WORST 2 meter mobile unit

[ai4ep]

Ok, now that most folka have posted info about their hand held radios...now time for a new thread --- the absolute worst 2 meter mobile you ever owned.

How hard was it to program ...use in daily use...glitches ...fan on back staying on too long / not ever working ...etc.

ai4ep

[K8YS]

HW-2036 - just could not keep it locked


[edited to include]

OH WAIT! no, one even more worse, EBC Jr...

[wa4brl]

Drake TR-22. It actually was a good little rig, but it had only 1 watt output. Even with the 5/8 whip on the car, I made a lot of people suffer trying to listening to me on the old "alligator" style repeaters in the mid 70's. Anybody else remember THAT term? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I enjoyed using the TR-22 as a UHT. I still have it stored away with other retired rigs.

[K9STH]

By far the Gladding 25. It had no "warp" on the receive crystals and used slope detection for the receiver (AM moved off to the side). The modulation was distorted by the actual design.

I was sent one of these to check out for a "review" when I was the FM Editor of CQ Magazine. CQ never published the review since Gladding was a full page advertiser (only one of the reasons that I stopped writing for the magazine). The manufacturer's "excuse" for the bad modulation was that they had been using the same circuit for their VHF marine units and that the shrimp boat operators were "used to" poor quality modulation!

I "tore up" the radio in my review. As I pointed out above, Gladding was a major advertiser so CQ refused to publish the article since that would probably have resulted in them "pulling" their advertisements.

Glen, K9STH

[K0RGR]

KDK made some fairly dubious stuff, and Regencys weren't the creme de la creme, either. For 2-meter only rigs, I would have to nominate the ICOM IC-22. These rigs started out really good, but after time, the components aged very badly, and no amount of rework would get their little VCO's oscillating again. We had 4 of them in the family, I think, and there was usually at least one on the workbench at any given time. The good thing was, you could build an outboard programmer to give you all the upper 2 meter band FM channels pretty easily. At least, they were fairly cheap.

The converted GE Prog Line I started with was lacking a few key features, like a squelch, but it worked great and wore like iron.

[ai4ep]

I had a Kenwood 241 / 251 ( one of the two ) and I never COULD figure out how to program the dern thang !! I finally got one memory channel in it, but getting channel 2 - 3 - 4 and so on were horrific. It could have just been that ONE individual radio in 10,000. If I had it back, I bet it would have something simple like a loose solder connection / tiny crack in circuit board, etc. ...problably in the landfill somewhere by now by someone else.

I had a ranger 2950 ( 10 meter all mode rig )that showed a erratic display, that would change if you pushed on the main circuit board in certain areas with a eraser on a pencil.....so...I took an old toothbrush and went all over that board on the bottom side and took about 2 hours. Plugged the rig up and it worked perfectly.
No I did not use toothpaste or any thing else , just rubbed the toothbrush bristles against the bottom of the main circuit board...nothing fancy, something ANY ONE could have done.

Amazing what you can learn from a post by an Extra from Alabama.

But then, YOU already knew that, didnt ya ? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

ai4ep

[KC0NBW]

the old wabco rigs with the relay squelch !

[kf4lne]

I don't remember what it was, I think it was a midland. It was big, heavy and had a big, chrome knob in the middle that the outside part of the knob adjusted MHz and the inside of the knob adjusted kHz. It drifted, the HI-LO button only worked when it wanted to and the red LED display was hard to look at and impossable to see if the sunlight hit it just right. I hated it but at the time it was all I could afford and used it well until it died. I am now satisfied with my HTX-212 and the pair of Alinco DR-110Ts I have. they all work well and the 212 has taken a beating for nearly 10 years with very few problems. I looked at rigpix for that radio but I couldnt find a pic of it. If anyone remembers this radio let me know. I no longer have it, I gave it away as a parts radio when it died.

[K8ERV]

Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ July 20 2005,14:14)]the old "alligator" style repeaters in the mid 70's. #Anybody else remember THAT term? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
I do

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[KF0RT]

Anyone remember the old Genave rigs from about 1973? Solid state 10W rig for about $129 as I recall (very cheap for the day). You could transmit on two repeaters at the same time with those. One on two meters and one in the police band.

The Genave gets my "thumbs down" for the worst piece of ham gear I've ever owned.

73, Rob

[wa4brl]

Hold the Fort: I remember the Genave HT -- it looked great, and had a wonderful solidness and heft to it. I drooled over it at Dayton around 1977. I wanted one so bad, but Genave went under or stopped making the amateur products by the time I was ready to purchase an HT. If they were as bad as your mobile rig, perhaps I was fortunate.

ERV: I've forgotten what the OPPOSITE of the "alligator" was called. It was all ears and no mouth, but what was the animal/term?

[K3UD]

Without a doubt it was the SBE-144. Great looking radio, good tranmit audio but almost useless around most parts of Philadelphia. traded it off the a Drake ML2 (Marker Luxury, hybrid made in Japan by ? and rebranded Drake. Had a 6360 final and solid state receiver) the difference was night and day. The receiver was a bullet proof as anything being offered in the ham market back then.

73
George
K3UD

[K8YS]

I was a brand new ham, 1977, walked into the local ham shop (one of two back then), told the owner that I wanted a Wilson 1405. The extremely wise man questioned my motives and advised me to buy a TR33C and a small amp (in this case, a Heath HA-something or other with a 2N5590). I did that, and have praised his wiseness many times over.

[wa4brl]

I thought it was wisdomness. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Weren't those TR-22 / TR-33's great! I had a Heathkit Touch-tone pad mounted on the case of mine... used it so much the "3" quit working. That must be why we bought a house back then, so we could move and get a new phone number without a "3" in it! Yeah, that's the ticket! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

Those were wonderful rigs for their time. So why are we in the "worst rigs" forum? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif Oh, yeah, because I didn't have an amplifier. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[k5ahh]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I've got a Drake TