been lucky with all the rigs I've purchased - used and new, but I recently purchased an antenna from Antenna Warehouse in Iowa....had it for a month and it snapped in half. Company told me too bad. I recently found out that they had several such complaints. However, I'm still out the antenna and of course all the work to replace it on my tower. What is sad is that there is really nothing a consumer can do short of filing a law suit in small claims court. Just so happens I live in another state and such action would cost more than it is worth. So I say stick with the big boys to get good quality service. Rod K9ROD http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[K8DD]

SGC 2020 (with and without ADSP)
I always wanted one of them because it is a really cool looking radio. #
Ergonomically it's great. #
On SSB it's great.
On CW, as a modern day radio, it ranks with the S-38 - not quite that bad, but close. #The radio, even with the SCAF filters, is virtually without selectivity when within a couple kHz of a fairly strong signal. #Since over 90% of my operation is CW ...... it's gone. #Maybe if would have had a crystal filter.
But it's still a well built cool little SSB radio!

[KB9TMP]

For me the worst has got to be the Yaesu FT-8100 the 50 watt (sometimes), 35 watt 2m, 70cm mobile. It worked fine until it was out of warranty then the "Yaesu TX Virus" struck and if you wanted to be heard you had to use low or medium power because high wouldn't work. It didn't take me long to find a replacement for that 'doorstop'! ;^)

73
KB9TMP

[N9KPN]

LOL. #I bought a Kenwood 2M mobile radio off of a guy I worked with. #(I can' recall the model number right now.) #This radio was 2M only, could only "split" +/- 600 KHz, and used a third party PL tone board. There was high (10W) and low (2W) power. # It was built like a battleship and was quite heavy and big. #The heat sink on this thing was bigger than on my HF rig! #The frequency was set with a four position lever for the MHz position and two knobs for the 100 KHz and 10 KHz position (frequency was shown nicely on an LED display). #This thing, when it worked, sounded great on both receive and transmit. #The problem was that the PLL would go out of lock (indicated by a pulsing LED) and make the rig unusable (usually in very cold or warm weather). #The PLL/VFO circuit is made up of a number of discrete components and several ICs. #(Most late '70s CB radios have better PLL circuits than this thing.) #Nearly everyone that was in the hobby for any length of time was surprised that I was using this radio mobile. #They kept referring to the radio as "a great packet station". #

I still have it somewhere. #It transmits great on high power but not low. #There is no receive signal what so ever. #Back a few years ago I did attempt to find the schematics on the 'net but failed to do so.

Funny thing is I STILL see these for sale at ham fests.

[W5HTW]

While I didn't own it, I borrowed it ... And gave it back rather quickly ... From that experience, and what I have heard from others, the Eico 753 may have been the worst SSB rig ever produced. Eico, though, produced some very nice CW rigs and a nice AM modulator.

Some rank the SBE33 near the bottom of the list. I used one of those and found it acceptable for what it was intended to do. I would have hated for it to be my only rig, though. Operated mobile, it was OK.

Ed

[K2WH]

I've been a ham for 33 years and except for early on when I bought Ameco equipment, I do not recall ever having a "Worst" rig. #Of course back then, there wasn't much to compare rigs to except home brew stuff.

For the past 20 years or so, I have only bought ICOM equipment and to tell you the truth, they all worked as advertised. #I am somewhat puzzled by the posting though. #When you say worst rig, I say worst compared to what? #Most hams do not know how to compare rigs or, have only 1 rig and to them that is the very best rig because they haven't heard anything better.

Personnaly, I think todays ham is too demanding of amateur equipment. #There are so many sites that compare or review equipment that it is all a little overwhelming. #Owners of equipment complain about the color, the heat, the audio, programmability, flexibility #etc. #Apparently hams know whats best for hams not the manufacturers.

I recently purchased the Kenwood TH-F6A handie talkie and I think it is the best HT on the market. #Go to Yahoo.com TH-F6A group though, and all they do is bitch about what the radio is lacking or some other nebulous short coming. #I personnaly have never compared one rig to the other, and when I buy a new rig, it is the best rig I ever owned, the worst rig doesn't exist.

K2WH

[W8QF]

In the old days the manufactured rigs tended to be a bit ugly at times.And the best part was we got to work on them alot.If you sent them a note on what and how you repaired it you usualy got a nice TNX letter and mabe a discount coupon for you next purchase.Today it's a lot diffrent,even though the price of enjoying the hobby is still about the same as it was 30 years ago there seem to be more junk.Perhaps the worst rig I have come acrossed was a FT8100.Worked fine every where except on 145 Mhz on split for the repeters.When in ofset it stayed 3kc off freq.but in simplex it was dead on.All this was confermed testing with a Cushman CE50.Yeasu said there was absolutly nothing wrong with the radio.However the service tech at Universal Radio in Columbus,Oh had a firm wear update for that very problem that he was sent from Yeasu.Dont figure does it,no problem but we created a fix for that problem anyway's.My worst antenna was a comet HFV7.It broke at the base at 3 months old and Comet said their warrenty did'nt cover brakage.TNX for reading all my bellyaiking.Dave AE8U

[NN6EE]

Hi Del,

Yah I've got to agree with you about the 2m. SWAN, whadda piece of proverbial garbage!!! I think it's nomenclature was the "FM2X"!!! I had owned one of them for a few months back in the mid-70's, but when I had spent a night at my then-Girl Friend's apartment and that next morning when I went back out to my car Lo and Behold some individual of unknown origin STOLE IT!!!
Now mind you under NORMAL circumstances we'd be PISSED right??? But this rig was'nt normal, so my reaction was one of utter and complete JOY and satisfaction, because that damn Car Burglar got what he deserved, a completely USELESS PIECE OF JUNK!!!

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif es 3s,

Jim/nn6ee

[K5YY]

Galaxy followed by early Swan's were worst rigs made. Simple designs, no rejection of nearby signals, horrible audio and bad power supply problems, not to mention 10kc drifting for an hour. I am sure this answer is tainted by how long I have been a ham. More recent yrs have seen poorly designed Icoms and Yaesu and Kenwood rigs of all sorts, too many to name, mainly early to mid 1970s... Overall, I just thought of one other BAD rig, the ALDA out of California in the 1980s. Literally fell apart, junk throughout and worthless in all respects. I will take Collins and Drake anyday for reliability and function along with Icom 781 and perhaps FT1000D.... CU

[WA7CC]

For me, the Eico 753 is the worst. #When I was young, I bought one at a hamfest from someone who guarranteed me that it worked 100%. #It didn't. #It never did. #None of them did.

[N7WSB]

By far the Swan 500CX - really hard to tune, always needed repairs etc etc.

And the Icom 3200a/e - I have one in my car. Its an fine radio transmit audio/reciever wise - but it has the worst programming syntax of any radio I've ever used.

Here's some steps,

A) set frequency with VFO - if its changing frequency in 25 khz steps (the default on any band with the 3200) hit function ts
B) set offset +/-
C) for some reason the offset is always 5 mhz no matter how many times I set it to the 2 meter offset of 600 khz - so you need to set that.
D) Tone - it uses a lookup table - so I need to get the card out and set 147.6 to "15"
E) Test - if its okay hit mw and it will write it to memory
F) Go to memory - reset the offset (frequency and +/-)
G) Reset the tone

Yay - you're now ready to hack it up on the repeaters.

The worst radio I ever bought was a Ft-747.I bought from a guy who claimed he was out of money to get home and had bought too much stuff at a hamfest. So I gave him $200 for the radio. After doing some minor repair on it and getting it working, I used it for a period 4 months, constantly having problems with the V.F.O.! Finally, One night after coming out of work I discoved my hamstick shattered and the radio barely lighting. Since it was the only car in the parking lot at the time on a stormy summers night I can only assume it met it's end by being hit by a electrical spike from the antenna on top of my station wagon. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[WD0CT]

The worst is a tie between my Kenwood 241A and the Ten Tec Jupiter.

The Kenwood display works when it feels like it [most of them do this], despite being fixed once. This of course makes the radio a paper weight most of the time.

The Jupiter was just horrible brand new out of the box. The construction was slipshod--vfo shaft bushing was extremely loose. The frontend on the receiver is weak and overload is a constant companion on anything but a nearly dead band. And the final straw was distorted receive audio with many different speakers and any mode, filter, and dsp settings that made this thing useless too.

#Thankfully I was able to send it back and was only out shipping both ways.

Other manufacturers should take note of this trial period. I believe only Ten Tec and Alpha offer it. # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[NN6EE]

Mike/N7WSB,

With all of the BS that you have to go through to program that damn IC-3200, how do you find time to actually be able to talk to anybody with it??? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

nn6ee

[KE4PJW]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wd0ct @ July 03 2002,14:10)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The worst is a tie between my Kenwood 241A and the Ten Tec Jupiter.

The Kenwood display works when it feels like it [most of them do this], despite being fixed once. This of course makes the radio a paper weight most of the time.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I have heard this about the TM-241a and have only had it rear it&#39;s ugly head one time. I have owned mine since 1994, but it has been used packet and was only mobile for a short period of time. When it did happen, I smacked the radio once with my hand and turned it back on. Once is adjustment, twice is abuse http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif It fired right up without any problems.

I have had one problem out of my TM-733 though. I had a 25 Watt Uniden commercial radio running my APRS beacon. It&#39;s antenna was about 19" away from the TM-733&#39;s. It blew up the first RF amp in the TM-733&#39;s RX. Luckily I was an installer at a two-way shop at the time and was able to diagnose and repair it myself http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

A radio that I would not buy again is the ADI AR-447. I bought it for my girlfriend&#39;s mobile and it seemed like a good deal for &#036;150. It has lots of features, but has two problems.

1) It&#39;s S meter is not calibrated AT ALL. I modified it so that I could bring it into calibration. After setting it, I found that it was not a linear scale and does not work much better after the mod.

2) The VCO is microphonic. If you do not use an external speaker, you get audio feedback at high volumes. Of course it is microphonic on TX too.

It&#39;s not total junk, there could be worse things wrong with it. I wouldn&#39;t not recommend it to anyone though.

-- Terry

[W2CZ]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif #FT7100 from Yaesu. #Bad, stinks, cannot describe it

[n0phw]

Absolutely, without a doubt, hands down, the ADI AT-600 Dual Band handheld I bought four years ago. It&#39;s got birdies in most inopportune places, internally generated noises on most repeater frequencies, and the poorest antenna I had ever seen. The antenna broke after I had owned it for several months, as soon as the warranty had expired the transmitter began dropping out. This was caused by cold and missing solder joints in the PA. The knobs have literally fallen off while tuning the VFO, and the battery lasted about 9 months. And, as bad as this radio performs with its rubber duck antenna, it&#39;s absolutely awful when connected to an outside antenna. I can hear up to three public service frequencies simultaneously when the receiver is not being desensed.
Whoever designed this ridiculous atrocity should be stripped of all human rights and forced to use this radio as net control on a storm watch.

[Midwest]

I have seen several very poor rigs in my 45 years in the hobby. By my measures, ICOM rigs have been the worst. Their reliability is similar to other rigs of the same vintage but the non-standard gimmics used in the circuits double the time needed to trouble shoot and repair any problems. Except for newcomers, I believe most hams like to service their own gear and ICOM ignores this aspect in their designs. They could at least publish their gimmick list such as holding inductance with wax cores that fail under high heat. This complaint should not apply to operators who prefer to send equipment back in for service. ICOM rigs perform well.

[WF7I]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (n0phw @ July 04 2002,17:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Absolutely, without a doubt, hands down, the ADI AT-600 Dual Band handheld I bought four years ago. It&#39;s got birdies in most inopportune places, internally generated noises on most repeater frequencies, and the poorest antenna I had ever seen. The antenna broke after I had owned it for several months, as soon as the warranty had expired the transmitter began dropping out. This was caused by cold and missing solder joints in the PA. The knobs have literally fallen off while tuning the VFO, and the battery lasted about 9 months. And, as bad as this radio performs with its rubber duck antenna, it&#39;s absolutely awful when connected to an outside antenna. I can hear up to three public service frequencies simultaneously when the receiver is not being desensed.
Whoever designed this ridiculous atrocity should be stripped of all human rights and forced to use this radio as net control on a storm watch.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Man, that is a funny post&#33; Thank you for that&#33;

[N3HAT]

It&#39;s hard to pick just one.
I had an Alinco DR590 which was terrible for intermod. (The DR110 was no better). I could not use either one on an outside antenna because all I could hear was a mix of fire dispatch and paging bases. Fortunately the guy I bought the 590 from agreed to take it back. I replaced it with a Heath/Standard HW-24, which is good for intermod but has the awfulest user interface you ever saw. I absolutely cannot program it without referring to the manual.

[W8QF]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (n0phw @ July 04 2002,17:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Absolutely, without a doubt, hands down, the ADI AT-600 Dual Band handheld I bought four years ago. It&#39;s got birdies in most inopportune places, internally generated noises on most repeater frequencies, and the poorest antenna I had ever seen. The antenna broke after I had owned it for several months, as soon as the warranty had expired the transmitter began dropping out. This was caused by cold and missing solder joints in the PA. The knobs have literally fallen off while tuning the VFO, and the battery lasted about 9 months. And, as bad as this radio performs with its rubber duck antenna, it&#39;s absolutely awful when connected to an outside antenna. I can hear up to three public service frequencies simultaneously when the receiver is not being desensed.
Whoever designed this ridiculous atrocity should be stripped of all human rights and forced to use this radio as net control on a storm watch.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I have the Rat Shack version of this HT and it works great.I just dont like the size of it.Dave AE8U

[KG4EFA]

My worst radio is my ADI AR-147. The display will sometimes totally geek out and display a hodge-podge of letters and symbols similar to Russian or Hebrew writing. It&#39;s obviously a design problem, cause I know #personally of, 4 other hams with the same radio, and they do the same thing. Other than that, I like the radio when I can read the display. That&#39;s my only complaint. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[W5EN]

Can I nominate two rigs? #Our ham club purchased an Icom 740 and what a piece of junk. #We attempted to use the rig at field day once and found no rejection in the receiver. #Everyone in the club took turns attempting to adjust the rig for some selectivity with no luck. The 740 was so bad at FD we gave up and went and got a Drake TR4 to finish the event. #I am just glad it belongs to the club and not to me. #
My other bad rig is a 10 meter only job. #I traded a local Radio Shack owner, who also has a sports card shop, some extra baseball cards from my collection for a HTX 10. #What an abomination&#33; #Audio is horrible in mobile environment, to many pushbuttons, and could never tell for sure what frequency I was on because of how the RIT is set up. #This rig is so bad I would trade it for a Swan FM2X any day. #73 Steve

The worst receiver I have owned is a Collins 51S1. I had 3 of them and what a piece of junk. A sick Drake will outperform them any day.

[WA7RCT]

Been a ham for 31 years and owned a few rigs (mostly Kenwood) and some Heath. Never had a bad one. I&#39;ve been very disappointed in a couple of antennas though. The Butternut vertical and the GAP Challenger both fell apart after about a year. The Butternut broke right at the base and after a couple of years of home-made repairs finally junked it. The GAP broke right in half at the &#39;gap&#39;. Both antennas worked great, but the construction left quite a bit to be desired.

[KT4EB]

Finally a post where everyone isn&#39;t arguing&#33; Nice to see a topic everyone can relpy to in a mature manner.

Here&#39;s my &#036;0.02

I have had two horrible radios in my time. The first was the ICOM IC 2100H. The main thing about the radio that I hated was THERE IS NO SQUELCH. There is a knob labled "Squelch" but it is nothing more than an attenuator. You turn it untill the noise goes away, but after that, it attenuates the signals comming in. For example, on our local repeater frequency, during good conditions another distant repeater will come in around S-5. I would have to turn the squelch all the way up just to block out that distant repeater. Then, when my local repeater would transmit, the signal dropped from S9+ to like S1 to where I could barely even copy a repeater that was 10 miles away. Plus, two weeks after I had the rig, the final amplifier went out, and ICOM had to fix it about 3 times.

My other bad experience was with the Alinco DX 70. Horrible HF radio.

[k6ntl]

Gosh, I&#39;ve loved them all... but...

The FT-100D is way too much radio crammed into a little package.

I chose it over the Icom 706 because I love my other Yaesu gear very much.

Maybe loyalty isn&#39;t a good thing with radios..

It went back to the shop for oscillation problems on 10 meters. I also had a mod done to keep the fans running on VHF. They run more, but this radio still gets hot enough to cook an egg even with good SWR readings.

Now we run the fans to keep the radio cool, right? Well I need to get stock in the cooling fan companies, because already, after a few months of use, those buggers are getting noisy.

All the consolidated menus are great, but if you have fat fingers, look out. I am always having to get the manual out to undo something.

Now the FT-100D is a great little radio. It is just the worst of what I have owned. Thanks for the tips out there. I will avoid a few radios when I go collecting boat anchors someday. I do like the FT-101 rigs. Any problems there?

73, Kevin

Worst radio?? Well, it was an ICOM &#33;&#33; I just absolutely hated the color. As for Atlas or Swan rigs, loved them all. Great rigs, because they caused you to become technical very quick, or you were off the air. I would guess the all time rig hated by me is the Yaesu 101. I hate them so much, can&#39;t stop collecting them&#33;&#33; http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[kf3dy]

I would have to say my luck with kenwood has not been very good. Back when I first got licenses I ordered a kenwood JF rig. I don&#39;t even recall what it was at the time. From out of the box it wouldn&#39;t even power up. Sent it back to the dealer who sent me another one. Plugged it in and it would TX, but would not receive anything. Sent it back and bought an Icom. Have only used icom since.

Also tried a kenwood 241 as my gather had a 231 and liked it. Although he did go through 2 power modules on the thing. I went through 2 241&#39;s as the receiver died in both of them. When the second one quit (out of warrenty) I gave my father the power module out of the 241 for the 231 and that rig is still working as I sold it to a local. I do like the older Kenwood VHF radios like the 7800 or 7950. I have a couple of those sitting around. I will stick with my icom equipment.

I remember a friend of mine said him and a buddy went to Alpha many many years ago and when they were testing there amps with Both Kenwood and Icom&#39;s through the amp into large dummy loads, they kept having to send the kenwoods back ecause they couldn&#39;t handle the constant keydown. Not one Icom got sent back.

[WY5R]

Although I cannot recall the model number, I had a used Yaseau all mode 2 meter transceiver that I picked up around 1983. When it worked, it was a solid performer. Problem was, this was only about half the time.

The power LED would indicate power was on, but the frequency display was non-existent and there was absolutely no RX or TX functionality. When this occurred, which was about every 15 minutes of use, I would slap the hell out of the top cover until the frequency display came back. At this point the rig was good to go for a few more minutes.

After having this rig, I have always stayed away from Yaseau equipment.

[K4CC]

My worst rig was the Hallicarfters FPM-300 I purchased in 1973. The basic concept was nice--a transceiver small enough (at the time) to go mobile with AC and DC supplies built in. The problem was the lack of bells and whistles found on the imports such as the FT101 and Tempo One. Also, poor selectivity. It worked great on SSB (except during pile ups or contests) but a very poor contender on CW. I unloaded it after I became hooked on RTTY.

[KD7HVE]

Ok, the worst radio so far as i,ve own is my FT100 it has been back to them twice now, both for the same problem.When it starts to go u will notice it gets Hot then it will start to get very hot.(even with the mods)But too any of u that have one or are having any problems pay attion to the power out put ,Just before it goes out it will transmit 150 to 200 watts.the voltage reg goes nuts and takes the hf&vhf side right out.Soif u send it to yeasu it will take 2 to 3 months to get it back under warntee and 1 month for redo.And the kicker is a good freind of mine has looked at the radio Circut Diagrams,And yes he it a radio tecwith a good reputation. he found out that it would cost about 10 cents to fix and we have called Yeasuand ask them to call him but have got answer ..... so when my radio gets back were going to do this fix and see what happens..........73 all

[AG4HY]

kg4efa,
i have the adi146 and it does the same thing, the display looks like some form of alien language and no transmit or receive. this happened 1year to the day of buying the hunk of junque,(does not qualify for the new spelling. i had another word for it, but will leave it at that.) http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif it is a ripoff .. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
willie ag4hy

[W7LGK]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif In a word....ALINCO DX-70TH is the absolutely worst radio I&#39;ve ever owned. #I purchased it in November of 2000 and it&#39;s been in the shop 4 times and is still not working right. #The last time in the shop, they accused me of driving one of "their" supplied bracket screws so far into the radio that it broke the main board. #They said that they fixed it and sent it back. #They then called me and stated that my radio was no longer under warranty due to the "screw". #I unfortunately have an Alinco DR-135 #2m radio with built-in TNC and it hasn&#39;t worked properly since I got it. #So, there is my answer to your question. #I hope it helps. #I will only buy from the big 3 Yaesu, Kenwood, and ICOM. #Take care&#33;
73&#39;s....Lonny - W7LGK # # # # #hamops@prodigy.net

[w0ktx]

While compared to most of the posters here, I&#39;m still a new ham. I haven&#39;t had any terrible experiences, but I will say that the rig I hated the most was the HTX-202. This thing had no out of band capability, birdies on every other repeater frequency, low transmit power (unless plugged in), and weighed a ton&#33; I replaced it with a VX-150 which is an awesome rig&#33; I also had a HTX-242. This was a solid performer, but had a huge lack of features and was not user friendly. I also have a Kenwood TM-255A, an Icom 2100H, and a Yaesu FT-1500M. All three are great rigs, and I can&#39;t say I have a favorite out of the 3 of them. Just stay away from the Rat Shack rigs&#33; http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif #73&#33;

[NN6EE]

Ah Ha&#33;&#33;&#33;

# A good number of you guys have mentioned the Kenwood TM-241A, and now you&#39;ll know why I have since NEVER bought Knwd Garbage again&#33;&#33;&#33;

# When I initially bought the rig NEW about 1 mo. later it started to develop Display problems so I sent it in, after we got it back about a mo. later again it developed another problem having to do with the xmit Audio, again I sent it in, when we got it back the second time and put it back on the air it still had that same audio problem&#33;&#33;&#33; #I sent that damn rig back on 3 subsequent ocassions after all the other problems we had with as well and still it was&#39;nt FIXED properly&#33;&#33;&#33;

# We had had it with that Rig so I called KENWOOD and explained very nicely to them about their CRUMMY Repair People and their CRUMMY RADIO. #The Head-Supervisor came on and asked me "Well how can we here at Kenwood resolve your problem?" so we answered "Easy, send me a NEW RIG, because the other one has been in your shop 5 TIMES and you still have&#39;nt fixed it PROPERLY&#33;&#33;&#33;". #His answer was "It&#39;s NOT Kenwood&#39;s POLICY to replace a faulty rig, we&#39;ll just keep WORKING ON IT&#33;&#33;&#33;" #So after that crock of BS from him I said in reply "Well it&#39;s now MY PERSONAL POLICY NEVER TO BUY KENWOOD EQUIPMENT AGAIN&#33;&#33;&#33;".

#In retrospect KENWOOD really shot themselves in their Corporate foot in that I&#39;m not now buying their gear, whether Amateur or Stereo anymore, and by my telling others about the fiasco THEY opted NOT TO BUY KENWOOD either&#33;&#33;&#33;

# So now every chance I get I give them the BAD PR they so RICHLY DESERVE&#33;&#33;&#33;

#http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif #es 3s,

Jim/nn6ee

[K7SZ]

OK....time to vent. In almost 40 years, I can relate several real atrocities that were disguised as radio equipment.

1/ The Ten-Tec Model 535 Argonaut-II, received as part of a product review for Worldradio Magazine. After 3 years of factory hype at Dayton, this rig was supposed to be the QRPers "Dream Rig". At a MSRP of &#036;1400, this was one VERY expensive QRP radio (about &#036;280/watt&#33;)&#33; Overall performance of the unit I had was dismal, at best. Receiver peroformance was the absolute pits. The thing would overload if you looked at it hard&#33; I contacted the factory on several occasions, to find out about certain anomolies that I was encountering. They were helpful but it still didn&#39;t account for the fact that a Ten-Tec Model 515 Argonaut (last of the analog models) outperformed the newer radio during Field Day 1991. I didn&#39;t make any friends at Ten-Tec over this review. However, I was vindicated by the QST review of this rig....which was not complimentary at all. A good friend of mine has gone through three (3) of these QRP rigs and is still having problems. He is a die hard T-T collector/user who&#39;d rather fight than switch. He certainly has more patience with this dog than I do.

2/ICOM IC-Q7A dual band HT. I liked the size, and I bought the rig to have a small hand held scanner, more than to use it as a "real" HT. Both ideas were a mistake. This little piece of demonic trash is an absolute abortion to program. There are so many hidden menus, it makes using the Yaesu FT-817 a fun job&#33; With only 300 mW output, unless you live in the shadow of a repeater, you might as well scream, &#39;cuz that&#39;s about all the good you&#39;ll do trying to hit a repeater with 1/3 of a watt.

3/Hallicrafters SX-100 & SX-117. OK, so I&#39;m old. I currently have restored both of these receivers and they are both in use in my shack. It&#39;s funny how the years play tricks on your mind. The SX-100 I used in my early ham radio days, and I loved the receiver. Same with the SX-117...it was the college radio station receiver at WA7CDH. Both rigs drift (it&#39;s amazing how you tend to forget things like this) and, while the 117 is triple conversion, it has almost no selectivity. A good passive audio filter makes a dramatic improvement here, but nothing takes the place of a nice, tight IF strip with crystal filtering.

I could go on, but I feel much better, now.

73 Rich K7SZ

[KC5UN]

I&#39;ve had pretty good luck over the years. Most of my gear is Icom, both out of habit and because many of the accessories interchange (e.g., the speaker-mics on the 1980 model IC-2AT and 2000 IC-T81 are the same).

Among the Icoms, the 1977 IC-245/SSB 2m rig had intermittent power output and internal connector problems that were never resolved by their service people. #The multifunction toggle switch on the IC-T81 is a bad idea -- very touchy. #It&#39;s possible to get better at using it with practice -- lots of practice -- but it takes a while to learn how to touch it correctly after being away from it for a few days.

Yes, the IC-Q7A dual-band HT is...umm...challenging to program -- mostly because its tiny size (it only has about 4 controls). #And, yes, it only puts out 300mw, which can make hitting repeaters a bit difficult. #But I read the specs in the advertisements and saw a picture of it BEFORE I bought it. #The receiver alone was worth the &#036;99 I paid for it at Dayton last year.

Other than the &#39;245 and &#39;T81 squawks, I have little to complain about.

[NN6EE]

Dear Rich/K7SZ,

# Question&#33;&#33;&#33; #When TEN-TEC first started manufacturing Ham gear as I recall it was ALSO a QRP rig, I think it was called the "ARGONAUT" or something to that effect, am I correct??? # #And as I also recall I think it was brought out in about 1974. #I had a chance to listen to the "LIL&#39;COTTON-PICKER" and it&#39;s front end was VERY,VERY SWEET eventhough it was a Single-conversion job, I&#39;D SAY IT RATED UP THERE WITH ANY DUAL OR TRIPLE CONVERSION RIG THEN ON THE MARKET at that time&#33;&#33;&#33;


Jim/nn6ee

[kb9num]

I have two for the list: Kenwood 261A and a Pryme 6meter HT. The Kenwood fried a power module and the front end under warranty. At warranty expiration plus 6 months it did it again. I wrote a letter to Kenwood and they repaired the radio free of charge, so they did well. I still have it but only use it for low power, not wanting to have it go again. The Kenwood tech told me that if I transmitted for a minute I had to let it cool off for at least five on any power setting. I have other Kenwood radios that have been fine, and do appreciate them making the situation right. But I don&#39;t recommend that model.

The Pryme doesn&#39;t keep its programming, and just as the ADI complaints (same company) this programming is complex. This radio is so iritating that one day I will no doubt put it on the driveway and flatten it with my truck. The only thing that has saved it to date is the lack of 6 meter FM activity around here.

[K7ESU]

I&#39;m showing my age, but I&#39;ll have to add another vote for the Eico 7 drifty 3 (753). Too bad, it is such a pretty rig.

As a college student 30 years ago, that&#39;s all I could afford. I still have it to remind me of that time in my life. I have since learned that not all rigs require one hand on the tuning dial to keep up with the drift.

[N5LRZ]

Positively THE radio from hell was the siltronics 1011C.

I sold it back to the guy I bought it from for 100 bucks less and considered it a good deal.

He was now stuck with the rig not I.


Ray
N5LRZ

[V73GOD]

By far the Icom 706, original version. Nasty POS built for B17 tailgunners. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Hard to tune, doesn&#39;t work with the AH-4 on 6 meters and a noisy critter compared to other Icoms and Kenwoods. Newer ones are a bit better but that "skunk beer" taste is hard to get rid of no matter how much they "improve" it and add countless letters after the first mistake. Just a crap radio from a good company...

[N7IQV]

My vote for worst rig? Put me down with a Yaesu FT-720 dual band mobile. Rig worked ok on either VHF or UHF side, but don&#39;t try switching between bands unless you wanted to reprogram ALL the memories stored. My other complaint was when cold (<60 F), the display would not show more than a decimal point, and the rig would not unsquelch no matter what signal was present.
Fortunately, that is not a frequent problem in the great southwest desert region of the US, but with the A/C blowing cool air over the control head...well...that rig is parked in a box these days.
John N7IQV

[WL7PV]

I have had 2 radios that were in the worst catagory-an ICOM IC2000 and a T8A. The IC2000 was a rotten radio that lasted 20 minutes the first time I applied electrical power to it. Back it went to Icom for 6 weeks. When I got it back, it lasted another 6 weeks before the finals cooked. The intermod was horrible. There were certain sections of town where this radio was unusable. I sent it back to Icom again with my laundry list of complaints, and they told me that the finals were damaged by the antenna SWR and the intermod was "within spec" which is a phrase I also use when a piece of equipment that I service has a design flaw that can&#39;t be fixed. BTW, my backup radio that I used while the 2000 was getting repaired was happy with that same antenna and had very little problem with intermod. Even more interesting was the performance of the 2000 when it came back-the finals seemed quite solid and the intermod problems, while still pretty bad, were greatly diminished. Apparently, Icom used us early adopters as guinea pigs to field test the rig. Gee, thanks for playing.
The T8A was also hobbled by intermod. That, and the battery life which was nowhere near the specs. At least it was easy to program, which is a very good thing because the manual in the box was in Spanish&#33; I bought both of these rigs new in the box and don&#39;t believe that I could ever bring myself to buy another Icom. Once is an incident, twice is a trend....

[W1VET]

How about just a antenna.. I had the Butternut HF6V with the 160 coil.. Ok after 2/12 hours matching the antenna and running 100ft of underground wire and running guy rope to the center of the antenna, I went inside and played ham radio for about 1 hour and then went to bed. The next day I got up and wanted to play DX but the match was up bad on it so went back out and reset the SWR again (note that is isn&#39;t EZ to do you have to start with 10Meters and then work your way to 160m coil on bottom of antenna), now all set again I played radio for about 3 hours and went out for the night. Next day back to the same thing, I have to go back out and set the SWR again. Well after finding out that just a little wind will strach the 160 coil and send my match way off I put 3 more guy wires on it closer to the 160 coil. Well in Rhode Island the winters can get cold and very windy and you know that it was winter by the luck I was having, the wind to the 160 coil and moved it again. After 1 week of setting the match on the 160 coil (when 160 coil is off the antenna SWR is off on all bands) more then useing it I sold it for less then half the price I got it for. I hated that antenna more then I hate my Ex-Wife and that is a lot.

Ron W1VET http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[N8FXH]

The majority of the rigs i have owned were very good,,,The worst Hf rig was a Kenwood Ts 520SE which would blow final resisters every time I tried to run RTTY and even Kenwood took six months to find that circuit board crack but it never worked right even with a new board....The worst HT I ever owned was also a Kenwood TH21...I could never get more than three hours out of those nicads....and the worst VHF Mobile was also a Kenwood 7900 which had no recieve in comparison with a Cclegg FM 28...Everyone has a list but there is a common theme in mine and it is Kenwood. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[Phineas]

I think bad rigs are a matter of experience, preference, and usability. What some people may like, others may not.

ICOM706. Although I never had an electrical, or mechanical problem with this radio, You could not get a worse mobile radio. It may be good as a spare base station for HF, but in the car forget it. I am very pleaed with my Alinco DX70TH.

Kenwood TMV7a. Another good one for the home shack, but may kill you trying to read the blue display on a hot day.

Those 2 are my picks. I am just voicing my preference, not the quality of the radios.

Phineas
KC0LSC

[KL7PB]

you haven&#39;t lived until you put a 1960 era Stinkin Lincoln on 6 meters. I think this came from Allied radio. TVI from as far as 7 miles away. what a ball.

[KE4PJW]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (MattBeers @ July 05 2002,00:11)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Of all the threads I&#39;ve seen,this one does more to prove the theory that the VHF/UHF operators are merely appliance operators than any other thread.
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

I just don&#39;t see it. I think they have different problems and objectives than HF OPs do.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (MattBeers @ July 05 2002,00:11)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
The HF operators name rigs as being bad because they drift,they have phase noise, the receivers suffer from overload, the T/R turnaround time is awful, etc.

The VHF operators complain that the rigs are too heavy, that the displays don&#39;t work, that they have to send them in for repair. A few have complained about intermod, but that&#39;s the exception.
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>


I would hazard to guess that most people that just bought a new rig would rather send it back, than order a service manual and fix it themselves. Also, most hams simply don&#39;t have a service monitor on their bench. I will agree with you on the display problems, there is no reason not to fix it yourself. (http://www.eham.net/reviews/review/8532)


</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (MattBeers @ July 05 2002,00:11)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
I also checked the stats. The percentage of Japanese versus American rigs mentioned is a little bit swayed toward American,in that the complaints are running about 89% Japanese, while the Japanese rigs (per ARRL statistics) represent about 96% of the rigs sold. A sad commentary on American quality.
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

While the stats in this thread are anecdotal at best, I agree. I will not be purchasing an American HF rig anytime soon.

[W7EJJ]

The worst has to be the Ten-Tec Jupiter.

[N7WSB]

Well the radio reminds me of one of those motorola programable rigs - once you have it programmed its an okay radio - has great recieve audio, great transmit audio and a decent amount of power (25 watts). Mark my words though - the day I get the money its getting replaced asap.
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (NN6EE @ July 04 2002,14:0)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Mike/N7WSB,

# With all of the BS that you have to go through to program that damn IC-3200, how do you find time to actually be able to talk to anybody with it??? # &#60;&#33;--emo&;)

nn6ee[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

[AB0RE]

Only rigs I&#39;ve ever had to send in for service were the Yaesu FT-90R due to it&#39;s heat/squelch related problems and the HTX-202 for various other problems that the Tandy service center could not seem to correct. #Worst SWR meter by far is the MFJ-812B. #Although they do have their quirks, Icom rigs have always done well for me.

[NN6EE]

QUESTION BOYS&#33;&#33;&#33;

Why in Hell if someone COMPLAINS about anything on QRZ.Com they&#39;re acussed of "VENTING???"

They VOICE they&#39;re own opinions, so what gives you "FEW" guys the RIGHT to say that&#39;s inappropriate??? Did Adolph Hitler rub off on some of you people??? Zieg-Heil???

Anything truly VENTED ABOUT OUT HERE would be censored, so some of you guys please "DUMMY-UP&#33;&#33;&#33;".

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif es 3s,

Jim/nn6ee

[K8JD]

The worse two rigs I have had, the National NCX3 was a three band (80,40,20)ssb/cw rig, the receiver was about 4khz wide and on cw there was no offset so you had to be zerobeat with the other guy or you would be off fre

[K8JD]

the rigs that I have to gripe about were (1) National&#39;s NCX-3, had a receiver broad as a barndoor both on SSB & CW. I don&#39;t think any optional filters could be added without doing your own design changes&#33; On CW you had to be zerobeat with the other station to be on freq, NO OFFSET on receive. You had to keep tuning the dial back to zerobeat when you started to transmit. (2) the Regency hr 2 2M FM rig, the receiver also was bad on this one, picked up lots of out of band signals and had poor audio output. Took the first one back to dealer but #2 had same problems&#33;

[K8JD]

Re: the Lincoln six M AM rig> I sure remember that gem, My gripe on that one was that it used overtone xtals instead of the usual 8.3 mhz xtals that I borrowed from the hams in my neighborhood. My father made me take it back to the store (I was a highschool kid in the 60&#39;s)

[WV4I]

Gap vertical antenna. 3-4 years ago I briefly had one of these contraptions that WOULD not tune on 10m. Adjusting the 10m gizmo, loop counterpoise had no effect. I even tried attaching a normal 1/4 wave @10m radial at feed to shield side of coax, still no effect. Most other bands were marginally resonant (SWR 2-3:1) in DIFFERENT directions from center. That antenna, when you looked inside, was/is a maze of loops, stubs, whatever of coax sections. Reverse engineering/troubleshooting one of these on your own with an ohmmeter and antenna analyzer is futile. Their "tech line" wasn&#39;t very technical, and the dealer wasn&#39;t much of one, until I finally got a refund, from the dealer not Gap, after contacting the dealer&#39;s home store and president.

I&#39;ve had Butternuts, HB verticals, and now even the infamous R7000, have read their posts, but they all work(ed). Since Gap is still in business, I would hope they have gotten their act together. The internet and forums like this make poor service and quality harder to get away with. Thanks to WF7I for starting this topic&#33;

Worst rig? The choice has to be based on the design. It&#39;s not just a bad example of a particular rig. The problem has to be common to every example.

The winner? The Eico 753 transceiver. If you identified something else it&#39;s because you never used a 753.

The 753&#39;s VFO was as stable as a roller skater on ice.

One of the major ham magazines published an article on how to improve the stability problems. The punch line was to convert it to crystal control.

Fortunately, the one I used I had borrowed. I gave it back quickly&#33;

[kg4qac]

I completely agree that the mags are far too forgiving of the manufacturers. #There is NEVER a bad word... #Having said that, most of the rigs I&#39;ve owned work well. #The &#39;worst&#39; of the good rigs is the ICOM T-81A. #The programming button and the battery life are really bad. #Once you get past those (programming PC software and a 3rd party battery), it&#39;s a pretty good rig.

One thing I have noticed is that none of the ham rigs available are of the same quality as most commercial gear. #They pack in alot of bells and whistles (nice) and then put in substandard design for receivers and other components. #To see what I mean, take any ham 70cm rig through a busy metro area and listen to the intermod&#33; #Then take a commercial rig through the same area......

My .02

[KC0NBW]

I AGREE ABOUT THE EICO 753 &#33;

THE ONE I HAD WOULD RUN AM, SSB AND FM, ALL AT THE SAME TIME &#33;

IT WAS THE WORST PIECE OF JUNK I EVER SAW &#33;

[N0XAS]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (kg4qac @ July 06 2002,21:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">One thing I have noticed is that none of the ham rigs available are of the same quality as most commercial gear. #They pack in alot of bells and whistles (nice) and then put in substandard design for receivers and other components. #To see what I mean, take any ham 70cm rig through a busy metro area and listen to the intermod&#33; #Then take a commercial rig through the same area......[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Maybe, but I don&#39;t think it&#39;s quality of receiver so much as the fact that the commercial rigs are also very narrowbanded. #Your ham rig usually has a pretty wide (or REALLY REALLY WIDE) front end so it can receive out of band, be converted for MARS/CAP, double as a scanner, etc. #I&#39;m told the old RS 2-meter rigs did really well for intermod, but also wouldn&#39;t operate outside of the band at all. #Don&#39;t know that to be fact as I never used one.

As for my pick for worst rig... not sure I have one. #Most of the gear I&#39;ve owned has been really excellent when you take age, design features and compromises into account. #I&#39;ve owned several rigs, FT-757GX, TS-520S, HW-16, HW-2036, DR-510T, TM-G707A, FT-470, several kits & homebrews. #The FT-470 is the least friendly to use and the most intermod prone. #The DR-510T has been the least reliable. #But overall, any Comet antenna or mount I have owned has been just plain junk.

73,
Dale

[N4TW]

The worst radio gear I&#39;ve ever had was the first rig I had as a Novice in 1967: the Conar 400 and 500. #The receiver picked up more images than desired signals, and the single-tube transmitter was never stable, even when I put an outboard regulated power supply on it that was bigger than the transmitter <hi>. #I really shouldn&#39;t complain too much, though, for two reasons:
1. my parents gave it to me for Christmas, and I will always be grateful for that;
2. they were kits, and while I was careful and cautious, I _was_ 14 years old, and there is no guarantee that I didn&#39;t cause my own problems.

I also had a lot of problems with an Icom IC-710 HF CW/SSB transceiver (the Japanese domestic version of the IC-701) and with an Icom IC-2330A 2m/220-MHz FM daul-band mobile. #I liked both radios, but each of them developed recurrent problems that Icom&#39;s service depot in Washington state never could fix right.

Another radio I had a love/hate relationship with was the ADI AT-600 dual-band FM handie-talkie. #I loved the way the radio worked, and the feature set. #I hated the fact that none of the three battery packs that I bought new for it ever could hold a charge for long, despite using the ADI charger and carefully following instructions. #I liked the antenna on it so much, though, that after I sold the HT, I bought another antenna from ADI as a replacement part, and am using it on my Kenwood TH-F6A. #It is shorter than the stock duck, and works just as well on 2m and 70 cm. #(When I want to use the TH-F6A on 222 MHz, I put the stock duck back on, or an AEA HR-2 Hot Rod).

I also had trouble with a Ten-Tec Scout 555 that would jump frequency on occasion. #I had it back to Ten-Tec three times and they never were able to fix that problem. #I was able to get another one at a house auction locally (&#33http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif, and the second one didn&#39;t have the problem. #So, I sold the first one at a hamfest, and I still have the other one and am happy with it.

Regarding send-it-in vs. fix-it-yourself, I used to fix radios myself when I could see the components and get to them, and when I could get useful service information. #(I used to repair my own Drake and Heath gear.) That combination is very difficult to find these days, though. #As long as I can find somebody good to fix my stuff, I&#39;ll send it out. #AVVid in Texas has been great for Kenwood and Icom stuff I&#39;ve sent them to fix.

73 to all reading this,
--Ted, N4TW, Madrid, NY

[W6TH]

The worst radio I had out of many was the Collins KWm 2.

Had it for 17 years and with the same tubes, never changed them.

# # Sold it because I never had problems and #the chance to repair it. It never failed. #What a boring rig.

# # # # # # # # # W6th

[W5MMX]

Alinco is the worst company I ever dealt with. #In 1995 I bought 2 DR599T mobile radios and a DJ580 walkie talkie. #The 599T&#39;s were advertised to receive the aircraft band, but couldn&#39;t without modification&#39;s that I had to hassle for on the phone. #Alinco&#39;s tech rep was discourteous at best when I asked why they made no mention of the mod required in the advertizing or the manual. #

The DJ580 never worked on 70 cm from the day I bought it. #The 2 DR599T&#39;s both blew up in separate mobile installations within a week of each other almost exactly a year later. #After I sent over &#036;300 for factory service on them, only one was returned operational. #When I called them back about the other one returned that still didn&#39;t work, a rather smart-mouthed young fellow said I could return it again for another estimate. #Of course I wasn&#39;t going to throw in more good money after bad. #I had learned my lesson about a cheap outfit and their cheap radios. #The one that was repaired blew up a second time again within 2 months. #It was a good lesson.
#
Also, Alinco radios are unuseable without the manual in hand, and when their equiptment failed, they told me to stuff it. #In the years since, many more of my ham friends have reported disappointment and bad experience with Alinco than have reported Alinco products even acceptable. #

Buyers beware: regardless of #magazine reviews, at least in the past, Alinco delivered unreliable and difficult to use radios that they didn&#39;t support.

[N5CAM]

Kenwood TM 261. Its a Kenwood 2m mobile that is still on the market. It was my first Ham radio, and probably my last Kenwood ever.

Cam

[KE6DII]

Ditto on the Kenwood TM261. I had one when I lived in the Palm Springs, Calif. area. It would not tolerate the summer temperatures and would shut itself down when the ambient temperature got too high. I had no trouble with Icom or Radio Shack 2-meter mobile rigs under the same conditions. Someone did me a big favor one day and stole it.

[K0WVM]

With all the FT-8100 owners on here, I would have to wonder why Yaesu attempted to go back on where the FT-8500 (big fan of this rig and own one) was heading. From what I have gathered, that (the 8100) rig has lots of problems. I haven&#39;t heard much bad (maybe here and there, but mostly that darned potato mike) about the 8500.

I haven&#39;t come across any bad rig per say, but I would have to say any ham rig from Radio Shack.

[W0CBF]

From the looks of the other posts I was not the only OM that had problems with the Eico 753. Mine was purchased from a hamfest (of course I was told that it worked) I should have asked worked as "WHAT"? Maybe a thing to hold the desk to the floor. Most of my problems were in the power supply and when it did worked it drifted. The 753 made my old Ford Pinto look good&#33;&#33;&#33;

[WF7I]

I had to add another nomination to this most funny of topics.

The first rig I ever owned was a Galaxy 3. For a long time I hesitated to criticize the rig, because my elmer gave it to me for free to get on the air, and I was very grateful. But the thing was truly mediocre at best. On CW, you would get 110 VAC on the key and if not careful get a nice little "buzz" from it&#33; The tube finals were easy-access -- too easy, for a teen that didn&#39;t know any better -- you could just lift a metal lid and voila, 1 kV&#33;

The audio on SSB was terrible. One guy actually told me off on the air about how awful it sounded. It suffered from drift and the power supply rattled and moaned something fierce. Other than the drift, the rig did ok on CW. That&#39;s why I spent most of my early years on CW and got my code speed up to 30 WPM&#33;&#33;

73s, Bert

[NX6D]

Here are my nominations:

Azden PCS-3000. Hard to use/program, stupid obsolete backup battery that isn&#39;t available anywhere so the radio loses its mind everytime you turn it off. Lousy transmit and receive audio. Useful only as a doorstop.

Kenwood Ts-140s/680s. Got a brand new 680S in the late 80&#39;s. Completely numb receiver. Terrible performance on 6 meters, even with good antennas. Complete garbage.

Yaesu Ft-747. Junky, flimsy, broken out of the box, too much time spent fixing it. Separation cable came from the manufacturer with an intermitent. Don&#39;t even THINK about dropping it/bumping it too hard. Too fragile for mobile installations.

Dave w6pv

[N2RJ]

The worst rig I have ever had was the 500Mw 2 meter Radio shack HT (I think it was the HTX242). I returned it 3 days after it was bought. It couldn&#39;t hit any repeater I tried and it was generally horrible all over.

[WA6ITF]

The worst -- and I mean W-O-R-S-T -- piece of ham gear I ever had new and which never worked as claimed was a Solar System VI six meter AM transceiver back in 1961 or 1962. Other than the venerable Heathkit Sixer, it was the only crystal controlled transmitter that drifted signifigantly while under crystal transmit control. The good part is the receiver drifted about the same amount and at the same drift rate.

But there was a positive to this radio. It sure looked pretty with is big planetary dial. To bad it never performed as specified.

I guess not very mny were made and sold. Ive not seen one since the 70&#39;s in the Dayton Flea Market area.

de
Bill P. / WA6ITF

[NN6EE]

The "BEST RIG" I ever had was the Yaesu FT-1000MP as it worked flawlessly for slightly over 4yrs. got rid of it to get a IC-756PRO, which works fantastic also&#33;&#33;&#33;

The ONLY reason I got the PRO was for something "NEW"&#33;&#33;&#33;

Jim/nn6ee

[KL7PB]

I read an article about 14 or 15 years ago on the verticle antennas each tested over i believe a 3 year period. I bought the recommended Butternut. Moved 3 times just put it up again and never been sorry. If you go to the books and do it well it&#39;s fine. No maintainence to speak of,etc etc.
I cringe when i hear some genius putting others down because they are not true blue amateurs with a big test bench. I graduated from ET "A" in the Navy in 1954. They told me I could go on to "B" school but I "didn&#39;t think like an electronic tech". I took there word for that
and they were right. I stayed in Navigation.
I was later nominated for a commission. But I still don&#39;t think like a tech. Ease up a bit until you can take the Conn and drive the big boat.

[N7QH]

Radio Scrap 2 mtr HT&#39;s should be added to the list. I had one that the knobs fell off the first day of ownership. Of course, it was returned to the place of purchace. Glad I didn&#39;t get stung with that one.
N7QH

[radio123us]

Worst rig was an Eico 753 I bought used as
a Novice. I didn&#39;t know any better back then.
I should have saved my money &#33;&#33;&#33;

[NN6EE]

N7QH,

You&#39;re Right&#33;&#33;&#33;

All of us are really "IMPRESSED" with RS&#39;s LACK of concern for QUALITY are&#39;nt we&#33;&#33;&#33; http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

Jim

[W9HC]

My worst was the MFJ 9030 QRP rig. What a piece of junk&#33; It drifted all over the place due to two bad caps in the VFO. The people at MFJ told me they were "unaware" of ANY problem with the radio, even while they were telling dealers how to fix their design flaw. Fortunately, I bought the radio from AES. They were understanding and allowed me to return it. Some 9030&#39;s don&#39;t drift. I&#39;d guess these were of later manufacture. MFJ stuff varies widely in quality. Some of it is good, some not. The 9030 is a nice-looking rig that wanders the band like a drunk staggering home after the bar closed.

Second worst: Heath HW-8. An amazing array of design compromises that end up as an overpriced, under-acheiving rig. It&#39;s a favorite among hams who like to match wits with the designer, because they know they can&#39;t lose. Any mod you make to an HW-8 was sure to improve it.

Favorites? My Ten Tec Argo 515, Icom 707.

As they say in automotive circles, "your mileage may vary."

73
Steve W9HC

[WB4DX]

The Ranger 10 meter rig was horrible, I found a resistor on the solder side of the main board unsoldered at one end&#33;
The second runner up is the Yaesu VX5R. I have had several of these and only one could hear decently, the rest were deaf&#33; and so was my FT 5100, and my first FT5200. I guess they cut back on the receive sensitivity to combat intermod rather than building a capable receiver.
My Icom 706 MKIIG 2m fm receiver is also horrible. It receives static from power lines and other types of "pulse" noises that I shouldn&#39;t be hearing on a fm receiver. Icom says that it is my installation, so I purchased their new IC V-8000 to prove a point and the static is gone with the new rig&#33; It&#39;s bull, all 3 generations of 706&#39;s suffer from this. At least mine did.
And it wasn&#39;t the car, I have had the radios in different vehicles and still received interference.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[KG4KZG]

My vote is for the Eico 753 and its cousin the National NCX-3 bought the 753 at a hamfest in the 70&#39;s to use as a novice rig. I kept using my DX-100 and SX-101.
I still have the 753 can&#39;t bring myself to unload it on anybody.
I heard a 753 on the air around a year ago on the Classic Exchange contest. It sounded good and was driving a Drake L4B the OM said he turned it on 24 hours before to stabilize it.

[kz6u]

Yes folks, once again it&#39;s the Yaesu FT-8100. Out of the box it would not program with the ADMS software, so I took it back to Yaesu in Cerritos. They told me nothing was wrong with it, must be operator error. I took it home and it would not program, so I went back to Yaesu, this time with my laptop in tow, and showed them that it would not work. After much agonizing, they finally caved in and grudgingly gave me a different radio. Unfortunately my troubles did not stop there. The second 8100 was not much better, knobs didn&#39;t work after a couple of weeks, pigtail went bad, feedback on VHF/VHF receive setting when receiving a signal, no output power. This rig has been back to Yaesu 5 times since I bought it. At one point I told them I would accept another, cheaper model radio as a replacement as long as it worked. The service department acted like I was an idiot wasting their time on every occaison I had the displeasure of speaking with them. I will never buy another Yaesu product, not because their 8100 was a lemon, but because of their condescending attitude and because they refuse to stand behind their product.

73
kz6u

[K7KQ]

In the mid-70&#39;s Heathkit sold a 2 meter HT. Wow, what a dog&#33; The tones for the dtmf keypad were generated using resistor-capacitor (RC) combinations, so they drifted all over the place. The modulation would vary. That ht was so bad that when I sent it back to Heathkit to let them try to make it work, they just refunded my money. Then about 10 years later someone tried to give me one for free. They said it was worthless. It went straight into the trash.

I enjoyed the comments regarding the Eico 753. I remember it was nicknamed the "seven drifty three."

73,
Scott

[K3HVG]

Worst rig? #Let me think.... #I had an Eico 753, built from a kit, it seemed to work.. maybe at the time I didn&#39;t know what good, or bad, was? #The first lemon I realized I had was the original Swan 350 (Old Drifty). I never could get it to settle down (nor could Swan). #In reality, the worst rig(s) I ever had or had to work on were the Kenwood TS-430 and 440. #What with the problem with having to dig out the bad potting material, bad read-outs, etc. #And those internal "antenna tuners"? #The Joke of the Century&#33;&#33; # About the time Kenwood stopped using threaded screws and went to sheet-metal types, that was a sign that the quality had gone to zero. #I haven&#39;t had a K&#39;Wood since. #Cushcraft VHF antenna feedpoint hardware is especially poor&#33;&#33; #Ever tried to tighten one..... sufficiently? # What else....? #Can&#39;t think of any more. #Well, back to the ART-13 and BC-348.... hi&#33;&#33;

[W0BKR]

W7EJJ sums up my analysis from actual usage: The TT Jupiter is the worst in opur opinions.

Specifically, I suppose one of the poorest performance radios I ever had, for a short while, thank goodness, was the TT Jupiter.

I bought it new, not bothering to read the QST review first (my mistake). #I found for the &#036;1200 or so dollars I paid, it lacked features I find on my &#036;500 Icom 718. #Things like easy band switching, up/down, preamp option, digital recorder option, no tuner, no 6 -meters, and all for the price of &#036;1200&#33;

Mine (I said mine, not yours if you bought one of these "gems") couldn&#39;t hear much above 21 mhz, and without a preamp, it was deaf. I even checked it with several radios, same cabling and antenna.

I ended up sending it back for my refund and used the same money, plus about &#036;200 more and got the Icom PRO. #What a world of difference&#33; #I realize there are those out there that "love" the Jupiter, but frankly, for the money I spent, the immediate return for rework (mis wired boards), will force me to stay away from TT for some time to come. #For those of you that "love" TT, I just can&#39;t see buying their products until something improves in the QC department&#33;
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[K6YE]

Wow,
All of the threads certainly took me back to yesteryear&#33; I think that in the early days "caveat emptor" applied to a lot of new rigs. National, Eico, Swan, and Galaxy were horrible in the drift department. I still have an EICO 722 VFO that I used to leave on continously with an additional &#39;47 lamp inside to reduce drift. I became a ham in the 60&#39;s and with Drake and Collins costs in the clouds, lots of newbies started out unloading junk. Some of you might remember the Gotham antennas with their super inflated ratings and testimonials. That being said, I have tried a lot of radios. Today, I do not think there are really bad rigs. I think that there are different strokes for different folks. My dad owns a 756 that he loves dearly. For me, the radio does not rate as a good contest rig but the 1000D or 1000MP make the grade while Dad thinks they are too complicated and big. Whatever floats your boat, enjoy. Long live ham radio, especially CW.

Tommy - K6YE #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[KE1L]

A Genave HT that I got in a hurry to get back on the air after my Wilson HT was stolen. I can&#39;t remember the model number of that dog; the radio and the company are long gone.

Lousy audio on both transmit and receive. (They used the speaker as the microphone as well; that might have something to do with it.) Poor battery life. And it weighed a ton. (The case was all-metal, which was supposed to make the thing rugged, but it didn&#39;t.) Really no redeeming qualities at all.

[K3UD]

After owning too many rigs over the years there are three that stand out as the worst.

1. Eico 753
This was built from a kit and was very inexpensive (cheap). The VFO drifted slowly up the band and required constant adjustment. The receiver was not terrible but was tough to tune. The ergonomics were poor. This was a rig built down to a very low price and enabled many hams to get on SSB or put an SSB rig in their car. With all of its faults, I still made many good contacts with it and finally gave it away to a newly licensed General sometime in the mid 60s. He was happy to get it and put it to good use. (one man&#39;s trash......)

2. SBE-144
This was a 10 watt 2 meter FM transceiver from the early 70s. It was a small and atractive unit but had terrible strong signal handling capabilities. It was not really useable from the home QTH near Philadelphia and marginal in the car. I traded it for a used Drake ML2 (tube final) which was light years ahead of the SBE and my have been one of the better FM rigs of the early 70s.
(Yes, I know it was not really a Drake)

3. Midland 2 meter HT
Although I do not remember the model number,this was another early 70s disaster. Crystal controlled and the trimmers did not have enough range to zero in the crystals. Receiver also lacked sensitivity to the point that #two tin cans and a length of string would have been better.

I notice that the NCX 3 is taking a beating here. I never had any problems with the one I owned for about a year. It replaced the 753 and I always thought that the NCX 3 made the 753 look like a toy copy. As I recall, it was stable, selective (for its day), had good audio on transmit and receive, was easy to tune and had a quality feel and look to it.

73
George
K3UD

[WB6FTI]

Just a comment: Only one (1) Heathkit HF rig mentioned. I wish I&#39;d built one&#33; 73s ... "Gene" AC7UL

[fvillers]

I thought my ADI AR-147 was the only one whose read out changed to Sanskrit. The cure was to leave it turned on till it decided that you were serious and then it returned to English.
73
Fred KX4FV

[KC0NBW]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K3UD @ July 08 2002,07:57)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">After owning too many rigs over the years there are three that stand out as the worst.

1. Eico 753
This was built from a kit and was very inexpensive (cheap). The VFO drifted slowly up the band and required constant adjustment. The receiver was not terrible but was tough to tune. The ergonomics were poor. This was a rig built down to a very low price and enabled many hams to get on SSB or put an SSB rig in their car. With all of its faults, I still made many good contacts with it and finally gave it away to a newly licensed General sometime in the mid 60s. He was happy to get it and put it to good use. (one man&#39;s trash......)

2. SBE-144
This was a 10 watt 2 meter FM transceiver from the early 70s. It was a small and atractive unit but had terrible strong signal handling capabilities. It was not really useable from the home QTH near Philadelphia and marginal in the car. I traded it for a used Drake ML2 (tube final) which was light years ahead of the SBE and my have been one of the better FM rigs of the early 70s.
(Yes, I know it was not really a Drake)

3. Midland 2 meter HT
Although I do not remember the model number,this was another early 70s disaster. Crystal controlled and the trimmers did not have enough range to zero in the crystals. Receiver also lacked sensitivity to the point that #two tin cans and a length of string would have been better.

I notice that the NCX 3 is taking a beating here. I never had any problems with the one I owned for about a year. It replaced the 753 and I always thought that the NCX 3 made the 753 look like a toy copy. As I recall, it was stable, selective (for its day), had good audio on transmit and receive, was easy to tune and had a quality feel and look to it.

73
George
K3UD[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
TO K3UD

THE MIDLAND HT YOU REFERRED TO WAS THE 13-520

THEY WERE FUSSY AS TO THEIR CRYSTALS, BUT OTHERWISE A VERY GOOD, SOLID AND AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE TO MOTOROLA, WHICH WAS ABOUT THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE AT THE TIME.

I HAD ONE AS MY FIRST 2 METER RIG AND I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR ANOTHER ONE FOR MY COOLECTION &#33;

KCØNBW

[K0UC]

Well, I must say..I&#39;ve had excellent luck with Kenwood and Yaesu both. #Never had an ICOM. #Just haven&#39;t.
Though I don&#39;t particularly care for their looks.
All my Drake stuff works well.

I&#39;m not seeing much Heath gear in the list here....don&#39;t know what to think of that...but I have an HW-100, which is not a bad rig, except for the VFO drive system which is indescribably cheesy. #Mechanical stability is not it&#39;s strong area. #Pounding brass on a table where the rig is located will result in plenty of FSK.

I have a few Alinco rigs and they&#39;ve worked well for me (2 DR570s and a DJ-C4).

I&#39;ve had good luck with most of my rigs....hope the new guys aren&#39;t all having bad luck with their radios. #It really can be a fun hobby&#33;

Brady
K0UC

[W0BKR]

Not a "worst" radio, but I had a Galaxy GT-550A, with remote vfo and speaker and power supply. Man, I thought I was in heaven&#33; A real DX rig at last. The previous radio was a Halliscratchers HT-40, cw radio.

I worked many a DX with my Galaxy and dipole. It used I think 6LQ6 tubes (sweep tubes) and they were easy to make soft. Kept me warm in the basement as a teenager. The other interesting radio I had was Harvey Wells TBS-50C, 80-2 meters (yep, 2 meter) transmitter with 807 final. What fun times.

[KY7F]

Well, I guess my &#39;worst rig&#39; (other than my now-deceased FT-8100) was a Radio Shack DX-390 shortwave receiver that I bought in the early &#39;90s before I got my ticket. This &#39;Monument To Chromius&#39; was highly prone to static damage. I had to have a &#39;static discharge station&#39; (touch the brass bed headboard before you turned the rig on) near the rig so that you wouldn&#39;t accidently touch it while &#39;charged&#39;. If you did, it would fry the receiver. If my xyl&#39;s cat (now both ex-xyl es ex-cat) brushed up against the antenna...WHAM&#33;&#33;...fried receiver&#33; Then, the near-electrocuted cat would run thru the house urinating on everything. I sent the DX-390 back to Radio Shack 4 times for repair...and this was the only time I had ever bought an extended warranty...and I thank the gods of prophecy that I did with that one&#33;&#33; Radio Shack fixed it free each time, but said they could do nothing about it being prone to static damage. As to be expected, "Gee, you are the ONLY customer that&#39;s had that problem&#33;&#33;&#33;...". Finally, after the warranty expired, I came home from work one nite and forgot to &#39;discharge&#39; myself. You guessed it&#33;...fried receiver&#33; A man can only take so much&#33;&#33; I took the DX-390 out to the driveway, laid it on its side, and backed-over it several times with my 3/4 ton pickup. Then, I calmly took the scoop shovel and deposited its remains in the trash can. A constructive thing to do? No, but I did feel that I got the last word&#33;&#33;

[N3FDR]

All these postings and no mention of the Signal One CX-7?
Really neat early 70s "high tech" hybrid radio but very shop-prone.

[WF7I]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ky7f @ July 08 2002,12:14)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">...If my xyl&#39;s cat (now both ex-xyl es ex-cat) ...[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Wow&#33; Ex-xyl and ex-cat? Don&#39;t get between you and your rig&#33;

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ky7f @ July 08 2002,12:14)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">...I took the DX-390 out to the driveway, laid it on its side, and backed-over it several times with my 3/4 ton pickup. Then, I calmly took the scoop shovel and deposited its remains in the trash can....[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

The running over with a truck -- now that&#39;s a classic. #I had a friend once who calmly put his Yaesu 747 into its box, walked out back and threw it in the dumpster after a similar episode&#33; #When he didn&#39;t show for the sked on 10m, I called him up, and asked him, "hey what happened?" and he just deadpanned, "I trashed the rig"&#33;&#33; #Boy, he wasn&#39;t kidding&#33;

73, Bert

[N9FFV]

I&#39;ve never had a bad rig. Of course, I have very low standards. My worse set up was my Knight Kit T60 transmitter with a Radio Shack DX 390 receiver. The T60 drifted and chirped and the DX390 allowed you to listen to 5 or 6 conversations at the same time. I finally upgraded to a Kenwood 520 fifteen years ago and now I think that I&#39;ve got a great rig. But then again, I probably don&#39;t know any better.

I HAVE had bad cars. I once owned a 1970 Ford Maverek that made me so mad that I used to spit on it every day. I finally sold it for &#036;10.

[NN6EE]

Congrats Bert/WF7I&#33;&#33;&#33;

This one particular thread is probably one of the biggest of all times BECAUSE of the prolifieration of CRAPPY RIGS&#33;&#33;&#33;

Most of the DUDS were probably reviewed by the ARRL as well, maybe some that did not get especially GLOWING REPORTS but none the less reviewed them and they did not really scrutinize them as much as they should have in QST, obviously for the sake of new potential ADVERTISERS/Equipment Manufacturers which is really sad on THEIR PART, meaning QST/ARRL&#33;&#33;&#33;

We&#39;d like to trust the ARRL but their REPORTING TRACK RECORD leaves alot to be desired&#33;&#33;&#33; http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif


3s,

Jim/nn6ee

[N8ARY]

You ALWAYS get what you pay for. Sometimes I think many hams expect the manufacturers to take a loss when selling their equipment. If you want the best, pay &#036;5000 for the best. Don&#39;t bitch when you buy a &#036;110 radio on clearance and you have a little intermod from the 900 watt VHF paging transmitter 100 feet away, or that 150 channels isn&#39;t enough.

[W8QF]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K3UD @ July 08 2002,07:57)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">After owning too many rigs over the years there are three that stand out as the worst.

1. Eico 753
This was built from a kit and was very inexpensive (cheap). The VFO drifted slowly up the band and required constant adjustment. The receiver was not terrible but was tough to tune. The ergonomics were poor. This was a rig built down to a very low price and enabled many hams to get on SSB or put an SSB rig in their car. With all of its faults, I still made many good contacts with it and finally gave it away to a newly licensed General sometime in the mid 60s. He was happy to get it and put it to good use. (one man&#39;s trash......)

2. SBE-144
This was a 10 watt 2 meter FM transceiver from the early 70s. It was a small and atractive unit but had terrible strong signal handling capabilities. It was not really useable from the home QTH near Philadelphia and marginal in the car. I traded it for a used Drake ML2 (tube final) which was light years ahead of the SBE and my have been one of the better FM rigs of the early 70s.
(Yes, I know it was not really a Drake)

3. Midland 2 meter HT
Although I do not remember the model number,this was another early 70s disaster. Crystal controlled and the trimmers did not have enough range to zero in the crystals. Receiver also lacked sensitivity to the point that #two tin cans and a length of string would have been better.

I notice that the NCX 3 is taking a beating here. I never had any problems with the one I owned for about a year. It replaced the 753 and I always thought that the NCX 3 made the 753 look like a toy copy. As I recall, it was stable, selective (for its day), had good audio on transmit and receive, was easy to tune and had a quality feel and look to it.

73
George
K3UD[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
George I can agree with you on everything,but I do have a problem with your final comparison oh 7 drifty 3 and the NCX3.The NCX3 was a real cobb,however it would seem like a dream compaired to the 7drifty3 hi hi.Dave AE8U

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (w0ktx @ July 05 2002,10:39)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">w0ktx wrote:

While compared to most of the posters here, I&#39;m still a new ham. I haven&#39;t had any terrible experiences, but I will say that the rig I hated the most was the HTX-202. This thing had no out of band capability, birdies on every other repeater frequency, low transmit power (unless plugged in), and weighed a ton&#33; I replaced it with a VX-150 which is an awesome rig&#33;[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I got my license in June last year and promptly went out to buy a handheld. I bought a VX-150 and have to agree with you opinion of it. I have no complaints about it. It didn&#39;t cost a fortune, doesn&#39;t give me any trouble and best of all it works.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KE6DII @ July 06 2002,23:53)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Ditto on the Kenwood TM261. I had one when I lived in the Palm Springs, Calif. area. It would not tolerate the summer temperatures and would shut itself down when the ambient temperature got too high. I had no trouble with Icom or Radio Shack 2-meter mobile rigs under the same conditions. Someone did me a big favor one day and stole it.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
This is a good reason to insure your gear, especially the mobile gear. Then when the piece of junk is stolen you can take the insurance money and buy a good rig.

[NT7C]

There have been some radios over the years that stand out in my mind as &#39;lacking&#39;.

Early on in synthesized HT&#39;s was a Kenwood model that had a poorly designed batter mounting system. The bottom of the HT had a small lip that held against the battery contact spring pressure. The lip was prone to fracturing.

Many of the early mobile synthesized rigs suffered from PLL going out of lock, usually because they were pushing the limits of the varactors of the day (remember, that&#39;s why they had the lock lights on them in the first place).

Today&#39;s current radios? I have a problem with the Kenwood TM-V7A. The blue display is difficult to see in daylight at any sort of an off-axis viewing angle. Also, in Arizona, it is impractical to keep the interior of the car cool so that the display works upon re-entering the car. Icom? Great little radio in the W32 - must be why they discontinued it. Actually, it is not that easy to operate without a lot of experience or the manual handy. And Kenwood, you still have battery problems with the TM-79 and similar battery pack radios. Any pressure on the bottom of the radio and the power cuts out.

Overall, the radios have become better electrically. But with the plethora of features, it becomes difficult to operate from the half dozen front panel buttons. So, how many radio manufacturers actually have hams test a radio and comment before it is mass marketed?

[K9FE]

Those that complained about the Kenwood TM-241 are right about the display problem. #I think there are 3 or 4 in the house, each one had to have surgery to repair the display connectors and each one had to have the coin-cell memory batteries changed...not a terrible job to do yourself. #

I do have one that on simplex is great, repeater and offset is great, just don&#39;t add a tone or it buzzes worse than an electric fence. #Worked for weeks to track down the cause, much longer than the radio is worth. I think it is holding up the front of my old Dentron amp now.

The worst radio I had was a Yaesu FTdX-570...loads of power...(500 watts+) and 21 tubes to heat the shack. #You learned to leave it on so the drift was minimal. #Good audio, but did not like the receive sensitivity on 10. #On RTTY or SlowScan you had to run around 100 watts since the power supply was too light and the drift got unbearable as the voltage sagged. (then everything went south...stability, sensitivity and your nerves) It had to be the prettiest radio however with that large and heavy looking all chromed front panel with the texture in the surface. #

Replaced it with a FT-101E that a local CBer was selling pretty cheap so he could fix his car. #The FT-101E was not all that bad and I used it mobile&#33; #Was ok on 15 and 20...but 10 seemed a little insensitive and slightly under powered. The drift was not too bad and seemed very supply voltage related as well as the fan speed. The unit did keep having cooling fan failures for the entire time I owned it.

My 8 year old Yaesu FT-840 is a great ragchew radio, not as sensitive and quiet as the Kenwood TS-430s, but is so easy and fun to use. #I also have an Icom IC-746 that is ok for CW contesting, but don&#39;t like the SSB receive audio and the 430s is still more sensitive and quieter. #Have all 3 of the big manufacturers, and althought I was a Yaesu op way back I find that the 3 I have are pretty well equal after you weight the pros and cons.

If there was a perfect radio the others would be out of business, but I think that will never happen. #At least we are having fun though&#33;

[W1BUS]

Whoa, what a timely topic&#33; #I may get blasted for my response but here goes, the WORST rig I have ever owned was my FIRST (aka current) HF rig, an Icom 706 MkII (no G). #Why you ask? #Long story, but yes, I bought it used. # As with most electronics it was sold "as is" which should have been warning enough but I am not that bright. #In this case, "as is" means having the capability to blow perfectly good finals on the HF side for no apparent reason, and it does it every time you get it fixed. #It has been to Icom service twice, both times for a total of over &#036;240, thats one hour labor, and two HF finals. #both times the finals lasted long enought for me to check the power meter. #Again both times I was assured by Icom that the rig was in perfect health when it left the service center. #I get it back, plug it in, and still no power out on the HF side. #My fault? #I doubt it. #My brothers 706 works flawlessly over here, on my supply, on my antenna, and with my tuner. #My identical radio dies instantly. #so now I have the MOST expensive all mode 2m on the planet, that comes with a HF scanner&#33; http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[V73GOD]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I actually could not wait to get home from the morgue today and read what other great rigs have reached the lofty heights of all time stinker. I was reminded of a simpler time in my life when I had an antenna that required me to go outside and move the coil tap every time I QSY&#39;d on 40 meters or changed bands. This was back in 1978 and I lived in Barre, Vermont. My neighbors thought I was nuts climbing a ladder in the snow to fiddle with it. Luckily an ice storm put us both out of our misery. I think the only thing left useable was the "roach clip" attached to tap. The remnants were sent to the Telescope Casual Furniture Co and turned into a chaise lounge. You do get what you pay for and sometimes quite a bit more. This is a great thread. Can we have a contest using only these stinkers? The Swans could do crossband without benefit of a second VFO. The 7 Drift Tree, haven&#39;t heard that since it was a door prize..ahh, stop, at the country store swapmeet in Puyallup a few years ago. Bert

i would have to say an Icom IC-2GXAT 7 W #2 M #HT.
because i had a cheap ass battery contactor. #the radio itself is build like a tank and was the best performing handheld i ever owned even compared to an HTX 202 or 404. #but i winded up selling it off because i had to keep replacing the frale battery contactor. #but what do you expect people. #all these radio are cheap Jap radios. #hunks of junk. #crapola. #they are built like modern cars, #deliberately designed to brake down and have problems after the 1st 6 months of buying them. #i say we ought to make these radios in america and not in japanese swaet shops where 12 year old kids are working for 6 cents a week. #american radios, like the older motorola&#39;s (now made by the japs and chinese) #work like a charm after over 10 years w/out seeing the shop even a once. #what can i say people, #we pay to much for jap radios that are nothing but scrap metal and plastic. #i&#39;m an american, #& want only american radios not JAP CRAP. W W 9 W W W said that .-.-.-

[WD8BIL]

Beyound a shadow of a doubt; Dentron&#39;s HF200A.
A total piece of junk. Drifted faster than most scanners. Mobil work was impossible. It jumped frequency at every little bump. The HFACS power supply was way under powered. With the high current output unregulated it was impossible to control the power output

[K5YY]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wd8bil @ July 09 2002,04:37)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Beyound a shadow of a doubt; Dentron&#39;s HF200A.
A total piece of junk. Drifted faster than most scanners. Mobil work was impossible. It jumped frequency at every little bump. The HFACS power supply was way under powered. With the high current output unregulated it was impossible to control the power output[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I have an ORIGINAL NEW manual for this radio&#33; INterested? Thanks. Medicineman :D

[N7UO]

And I thought I was the only ham in the world who felt inadequate when it comes to programming those damn 2 mtr rigs&#33; #

I&#39;ve got two IC-2100H&#39;s. #I swear, it would challenge a computer programmer to make the damn things work. #I finally broke down and got the computer programs for them just to make the damn things work. #I haven&#39;t had any operational problems with them, just don&#39;t hit the wrong button when you&#39;re turning them off or you&#39;re back to square one again. Unfortunately they&#39;ve co-located the power switch and the memory write buttons. one fat finger and it&#39;s party time. (@*%&#036;&%)&#33;&#33;&#33;

Probably the easiest programmable HT I&#39;ve had is the Alinco DJ-191. It was a breeze to program. #I had to replace both of them after I literally wore them out. #They had a weak pot metal mounting for the antenna connector that worked loose and broke the feed line from the mounting stub out of PC board, shorting the surrounding components. #

The VX-150 is probably the best HT I&#39;ve had. #The caveat with them is to ensure that you have the computer program for them too. #I&#39;m unconvinced that you can actually program them using the key pad.

A great and mature thread of view points here.

Frank/N7UO

[WD8BIL]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (medicineman @ July 09 2002,07:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif[/img]]<span id='postcolor'>

Look up my address on this site, send it along with &#036;5.00 opening fee and I&#39;ll line the bird cage with it &#33;&#33;&#33;

Bud

[kk5rv]

By far the worst radio I ever had was the Yaesu FT5100M. This radio had the worst intermod interference that I have ever seen. I will not buy a radio with a built in Duplexer again, PERIOD&#33; The 5100 was a neat little radio, feature wise, but the reception on it was just terrible, especially when trying to receive 2 VHF or 2 UHF at the same time, noise out the wazoo&#33; Another bad thing about that radio was the display lighting, the bulbs would burn out if left on high setting for too long, and the radio would have to go back to the shop. Still another problem was the inadeguate fan, this radio would get hotter than hell if transmitting for a long time, even on low power. Why oh Why couldnt Yaesu have built the 5100M like the 2500M, that radio was a dream and built like a brick excrement house. Flip the coin here, the best radio I have ever owned, (well there are 2, and I still have them today&#33http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. The Kenwood TM742AD, and the Kenwood TS850SAT. These 2 rigs perform marvelously, I have had the 850 for going on 7 years, and the 742 for almost 3 now. I cant say enough about these radio&#39;s&#33;

73&#39;s Steve

[K0RFD]

Well, I have a 2100H, and I AM a computer programmer.

I find it easier to program than my VX-5R, and about the same as my 281H, which is a lot older radio.

But none of this has anything to do with being a programmer. All radios are different. RTFM.

[Mbogo]

No negative reviews? #Well, there are other ham web sites (which I won&#39;t mention) that have extensive reviews of products from antennas, to keyers, to QRP rigs, and there the people do not hold back in their criticism. #In fact, the "I think this rig is great" review is the least helpful. #I enjoy reading the negative reviews there because it&#39;s informative (you can tell if the reviewer is an appliance operator or actually knows something about radio) and some of the reviews are very funny.

Anyway -- hard to believe MFJ has only been mentioned once. #I&#39;ve got an MFJ 9040 that drifts a lot and has other quality control problems. #MFJ is very erratic in their quality control.

-Dave, W7DAM

[WF7I]

I forgot about MFJ too&#33; The last post brought to mind an SWR meter I bought at a swapmeet. The thing worked for maybe 5 minutes, then the meter movement fell apart&#33; My friend and I used it as a baseball after that.
I&#39;ve always been afraid of MFJ after that event, although I&#39;ve heard that the quality can vary quite a bit from one item to another.

73, Bert

[KC5PBN]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
I had two ICOM 2340&#39;s and both had bad logic board
direct plug in boards. These connectors would break
causing problems until it would not work and more
ICOM was no help. I promised not to buy another
ICOM.

[N7IQV]

A second look reminded me of the Heath HW-101. HW was not intended to mean "hot weather"...biggest problem with the rig at this QTH was the dry heat of the desert ruining many of the drive belts inside. That made tuning a one-time deal. Once it tuned, that was it..until the belts were replaced the next time. Havent used the rig in years, but it&#39;s in the storeroom, tuned as I last attempted..........

[KE2IV]

I&#39;ve only read a half-dozen or so replies thus far and still surprised no one has
mentioned the Tempo One&#33;

Some rigs get to be called "boatanchors" but this one was a piece of
"driftwood"&#33; #You could start the day on 80 M and by lunchtime you&#39;d
be up on 10&#33;

Well that may be an exaggeration but I had mine for a couple of months in
the late &#39;70&#39;s and then found enough "scratch" to get a real rig (which
was a Kenwood TS820). #

I also had an old Hallicrafters HT40/SX140 combo in the &#39;sixties when I was
a kid starting out. #They were pretty bad too, but it&#39;s not nice to speak
ill of the dead&#33;

73,
George, KE2IV

[KE4MCL]

icom ict81

what a peice of ergonomic trash. the quad band concept is great. the radio worked fine but the guy that invented the multi-pad user interface should tied to a tree in a local park and publicly pelted with the blasted little radios.

when you try to use the radio you end up setting off all kinds of menu selections you didnt want because the multi-pad is too small and too sensitive. note to icom.. we&#39;re all not tiny little oriental people.

the kenwood with the multi-pad doesnt act stupid like the icom 81 did. i tried to return it to ham radio outlet and they wanted to charge me a restocking fee. i called icom abd they took the radio back and i got a FULL refund. no restocking fee BS.

robert cruz
ke4mcl

[W8QF]

Well i&#39;m seeing several post about the old rigs(boatanchors) and how bad they preformed.What are they being compaired to may I ask?In their day they were pretty good rigs except for a few.I even loved the Tempo One inspite of the numorus short commings.They provided a great learning tool trying to figure out how to make them work better.I would think it best to compare the old with the old,and the newer with the newer.To compair a TS850SAT with a Hell-a-crafter is obsurd.

I had a home brew that I built in the 60&#39;s that worked better then many of the commerical rigs of the time and probly better then some of todays models without the bells and whistals.

Let&#39;s try to keep things in perspective with our post.This could be a great posting to learn from if personal reviews are presented right.Just my openion and not nessarly the openion of the author or QRZ.com
Dave AE8U

[Philc]

I cast a vote for the Eico 753 - my first HF rig from a benevolent Elmer. Good news, I learned a lot about trouble shooting tube rigs, alignment, and tracing cold solder joints. Second in line was Yeasu FT7 - great little low power HF rig pleagued with cold solder joints in the oscillater circuits. Good news - it was easy to work on - good access to components.

Phil/K4OZN

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[KE4MCL]

EICO 753 NEWS...

somebody wants these because i sold one on ebay for &#036;56 that was in rough shape. dont throw them out&#33;

ke4mcl

[N9AG]

Charles Dickens would have loved the JRC JST-245. #It&#39;s the Best of Rigs and the Worst of Rigs. #It has a fine, selective, quiet receiver, fantastic ergonomics, great transmit IM and a PA Board that must be replaced every 7 hours or 700 QSOs whicever comes first. #After the 4th Power Amp module was replaced, I use it for listening to Rush and Neal.

No ambiguity about my favorite rig, the Kenwood TS830S. #Over 50K QSOs on mine and six contest expeditions to the Caribbean and it keeps on ticking.

In the running for worst radio: Ten Tec&#39;s Titan II amp. #I just hate tetrodes, the manual instructs you to overload the thing, and it sounds like a DC-6 running up its props before take off. But it occasionally entertains by making pop-bang sounds.

[JBR]

Over the years I have had the pleasure to own and/or operate a vary large and varied group of rigs. #This is covered by early AM rigs as well as most of the modern rigs including Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu. #I have never used any of the Ten Tec rigs except for one little QRP rig I believe it was a 505?/&#33;. #I believe the absolute worst rig I ever owned and operated, was also coincidentially the most expensive, was a Signal 1 Mil-Spec 1030. #At the time I also had a number of Collins rigs and my main rig was a Yaesu FT-1000D. #The Signal 1 was very poor on receive, not too good on the scope and left a lot to be desired when operated on SSB.

My vote for the worst rigs in order are:
Signal 1 Mil-Spec 1030
Icom IC-730
Most Heathkit Transceivers especially the HW series
Yaesu FT-One
Yaesu FT-980

[AG3Y]

I would have to say that the worst receiver I ever owned was a Hammarlund HQ-110C &#33; #As a novice, about 25 years ago, I used it in conjunction with a Multi-Elmac AF-67 to operate CW in (hopefully in &#33http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif the small segments of the bands devoted to that mode. #The major problem with the HQ-110C was that it never ever settled down&#33; #EVERY time you went from "RCV" to "STBY" and back to "RCV" again, the VFO had drifted so far off frequency, that you had to re-tune the station you were working, back in again&#33; #You could hardly take your hand off the bandspread without hearing the CW note start moving around again&#33; #Truthfully, I never trusted the AF-67 all that much either, and wondered if the other station ever was a frustrated as I was&#33; #I never got any complaints about my transmitted frequency changing around, though, so I have to guess (hope?) that it was staying fairly close to where we both started out&#33; #Oh, another indearing quality I just remembered about the AF-67 was that you could receive a real jolt off the key if you had the wires hooked up the wrong way. #It was cathode keyed, and the full plate voltage would be on the frame of the key if you happened to hook the "ground" side of the wiring to the button, instead of the frame&#33; #I guess that may qualify the transmitter as among the worse I have ever used too&#33;

Interestingly, the BEST setup I ever had was loaned to me right after I upgraded. #A very dear Elmer let me use his Central Electronics 100V Transmitter and Collins 75-A4&#33; # Man, talk about going from one extreme to the other&#33; # I have never used another Rig in my life that gave me the thrills and satisfaction of those old "BoatAnchors" #Of course, at that time, they were fairly new "BoatAnchors" &#33; #I really hated to give them up, let me tell you &#33;

73 # Jim AG3Y

[N4ZDU]

worst rig I ever had was a Kenwood ts440 you all know the probs that radio had &#33; the best probably was an old Kenwood ts520 and my old Icom 720-A is&#39;nt bad either the bandswitch makes a racket but causes no problems ..





73
ZDU http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (davej @ July 11 2002,16:17)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Well i&#39;m seeing several post about the old rigs(boatanchors) and how bad they preformed.What are they being compaired to may I ask? . . ..
Dave AE8U[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I was not to complimentary about the Eico 753. Mea culpa.

Actually, it was literally incomparable.

I might mention that the Eico 720 cw transmitter and 730 am (plate) modulator were wonderful.

[N4LQ]

NCX-3. I bought a used one in 1965. I was a teenager and didn&#39;t know any better. I operated CW only and the stupid rig did not automatically offset the tx frequency nor did it have any RIT. Everyone I worked was at zero beat&#33; I had to tune off frequency to listen. I took the rig back and traded it for seperates. It was many years before I would try another transceiver. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[rbeaman]

The worst radio I have ever owned was the radio shack HTX-10. #The first one was broke out of the box. #The second one lasted about a year, then got an intermittent problem that radio shack said would need the entire main board replaced at a cost of about 2/3 the price of a new rig. #I gave the rig away to another ham. #I have also had other radio shack rigs (a 2 meter 500MW rig...cannot remember the model...I could not hit any repeaters and then discovered the output power was less than 50MW...gave that one back to radio shack and got my money back. #I am pretty much an ICOM man these days. #My old faithful is an ICOM 750 HF rig bought in Japan in 1984 and still running, along with the IC 746 and IC 756 Pro that I just bought on sale. #I&#39;m sure there are other good rigs out there, but for now I am staying away from radio shack and going with ICOM.

[K9DI]

Hi Gang,
Wayne K9DI es Leader Dog Sequoia here. The worst rig I&#39;ve ever tried to work with was a Heathkit, but it wasn&#39;t a fault of Heath&#39;s, but of the builder, the original owner who had never gotten the twins to work quite right. I can&#39;t remember which pair they were however. Sri http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
One of the most dependable rigs I&#39;ve had my sweaty little hands on was the RS HTX202. Sure it didn&#39;t have out of band coverage, but it did (es still does) 2M es does it well for what I need. Actually, I&#39;m on my second HTX202 since I traded my first one for the heathkit twins. I can hook a power supply up to it or plug it into the lighter plug es have six watts out, The buttons can actually be used by someone with normal sized fingers, the digital readout is big enough for my impaired eyes to read. Best of all it&#39;s not some rinky dinky HT that only puts out 500mw. Sure there&#39;s some bulk to the HTX202, but at least for me (I&#39;m 95% blind 6/400) to keep track of. For the first few years of my ham careere it&#39;s the only rig I had. I admit the 202 doesn&#39;t get used as much now that I have a IC706MkII for mobile work es a K2 that I play HF on, but just recently I popped six alkalines into the spare battery case es used the 202 to help the local club (LEARC) provide commo for the Heritage Days parade here in Macomb es it worked like a champ&#33;
I&#39;ll let U know how I feel about my K2 after I&#39;ve been using it for a decade...hi, hi, hi, hi...Although, early indications are that it&#39;s a keeper, most of the important functions are accessible on the front panel, es those that have to be setup in menu are pretty much set and forget. A feature most visually impaired hams like me really appreciate&#33; Menu driven rigs are all well and gud for those that can see, but why do radio makers seem to forget us blind guys? Quick question: how many of U could operate ur rigs with the lights out and a blindfold on? Anyway off the soapbox es on with the flamesuit.

[k6ced]

The worst rig that I have ever owned was an Icom 720A. The receiver reminded me of two cans and a piece of string. No rejection whatsoever. I returned the rig to Icom and they made some adjustments but never fixed the problem. I sold it 3 months after purchase for about half of the original price. I never went back to the Icom line again. Kenwood for HF fixed and Yeasu / Kenwood for handhelds. Chuck Davis K6CED

[4N1DX]

The worst HF radio was IC 745 which is ZERO for CW, especially on 40/80m.
It makes two double signal on CW... on 40m SSB it&#39;s almost nothing to hear, almost deaf. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[WB9OMC]

Without a doubt, the worst piece of ham gear *I* ever had wasn&#39;t
a transmitter, but rather a receiver. When I was a novice, I bought
a Heathkit DX60B and (I think it was) a matching HR10A or B.
Supposedly, the same guy built them both and while his construction
seemed clean on both units, while the DX60B worked pretty well,
the receiver was just AWFUL. About all the sensitivity of a
brick, and selectivity was even worse. I was never so glad
to unload a piece of gear as I was that one. I think I told the
guy I sold both units to that "they come as a pair - buy the
transmitter and get the receiver for free because I sure as hell
wouldn&#39;t actually ask for money for it&#33;". http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Another one that was more funny than anything else was the
Motorola 30D that I borrowed from a guy......geezus, that thing
belonged in the boatanchors hall-of-shame&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; Technically
speaking, I think the 30D was only the transmitter.....the whole
unit had that and a receiver built into a cabinet that was larger
than some cars I&#39;ve seen.....well, OK - that might be
exaggerating just a BIT. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Another one that I still have that goes way back is a Regency
HR2B. Crystal controlled, 12 channel 2-meter rig. Actually, that
was a very reliable and rugged unit that I took *everywhere* and
much like a Timex (or so they said) "took a licking and kept on
ticking". Decent TX in it but again, the RCV side of that rig
had something like .35 uV sensitivity. Fine for local repeaters
but lousy for simplex work. That was about the same time that
the first Icom 2-meter rigs were coming into the states with
about .16 uV sensitivity, and just blew everyone right out of the
water......

Duane
WB9OMC
www.antennasup.org

Worst one for me (and I have had numerous lemons) would have to be the TEMPO ONE, aka Yaesu FT 201 (I believe). The first one I got received but didn&#39;t transmit. When I got my second one, it worked well for about 18 months, using the other one for spare parts. Then, the newer one decided to start inserting a carrier on SSB. After adjusting this, it lasted another 2 months before something shorted the radio out and blew the finals and ps. A close 2nd. would be a 2m. CONAR kit radio that somebody unloaded on me for &#036;75.00. It was also just slightly off frequency, the audio moaned, and it took up an obscene amount of space in my &#39;78 Camaro.

I still have other boat anchors (Heathkit HW100, FT-101EE, had a Heathkit SB-102 as well). Each of these radios has a problem of some kind, but altogether, they add up to one working radioshack.

Worst one for me (and I have had numerous lemons) would have to be the TEMPO ONE, aka Yaesu FT 201 (I believe). The first one I got received but didn&#39;t transmit. When I got my second one, it worked well for about 18 months, using the other one for spare parts. Then, the newer one decided to start inserting a carrier on SSB. After adjusting this, it lasted another 2 months before something shorted the radio out and blew the finals and ps. A close 2nd. would be a 2m. CONAR kit radio that somebody unloaded on me for &#036;75.00. It was also just slightly off frequency, the audio moaned, and it took up an obscene amount of space in my &#39;78 Camaro.

I still have other boat anchors (Heathkit HW100, FT-101EE, had a Heathkit SB-102 as well). Each of these radios has a problem of some kind, but altogether, they add up to one working radioshack.

[N0OV]

Yaesu 7100. #Locks up enough to make you want to give up amateur radio and go back to tin cans with a string. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif Thankfully that level of quality has not been reflected in the other Yaesu products that I&#39;ve purchased.

Hey Yaesu -- ever thought about paying people for shipping back products that don&#39;t work. #Extra expense may be enough to generate an interest to make it work the first time. May want to listen to your test engineers when they say something is not ready for market. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[WB9UDJ]

Yeasu VX-5R, lousy reciever and poor modulation. Yeasu service matches it. Bought it with what little savings I had so I would have a good radio since I am unable to work and the wonderful SSA keeps losing my disability forms. So no income and no decent radio. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[KD7KGX]

Worst rig... the Heathkit HW-7. #I don&#39;t know why they called this a transceiver... transmitter only would be more like it. #I could hear more signals by opening up the window and standing by it.

Best rigs... I don&#39;t know if I&#39;ve found my &#39;best&#39; rig. #My K2 comes close, although the QRP version doesn&#39;t like running ragchews on HF digital modes... it gets very hot. #The new 100w final kit should fix that, though... and otherwise it&#39;s a great rig for CW, HF digital, and SSB.

Also, despite the Ten-Tec bashing... I&#39;ve had nothing but good luck with my Omni VI/Opt1 that I bought used (I&#39;m the 3rd owner). #Has a little drift until it warms up, then works FB. #

"A statistic of one is useless." #It&#39;s clear that the rigs which keep on coming up probably have problems... but if a rig is mentioned once or twice I&#39;d probably try it. #For instance, the Ten-Tec Jupiter looks interesting, as does their new Orion. #The Yaesu FT-1000 MkV looks interesting, too. #Of course, the question is... will any one of these rigs let me work a station that can&#39;t be worked with my K2/100 or Omni VI? #The answer is... I (and most of us with the basics) would probably be far better served by putting some money into our antenna systems rather than our radios. #It&#39;s just that radios are neater to play with... #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

73 de KD7KGX SK AR dit dit

[CLESKIE]

The Icom IC-2100H.

That rig blew finals faster than I could send it back to the dealer for repair. I have owned several 2 meter rigs from Kenwood Yaesu and Alinco and this is the only one that did that, even though I still use the same power supply antenna and feedline on all of them. After the finals died the third time I just dumped the rig for nothing.

I am suprised too, because I have own two Icom HF rigs that work great(knock on wood).

cleskie

[KF9WY]

I&#39;ve had good luck and enjoyed almost every rig I&#39;ve owned.....except the YAESU FT-7100, what a piece of crap.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

Thanks to HRO for letting me exchange it after 13 days for a Kenwood 707.

[n0phw]

At this point in the thread I feel behooved to mention my Icom 281. This semi-dual band mobile (it receives but doesn&#39;t transmit on 70 cm) suffers from the most annoying case of desense I&#39;ve ever seen. A solid full quieting simplex QSO can immediately turn to noise when a VHF or UHF radio (or sometimes a cordless phone) is keyed up.
I shudder when I see Radio Shaft selling Vectronics gadgets. A particular Vectronics VHF/UHF cross-needle SWR/power meter I got suckered into buying presented death to the radio I transmitted into it with. Disassembly led me to discover the center conductor of the PL259 on the radio side was shorted to the case.

[WD0CT]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (kd7kgx @ July 16 2002,19:23)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Also, despite the Ten-Tec bashing... I&#39;ve had nothing but good luck with my Omni VI/Opt1 that I bought used (I&#39;m the 3rd owner). #Has a little drift until it warms up, then works FB. #

73 de KD7KGX SK AR dit dit[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>


Ten Tec bashing my foot. I thought ALL the rigs mentioned were being "bashed". Ten Tec owners whine more about someone writing something the least bit negative about their brand of radio than any other group.
# #
I thought it was understood that this thread was about a person&#39;s worst radio. If it was a Ten Tec then so be it.

wd0ct

[VA3FD]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KD4LEI @ July 07 2002,04:49)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">#From what I have gathered, that (the 8100) rig has lots of problems.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Hmm. #I had one for about a year and a half and never
had one iota of trouble with it. #Perhaps I was just
"lucky". #Mine was the 8100R, if that makes any diff.

My worst HF rig was a Kenwood TS430s... worst
VHF was a Kenwood TH215a handie (darned buttons
on the front stopped working&#33; Took it apart
and cleaned all the connections to no avail)

[WB2KIH]

Most of the radios I&#39;ve had were decent, but my first Novice setup (in 1977) was definitely not optimal for HF CW.

I had a (very) used Hallicrafters HT-44 transmitter and brand new Yaesu FRG-7 shortwave receiver. Neither was a dog, but the HT-44 modulated every fluorescent light in the house when transmitting on 40 meters or above. It also had a neat trick - it could cause my dad&#39;s AM radio to emit horrible noises and completely lose any station it was tuned to. On 15 M, the HT-44 did this even when the radio was off&#33; Boy, was that fun&#33;&#33;&#33; #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Now, the FRG-7. I know there are many folks out there who love these things still. That&#39;s fine, but they are NOT suitable ham radio receivers. I can remember calling one loud station for 20 minutes with no luck until I tuned around and realized he was actually about 25 kHz away from where I was hearing him. It took me a long time to understand how this could happen. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif Also, the FROG-7 didn&#39;t have a mute during transmit, which is no problem on CW as it gives you a nice sidetone. When I got my General ticket, I started getting bizarre signal reports, like, "OM, you sound like you&#39;re underwater" or "Quit the sound effects". After almost a month, one of my QSOs suggested turning the RX volume down when transmitting - voila&#33;

But best of all was my Dentron 10-80AT antenna tuner. I used it with a long wire that started in my shack (bedroom) and passed through a hole I drilled in the window screen frame to the outdoors. I can&#39;t imagine how much RF I was exposed to with that setup&#33; Everything was fine until I tried to transmit on 10 meters and then all hell broke loose&#33;&#33; The first sign of trouble was the crackling sounds and awful smells from the tuner (now, why was it doing that?). Being about 13 and not too smart, I continued to tune up. What caught my attention was the smoldering window screen - wow, aluminum can burn??? OK, so that was my fault. I put a nice dipole properly fed with RG-8 coax and fired &#39;er up on 10 M. LOUD BANG from tuner&#33; Opened the case to find the broken pieces of something all over the inside of the tuner.

To this day, I wonder what happened. As a side note, I cleaned out the exploded remains from the tuner and plugged everything back in. Used it for a few years before selling it all to a new ham who loved it.

So, I&#39;m not blaming any of the components, but it&#39;s amazing the things I did (and survived) when getting started so many years ago.

#http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[KB7RKY]

Hmmm...where do I begin??

Well, let me say that whoever the Einsteinian brainstormer was to build amateur HTs with milliwatts of output should be publically beaten into unconsiousness with day-old loaves of French bread # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

The worst rigs I ever had the misfortune of using:

1. Alinco DJ-S11T and S41T (turn the number 4 upside down and you get what they are). These two HTs are way too underpowered to perform as they were designed to do, a royal pain in the backside to program, and, did I mention their extremely low power output? You absolutely ***had*** to be PHYSICALLY LOOKING AT THE REPEATER (standing next to it was a plus&#33http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif, with your left leg up and your right hand in the air, while standing in a puddle of water (to make a good earth ground), and thinking good, pure thoughts, all the while HOPING that you could actually trip the receiver (even while standing next to the repeater). Although the design was innovative at the time, the power output was what turned me away from Alinco products. Thank God I didn&#39;t have to pay for either one (they were door prizes).

2. Radio Schmuck HTX-404. Maybe I just got a bad radio (I tend to think so, since I know someone who is STILL using an HTX-202 some 4-5 years later), but the PLL of this 440 version kept unlocking after about 5 minutes of use. I would shut the radio off to reset it, and it was good to go for quite awhile (about an hour or so of normal use.) Then, the PLL finally unlocked completely, and no amount of resetting the radio would do any good (good thing it decided to do die right then and there in the showroom as I was explaining the problem to them.) After fighting with RS for 6 months to get the concrete cork (dam&#33http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif thing fixed, they finally offered, as a replacement, an Alinco DJ-S41T. I about had a coronary right there in the showroom...but I kept my composure long enough to kindly ask for a refund.

I&#39;ve had only good experiences with Icom rigs (well, not always...I had an IC-211 that had a offset problem, but that was the exception...it was a well-used radio, and probably should have been sent in for a good tune-up). In fact, my first rig was an IC-2GAT 7 watt HT. Although the front end is kinda weak on Icom rigs (I get some intermod on my 2100H, and that&#39;s when I&#39;m passing by the higher-powered public service and pager repeaters), it&#39;s not so bad that I&#39;m gonna pitch the radio out the window. Standard radios are good, too. Azdens are a pain to program, and the lack of a tuning knob is a definite minus (on the mobiles). I have a couple of minor problems with my Pryme PR-52...sometimes the display blanks out just for a quick second, but it&#39;s nothing compared to how quickly the battery drains.

I can&#39;t say anything good or bad about other radios, mostly because I haven&#39;t used them, or I know someone who swears by their particular choice of radio. It&#39;s just a matter of *your* particular choice...if you have a good experience with a particular brand, you&#39;ll tend to stick with it.

E-mail bombs and "I Hate Icom" e-mails can be sent to...

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Doug KB7RKY

[KU4QW]

Mine was a ten-tec Scout 555, I have had 5 Ten Tech rigs, being about 20 min from the factory, to tell the truth I&#39;ve never had one I liked, it&#39;s that old PTO, it never seems to settle down and get stable. Anyway the 555 I had would move up and down Like I was tunning it, and all those band modules to change out, I&#39;m a Yaesu user now and that is where I&#39;m staying, other than my find homebrew.

[WS2L]

[B]TEMPO 2020.......Very disappointing radio.

[W0BFK]

Although I did not buy this rig new, the experience I had in my early days makes a good story.

I purchased at a swapfest a National Radio NCX3. Supposedly a mobile HF rig, it was bigger than some modern day compact cars and twice as heavy. This particular gem came with a home built power supply free for nothing.

The NCX3 had one major fault. It drifted A LOT. You could turn it on and set the VFO to 14.225, and within a couple of hours it would drift right off the band edge at 14.350. The only cure for this was to let the rig warm up for several hours before operating. I quickly got in the habit of leaving it on all waking hours that there was any chance that I could get in 15 minutes of air time.

One day I turned it on and proceeded to forget it completely. So badly was it forgotten that I got on an airplane the next day and flew to Puerto Rico for a 2 week business trip. Now at that time I had the power supply sitting on the floor under the ham shack desk. I figured that was a safe place for it. However, I did not count on running the supply for 2 weeks non-stop.

Upon returning home, I smelled a burning odor. The shack carpet had a 2 square foot burn mark in it, the power supply had apparently sent various voltages to the rig, and every circuit I could identify was burned out. The only miracle was that the house had not burned to the ground.

The rig went into the garage, the carpet to the junk pile, and I went shopping for a decent rig. Moral of this story, do not buy junk.

Bob W0BFK

[KM5UK]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif lets see now, i reckon the worst "so far" is the ADI AR 146 with its sometimes heiroglyphics display.. Usually after it has set for 3-4 days without use. #But a lite tap on the front end, and it straightens up and is readable.. It makes a good loaner radio as most people willingly return it. hehehe

[K9MHZ]

Without a doubt the Heathkit HW-5400 was the biggest piece of junk that I&#39;ve ever owned. It was Heath&#39;s attempt to keep up with ricebox invasion in PLL all soild state circuitry. Never worked properly and it was Heath&#39;s beginning of the end. They should have stayed in the simple kit market------ DX-60B transmitters, etc... just look what an unbuilt kit goes for on eBay&#33;

[K9MHZ]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K2WH @ July 04 2002,10:34)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I&#39;ve been a ham for 33 years and except for early on when I bought Ameco equipment, I do not recall ever having a "Worst" rig. #Of course back then, there wasn&#39;t much to compare rigs to except home brew stuff.

For the past 20 years or so, I have only bought ICOM equipment and to tell you the truth, they all worked as advertised. #I am somewhat puzzled by the posting though. #When you say worst rig, I say worst compared to what? #Most hams do not know how to compare rigs or, have only 1 rig and to them that is the very best rig because they haven&#39;t heard anything better.

Personnaly, I think todays ham is too demanding of amateur equipment. #There are so many sites that compare or review equipment that it is all a little overwhelming. #Owners of equipment complain about the color, the heat, the audio, programmability, flexibility #etc. #Apparently hams know whats best for hams not the manufacturers.

I recently purchased the Kenwood TH-F6A handie talkie and I think it is the best HT on the market. #Go to Yahoo.com TH-F6A group though, and all they do is bitch about what the radio is lacking or some other nebulous short coming. #I personnaly have never compared one rig to the other, and when I buy a new rig, it is the best rig I ever owned, the worst rig doesn&#39;t exist.

K2WH[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Huh? I think you&#39;re thinking this one through way too deeply. Good rigs and bad rigs out there, just like anything else in life.

[KB7RKY]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (km5uk @ July 19 2002,23:51)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif lets see now, i reckon the worst "so far" is the ADI AR 146 with its sometimes heiroglyphics display.. Usually after it has set for 3-4 days without use. #But a lite tap on the front end, and it straightens up and is readable.. It makes a good loaner radio as most people willingly return it. hehehe[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
"Lite tap"...

Probably with a hammer http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

JK, OM (hi hi)

Doug KB7RKY

[WD0CT]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (n6kys @ July 20 2002,12:12)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Without a doubt the Heathkit HW-5400 was the biggest piece of junk that I&#39;ve ever owned. #It was Heath&#39;s attempt to keep up with ricebox invasion in PLL all soild state circuitry. #Never worked properly and it was Heath&#39;s beginning of the end. #[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>


I forgot about this one. It was so bad that I asked the guy I bought it from if I could return it for a refund. He said no way did he ever want to see that piece of %&*@&#036;# again and refunded my money and made me keep the radio. It had distorted transmit audio at any mic level [even the qst test mentions it in a round about way] and the receiver was full of phase noise. It did work but was a miserable excuse for a radio. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[K3XR]

i have likely had a few "dogs" over the past 43 years on the air...one that comes to mind was a yaesu ft2auto ..it was a xtal control 2 mtr fm rig in the mid to late 70&#39;s...could never get it to work properly....a rig i like very much, and still own, had it shares of problems, but once i got them taken care of ...it&#39;s been a great rig...that is the japan radio corp model jst 245.....by #far the least dependable rigs i have owned are icom rigs ...every icom i have ever owned (but one) #had at least one #problem where the rig had to be sent for repair...,i.e. purchased a new ic 706 when they first came out and it did not even last a week, #i call icom the chrysler corp of ham radio..the #(but one) by the way, is the ic 2800 which i have had no problem with, in fact it is a great radio...saw a couple posts for the alinco ar-146... this has been one of the best radios i have ever owned...check the qst review on this rig...when it comes to service...ten tec all the way ...the rest are not even in the race...
dan, k3xr

[KM5UK]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (kb7rky @ July 18 2002,23:10)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Hmmm...where do I begin??

Well, let me say that whoever the Einsteinian brainstormer was to build amateur HTs with milliwatts of output should be publically beaten into unconsiousness with day-old loaves of French bread # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

The worst rigs I ever had the misfortune of using:

1. Alinco DJ-S11T and S41T (turn the number 4 upside down and you get what they are). These two HTs are way too underpowered to perform as they were designed to do, a royal pain in the backside to program, and, did I mention their extremely low power output? You absolutely ***had*** to be PHYSICALLY LOOKING AT THE REPEATER (standing next to it was a plus&#33http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif, with your left leg up and your right hand in the air, while standing in a puddle of water (to make a good earth ground), and thinking good, pure thoughts, all the while HOPING that you could actually trip the receiver (even while standing next to the repeater). Although the design was innovative at the time, the power output was what turned me away from Alinco products. Thank God I didn&#39;t have to pay for either one (they were door prizes).

2. Radio Schmuck HTX-404. Maybe I just got a bad radio (I tend to think so, since I know someone who is STILL using an HTX-202 some 4-5 years later), but the PLL of this 440 version kept unlocking after about 5 minutes of use. I would shut the radio off to reset it, and it was good to go for quite awhile (about an hour or so of normal use.) Then, the PLL finally unlocked completely, and no amount of resetting the radio would do any good (good thing it decided to do die right then and there in the showroom as I was explaining the problem to them.) After fighting with RS for 6 months to get the concrete cork (dam&#33http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif thing fixed, they finally offered, as a replacement, an Alinco DJ-S41T. I about had a coronary right there in the showroom...but I kept my composure long enough to kindly ask for a refund.

I&#39;ve had only good experiences with Icom rigs (well, not always...I had an IC-211 that had a offset problem, but that was the exception...it was a well-used radio, and probably should have been sent in for a good tune-up). In fact, my first rig was an IC-2GAT 7 watt HT. Although the front end is kinda weak on Icom rigs (I get some intermod on my 2100H, and that&#39;s when I&#39;m passing by the higher-powered public service and pager repeaters), it&#39;s not so bad that I&#39;m gonna pitch the radio out the window. Standard radios are good, too. Azdens are a pain to program, and the lack of a tuning knob is a definite minus (on the mobiles). I have a couple of minor problems with my Pryme PR-52...sometimes the display blanks out just for a quick second, but it&#39;s nothing compared to how quickly the battery drains.

I can&#39;t say anything good or bad about other radios, mostly because I haven&#39;t used them, or I know someone who swears by their particular choice of radio. It&#39;s just a matter of *your* particular choice...if you have a good experience with a particular brand, you&#39;ll tend to stick with it.

E-mail bombs and "I Hate Icom" e-mails can be sent to...

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Doug KB7RKY[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif HI again,, i have a 5 yr. old htx 202 that sees daily use and has only had one battery change, and still works fine, and a htx 404 recently bought off e-bay, and it is in perfect shape.. So i guess there are good and bad ones in all brands, and the yaesu FT 7100M is not making me very proud of it, but "so far" has always cleared up after turning it off and then back on again.. Jury is still out. #73 http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[VK6BCP]

I had many rigs in 45 years of ham radio activity. My worst radio was a SGC Powertalk 2000 with DSP.

73 Walter

[wa5mwh]

Many years ago, I had a friend (new ham) who purchased a new factory built Eico 753. He called me later that same day and said he was going to return the radio as everyone he talked to said it sounded horrible. I offered to come over and see if maybe he was not tuning it up properly etc. I loaded it up on 40m SSB and made a contact with a small group in Texas. I told them that I was checking out my friends new COLLINS KWM-2 &#33;&#33; I got GREAT reports good audio etc. All of his previous reports on audio had been horrible&#33;&#33;&#33; SO?http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif??? Wad the Eico as bad as many would have you believe? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[W0BKR]

KD7KGX writes:

"Also, despite the Ten-Tec bashing... I&#39;ve had nothing but good luck with my Omni VI/Opt1 that I bought used (I&#39;m the 3rd owner). #Has a little drift until it warms up, then works FB."

I haven&#39;t read where anyone is "bashing" any one manufacturer, but stating their real life experience with a dog of a performer. #Sounds like that Omni VI for all the dollars you paid isn&#39;t so stellar a performer either if you have to contend with drift. #Pretty sad commentary for "buy American (and accept marginal performance)".

Personally, I had bad experience with the TT Jupiter and will never go back. #Beyond the technical issues, the personal customer service was a real eye opener. If you are a TT supporter and don&#39;t want honest user feedback, then don&#39;t read any of the posts on here. Hi.

On to other radios, another I forgot to mention as a poor performer was the IC-720. #I had one. #Switching bands made you jump back with the clackith clack, clack, clack. #What the heck was that?
A mechanical band switch&#33; #I got rid of it right away. #Found out later, Icom did not stock parts ofr it and finding parts was close to looking for hens teeth.

Some designs leave me scratching my head.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wa5mwh @ July 22 2002,07:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Many years ago, I had a friend (new ham) who purchased a new factory built Eico 753. #He called me later that same day and said he was going to return the radio as everyone he talked to said it sounded horrible. . . . I told them that I was checking out my friends new COLLINS KWM-2 &#33;&#33; #I got GREAT reports good audio etc. #All of his previous reports on audio had been horrible&#33;&#33;&#33; # SO?http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif??? #Wad the Eico as bad as many would have you believe? #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Yes, it was.

The problem for which it won fame (such as it is) was stability.

It WOULD sit quietly on the bench without falling over, but it would not stay on a frequency. EVER. And it was common to every sample I ever heard about.

Sort of analog spread spectrum.

[KG4KKN]

Yahooo&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif My piece of blank Yaesu FT8500 finally broke something else, and now I can&#39;t talk on ANY band at all&#33; Before, it broke so I couldn&#39;t talk on 2 meters on the left VFO, but now it&#39;s gone on the right VFO too and it took 70cm transmit with it&#33;

Does a nice dead carrier now, all bands all modes. Bet Yaesu can put that in the next model as a "feature" or something.

So, why am I so happy? Because this dead radio means I can justify going shopping for a new one AND I can take this miserable little rig out to the street and, oh, park my car on it or something. Maybe see how well a pickaxe can go through it. Or how well it likes being "washed" in concrete mix. Or see if it sinks or swims in the local lake. Anyone want to bet? Sink or swim? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

What will I get to replace it? Easy. Two radios: Motorola Spectras, one VHF and one UHF. I am tired of cheaply made ham radios that overheat and die for no reason or fall apart under normal use. Tired of bells and whistles that don&#39;t work, stupid controls, and excuses. No more. Pity Mot doesn&#39;t make ham gear. Maybe if they did, the other brands would shape up and fix little things like intermod rejection, sensitivity, adjacent channel rejection, audio quality, durability, etc.

[KC8AFH]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif FT-7100

The RX SUCKES

I LOVE MY FT-8100 both of them&#33;

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif Yaesu FT-8100, #about as bad as it can get&#33;&#33;

[N8QLT]

My worst radio experience is a toss up between my FT-2400 and my FT-5100.

Both lost the display lights within a year. And now both have also experienced what others have described as the "Yaesu TX Virus:" TX output dwindles to the point where my FT-2400 puts out maybe 20 watts on High, and the FT-5100 can&#39;t squeeze out much more than 10 watts on High on 2m, and about 5 watts on 440.

The buttons on the 5100 are way too small, the fan is inadequate as others have mentioned, and the receive is nothing great. The knobs on the 2400 are cheap plastic with a rickety feel, and the volume control is too touchy- hard to adjust at low levels.

One bad Yaesu I can chalk up to chance, but two in a row with the same things going wrong just means they&#39;re crap.

[N4DFP]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (W5HTW @ July 04 2002,09:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">While I didn&#39;t own it, I borrowed it ... And gave it back rather quickly ... From that experience, and what I have heard from others, the Eico 753 may have been the worst SSB rig ever produced.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
My whole hearted agreement&#33; The first rig I ever owned (ca. 1980) was an Eico 753. It was a cool looking rig... reminiscent of a National. The similarity was appearance only. This rig drifted incessantly. it was not uncommon to be in QSO (CW since I was a Tech) and have my correspondent tell me he was tired of chasing me up and down the band&#33; I got rid of it, billed as a PARTS ONLY rig after I got a post card from Atlanta with a Federal gov&#39;t return address advising me that I had a spur 200 KHz out of band that was stronger than my primary emission&#33;

[AG9R]

HTX-202 Hunk of Plastic Intermod attracting JUNK&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;
there I feel Better got my post in for the day LOL

[WA6MHZ]

Ive got 2 Eico 753s right now and can&#39;t fix either one&#33; When they are cooked, they are WASTED&#33; But they will play again if I invest Countless hours and &#036;&#036;&#036;&#036;. But then, I do that on Heathkits, Swans, Galaxy and Drakes&#33; All old radios are JUNK until they become CLASSICS&#33;&#33;&#33; We hated them, now we can&#39;t get enough of them&#33; Sure, they can&#39;t compare to a nice Yaesu FT-1000D or Icom IC-7800. We are spoiled by new technology. Imagine what we would do without digital readouts&#33; Or Memories. Imagine having to live with a simple crystal filter instead of DSP or roofing filters. What if there was no IF shift or Automatic Antenna tuners? Remember the days when if you had 5KC (Note: thats Kilocycles, not KiloHERTZ&#33;) calibration, and you had to hope your 100 KC calibrator was close enough to WWV to keep you in band. Remember having to dip the plate current and mess around with little wires to try to neutralze the finals. Or even carefully turn a pot to try to null out the carrier&#33; Remember when you had to have a thing called a Q multiplier to get any hope of CW reception. We are so SO SPOILED today with these new fancy rigs. OH those were the days, trying to work Field Day with a 20 meter dipole up 20 feet in a forest clearing with a HW-32 and a noisy generator nearby. If you got 100 contacts, it was a WONDERFUL Field Day&#33; Guess its a Midlife crisis to want to go back to those days of miserable junk radios, but I just can&#39;t get enough of them&#33; Anyone have a Hopelessy broke SB-101 they will let go cheap?

[AC5XP]

Worst rigs I ever had?
Winner: Ten-Tec Paragon. Lots of birdies; noisy synthesizer and digital artifacts. Flimsy build.
Good second: Yaesu FT-767. Poor IMD prone receiver; CPU goes beserk when slight RF comes back to the rig (where much cheaper rigs did NOT have that problem with the same antenna system)
Third: SGC SG-2000 Poor receiver without any RF preselection. Receiver has very loud, constant hiss (could have been an incidental defect though).

[KC0WWD]

Worst rig I have ever had (or still have)?

Tempo One. It's awful. Cannot hold on a frequency and after several repairs, it just won't stay stable! Need something good for CW and RTTY and a good one has been anything Kenwood.

[KB1FJR]

The Yaesu VX-1R is the worse radio I have ever owned. I wanted something small and compact for listening, maybe local TX. Well the thing was as deaf as a door nail couldn't even hear the strong local NOAA WX, forget about the local repeater. Went out on the Boat in Boston harbor, I dropped the radio into the harbor accidentally. Oh well, if anyone wants it is between Fore River Ship Yard and Long Island Hospital. Plus the radio had this stupid Band Switch thing, everything was in a band. Piece of garbage. The Diamond antenna I had on it was worth more then the radio.

[GM4BRB]

Let 'er rip!


1) After homebrew rigs that don't go at all my worst transmitter was a 1970's Brit manufactured KW Valiant. All valve/tube and a very cramped 50W AM/FM/CW HF rig with a tube only era resemblance to LSI (Large Scale Integration). It started smoking then blew a few tubes, resistors, PSU parts ...
'This is an argument for giving up smoking if I ever heard one.'

2) Marantz/Standard C156E 2m handheld txcr. Shortly after I bought this economy rig advertised in RSGB magazine the plastic case started bio-degrading ... no joke. Still have it, held together with various tapes, cable ties and a police type holster to buck up the 'stuctural integrity' ...
'Whoops, outside your cheap plastic head Marantz.'

[KC9JWA]

ICOM , THE WORST.:eek: just wasnt that good my kenwwod is awesome cant wait for my ts2000.:)

[KL7AJ]

.....but by far the worst rig I ever used was a Kenwood TS950....hands down. Absolutely hideous reciprocal mixing....every CW station received created multiple internally generated key clicks across the entire band.....totally unusable for CW. And this was an EXPENSIVE rig.

Perhaps this was a fluke that got off the factory floor with a defect...but it was SOOOOO bad I've never gone near a Kenwood since.

Eric

[KC9JWA]

.....but by far the worst rig I ever used was a Kenwood TS950....hands down. Absolutely hideous reciprocal mixing....every CW station received created multiple internally generated key clicks across the entire band.....totally unusable for CW. And this was an EXPENSIVE rig.

Perhaps this was a fluke that got off the factory floor with a defect...but it was SOOOOO bad I've never gone near a Kenwood since.

Eric
Oh, darn i hate to see that kenwoods can be bad rigs sometimes, ah well nuttin is perfect, i am goin for the ts2000 so far all say its worth it and love it i sure hope so, its very expensive.:eek:

[NT7C]

I would bestow the 'honor' of Worst Rig to the venerable Yaesu FT-7100M Dual Band (VHF/UHF) radio. I wonder why I found little mention of this radio in the first ten pages of comments and then figured that word got out fast enough about them.

4. Front panel seemed designed for right hand drive cars. The band activity lights were located immediately to the right of the volume/squelch stack knobs. There seemed no position you could mount a radio and see the activity light - even at night.

3. Frequency knob adjustment - the detent was so soft that if you hit a hard bump in the road the radio could change frequency and the encoder was so bad that you could spin the knob faster than the encoder could keep up with the changes. Ten quick clicks or two regular, they both amounted to 10 KHz frequency change.

2. Deviation - on my two 7100M's the deviation was either 3 KHz or 8 KHz. You had to hack into the radio and attack the circuit board if you wanted to adjust that. There were active components in the microphone but not documented in the schematics.

1. Receiver was wider than my Icom R-10 scanner. This radio heard everything - simultaneously!

Both of these radios exhibited these problems. At first I thought it was just the RF rich environment of the Phoenix metro area, but after moving to a remote region of north Texas, population 3,750 I decided it really was the radio. They were both sold at the very next Ham-Con.

73 all!
Moe Knight
NT7C

[WM4MD]

Having had the pleasure of owning and operating many radios and after reading some of the posts here I find it hard to believe that some of the comments were about radios I once owned.

Would it be possible that someone did not pay proper attention to grounding, proper voltages, antenna placements ad such insignificant things as to cause the radios to fail?

I'll give you the Azdens and ADI's they are and were poor radios, but I have never had a bad name brand radio.

[KB8VUL]

I went through the list, or at least a better part of it.
I get a kick out of the guys that complain about the DC to Daylight HT's that have Intermod issues. Yeah, no kidding.

I saw many people chime in about the Kenwood 241 display issues. Yep, there is a connector that runs the display. It's somehow mounted to the board but the board side legs are not soldered to the board, only the mounting tabs. I bit of fine solder and a small tip iron and the issue is resolved.

I saw many mentions of the old drifters. The Siltronix, Echo, Jupiter, and others with the VFO's that would drift all over the place. I try to be understanding about these sort of comments, but can't. I have several signal generators that were top of the line military spec gear from the same time period. They do the same crap for hours after they are powered on. It's to the point that if I need to use them, I fire them up the night before and let them stablize before use. If that sort of gear drifts it's little wonder that ham gear would do similar things.

I have never found a piece of gear that I was unhappy with. And only one that I couldn't fix (struck by lightning). I enjoy working in radio's and dealing with their quirks, everything has quirks.

[K0WA]

Knight T-60 - Harmonic Generator
Ocean Hopper - Nice and fun radio, but worthless on upper bands
Kenwood TS-440S - Could not keep RF out of the rig. Just poor
Icom 746 - Way to much blow by in the IF. Great concept.

[W4KVW]

By far the WORST ham radio I EVER owned or operated is a Yaesu FT-857D. I would NOT take one for FREE if I were required to KEEP it & OPERATE it & NOT be allowed to sell it.I HATE NOISE in my receiver & this rig will NOT get rid of MOST noise that other rigs do not even know is there.This is an EXCUSE for a multi band all mode rig.Save the headache & buy an ICOM if given the choice.

CLAYTON
W4KVW:eek:

[KE0ZU]

The "worst radios" are fairly numerous. First is the Atlas 215, it never ran more than a few days at a time though small and inovative. National's early transceivers, NCX-3, NCX-200, and NCX-500. None worth 2 cents on CW, and not alot better on other modes for that matter, worst frequency dial of all time, I think.

The NCX-5 wasn't any better on CW but overall, a great improvement over the NCX-3 and and other early National xceivers, the mechanical dial was slick and tracked very well.
http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/mikeinkcmo/Radios/NCX-5/NCX-5-1.jpg

[WA4OTD]

Eico 753. But I still have fond memories of it ;)

Certified by 35 other hams on eham reviews. SOrt by review.
http://www.eham.net/reviews/products/14

I see my review is still there....

It was better than the DX60 and xtal I was using! My elmer loaded me this rig when I upgraded to Advanced in 1974 so at 14 years old I would do anything to get on the air. This rig took full advantage of my attitude. I ended up leaving the top cover off and was lucky when it made it through a QSO without something breaking! THere was always smoke or an arc and radio down. I would race to get it fixed before my QSO left me.

[KI6USW]

I sure hope that the Icom IC-718 doesn't make it to this list eventually - as it is my first radio. I also managed to pick up a Kenwood TS-120S for next to nothing. I hope it doesn't take a hit on someone's list - either.

Maybe someone should document the loser rigs after a few more days and tally the results that made the worst from this thread - and to include all of those radios that deserve dishonerable mention.

Maybe the mfr's would read it - and cringe!
:eek:

[KN0CK]

I <unfortunately> owned a FT-747GX HF rig that I purchased on EBay for (at the time) a decent market price. I read in earlier posts that the '747 was called the 'plastic fantastic', and it wasn't until I received the rig from the seller that I understood why. Gawd - that thing was CHEAPLY put together and was wired with the cheapest garbage that could be found (vinyl covered 24AWG stranded wire). The entire case was made of plastic and had a REAL cheap feel to it - there was none of the 'heft' you'd expect from a Yaesu rig. Not only that, but the rig was controlled by an ASIC on the main board that, if it was acting up, pretty much screwed anyone from getting the thing to work. The main board was 80% of the rig - there was nothing modular about it at all to make any repair at a reasonable cost. Mine developed a display problem 3 weeks into its use from the day it arrived that made it impossible for me to know where I was tuned and what Rx and Tx levels were (all display the elements were on). So, after 3 weeks of operation, I ended up selling it on QTH.com for parts and took a severe beating on what I spent to 'own' it. Bought an FT100D and never looked back.</unfortunately>

[NI7I]

Have to be the WRT-2/R390 combination. The t2 because it took forever to tune and it weighed 1200 poinds. The r390 was just an old POJ tube rx. It worked but was also large and generated a lot of heat. Was glad to get an R91051 to replace it.

NI7I

[NE0U]

Ok, I can't resist. Bearing in mind that I have been a ham now for 38 years and that when I started out, I had absolutely no money: My first receiver was a Heathkit GR-64. Asthetically, a very nice receiver, but definately not up to the task of being a ham receiver. It was so baaaaaddddd, when my mom popped a slice of bread into the toaster, I would completely lose the 40M ham band! Later on with general license in hand, I modified my homebrew 6L6 transmitter to run AM with a homebrew outboard modulator - unfortunately, the modulator put out more RF than the transmitter and I was promptly informed that I was QRMing myself to the point that it was totally unreadable!

Things were different back then...

Steve
NE0U

[WA8FOZ]

Eico 753. Never actually owned one, but helped a friend who did. He was a newbie at the time, and was so proud of his new acquisition....he ended up replacing EVERY capacitor in that thing, as well as doing many other upgrades. He learned a lot.

It sounded crummy on the air, but at least it didn't stay in one place very long....

[KF5AEO]

The VX-150 is probably the best HT I've had. #The caveat with them is to ensure that you have the computer program for them too. #I'm unconvinced that you can actually program them using the key pad.



Frank/N7UO
ill agree the vx-150 is a great rig and its not hard to program manualy after about 5 memories. JUST DONT BREAK OFF THE CONTROL KNOB THAT WORKS THE VFO OR MENU. Then its impossible to do anything manually....
worst radio kenwood 271A hated the audio and a pain to program. didnt much care for the key setup

[WA4OTD]

I had one my elmer loaned me when I passed from novice in 1975. It was an upgrade from what I had as novice!

Often (several times a day) had failures. All easy repairs. Kept cover off and solder iron ready for repair!


Eico 753. Never actually owned one, but helped a friend who did. He was a newbie at the time, and was so proud of his new acquisition....he ended up replacing EVERY capacitor in that thing, as well as doing many other upgrades. He learned a lot.

It sounded crummy on the air, but at least it didn't stay in one place very long....

[KB5PX]

The best radio I ever had,
was paide for'
turned on when I asked it to,

Worst rig ?
The one I had just borrowed and had just gone up in smoke.

[M0JMO]

My first CB Radio when I was 14...

It was made by a company called Murphy :rolleyes:

[WA9VLK]

For me it is a tie.

The EICO 753 deserves all the wrath it gets. Although it is one of the better looking transceivers ever made, it covered the entire 40 meter band in about 20-30 minutes without touching a dial. It was fun to build, but then again, all the kits from the 1960s were fun to build. The EICO 720 is a superb CW rig but, ugh, what happened in engineering-land with the 753?

Although I understand they make pretty good stuff now...Ten Tec should have been liquidated after producing the Power Mite transceiver in the early 70s. What junk; don't know where to begin...transmitter? drift? chirp? receiver? drift? pathetic audio? ergonomics awful...it had it all. Was anyone paying attention when they unleashed this on the market? Good grief.

[WA4OTD]

It is the Yugo of the Amateur world!


For me it is a tie.

The EICO 753 deserves all the wrath it gets. Although it is one of the better looking transceivers ever made, it covered the entire 40 meter band in about 20-30 minutes without touching a dial. It was fun to build, but then again, all the kits from the 1960s were fun to build. The EICO 720 is a superb CW rig but, ugh, what happened in engineering-land with the 753?

Although I understand they make pretty good stuff now...Ten Tec should have been liquidated after producing the Power Mite transceiver in the early 70s. What junk; don't know where to begin...transmitter? drift? chirp? receiver? drift? pathetic audio? ergonomics awful...it had it all. Was anyone paying attention when they unleashed this on the market? Good grief.

[WB2WIK]

For me it is a tie.

The EICO 753 deserves all the wrath it gets. Although it is one of the better looking transceivers ever made, it covered the entire 40 meter band in about 20-30 minutes without touching a dial.

I thought that was a feature. Ham rigs didn't include a "scanning" function until many years later.:)

[W4DNR]

The worst radio I had out of many was the Collins KWm 2.

Had it for 17 years and with the same tubes, never changed them.

# # Sold it because I never had problems and #the chance to repair it. It never failed. #What a boring rig.

# # # # # # # # # W6th


Me too... It was so bad that I also bought a 312B5 and then 75S3 and 32S3 combo.. then the 30L1, then the 30S1 and a 62S1. Best all around rig so far is my Kenwood TS2000

Don WA4NPL

[WL7COL]

I don't remember the model number but it was a 2m/70cm dual bander from Icom. It was a 2m xcvr but - only rcv on 70cm.

No, I don't know what I was thinking because I wasn't even close to a satellite system then and was totally, only mobile.

[W2TXB]

The worst I ever owned was a Heathkit HW-202; it was a 6-channel crystal-controlled 10-watt radio that had some bugs in the earliest versions. That radio taught me to never be a "guinea pig" again. :eek:

[K1NVY]

Yaesu FT-1000MP MK-V.

I sunk $4000 into that white noise generator, did all the mods (less the PIN diode mod) and finally gave up on it. CW notes were clunky and noise floor in the Ozone Layer. I preferred using a Kenwood TS-140S over that POS. I finally shelved it and eventually sold it to an SSB no-code guy.

[MI3LVZ]

My worst radio has to be the Paragon. As usual the PLL gave me nothing but heart ache. When the radio worked it actually worked well but just a torture when the PLL gave up.
Still i might just risk a Paragon 2 as i am told they dont suffer PLL probs....

[WA7VTD]

The National NCX-3 was a real P.O.S. The NC-2000 amp is still a good piece of gear and of course National made some legendary receivers. But that NCX-3 sucked. Never used one that was any good. Always on the blink. Several friends had them in the 70s and only complained.

[KB9HGI]

It had to be the Yaesu Ft-101 it was nothing but a pain and man that thing would drift.

[KC2UGV]

Looks like somebody did a bad </div>...

[N8YX]

For me it was the RCI-2950. Was given to me by a friend and turned out to be almost unusable when running mobile.

I don't know how RangerUSA keeps selling the things. :mad:

[NI7I]

It had to be the Yaesu Ft-101 it was nothing but a pain and man that thing would drift.

I loved my old 101. Dont recall a drift problem with mine. Perhaps there was a unique problem with yourws. Of course mine was an "E".

All of my old rigs were great. copl;dnt say any were the "worst". mEven my Swans were enjoyable.

Regards
Lee
ni7i

[NS8N]

I am only on my second rig which is a huge step up from the first. So by default, my first rig, Icom 706MKII, was the worst rig I ever had. In fairness, it wasn't too bad but no where near the same class as my TT Jupiter. The receiving differences between these two rigs is VAST. My problem was that I was using the Icom for something it wasn't designed for: base station. For a mobile rig, it does OK. I suppose I could have done worse for a first rig. I could never go back though after having this Jupiter, it would be too painful.

[KA5ROW]

I have never owned a bad ham rig hear is why. What I have owned in the past was the. Kenwood TS-530 SP, Ken TS-830, Ken TS-180, Ken TS-430, Ken TS-570 S, For VHF: Ken TS-751 A, Ken TS-711 A, Ken TS-790 A. I have owned one Icom 735 and a Icom 756Pro and they were great radios too. :D

[WW3DE]

Fun reading! It's curious that some of the radios coming in for the greatest criticism -- the likes of Swan and Atlas, Heath, Hallicrafters and National, for example -- are among those that also seem to inspire the greatest nostalgia today. The Heath HW-100 series transceivers were awful, but they still fetch a nice price among collectors because of the Heath name. I don't know how anyone found, much less heard, anyone on any of the Hallicrafters S-38 series receivers, but some even heard my puny Novice signal in the 1950s.

This said, the absolute worst radios I ever used -- new, out of the box -- were by Patcomm, a US manufacturer that, mercifully, is no longer in business. To the manufacturer's credit, the radios debuted some nice features, such as keyboard RTTY without a TNC or PC, and successive models did get better, but not by much and not fast enough. The SGC-2020 was not one of my favorites either, although one could drive a truck over it without damaging it, nor was the Index QRP rig.

By and large, dollar for dollar, the ham radio gear on the market today represents a far greater value than anything we might have been able to buy 25 or 50 years ago, Collins included.

[WA7TN]

Absolutely the worst of ALL TIME!!!!

[WA9Z]

Any moron can dial an 800 number, read a credit card number and call tech support for assistance plugging in a $10,000 appliance. Only a competent ham, devout to the cause can make a Galaxy, Swan, Eico, etc sound like one. Cheers, WA9Z

[W4PC]

Any moron can dial an 800 number, read a credit card number and call tech support for assistance plugging in a $10,000 appliance. Only a competent ham, devout to the cause can make a Galaxy, Swan, Eico, etc sound like one. Cheers, WA9Z

Like an Eico 753? Sounds drifty to me.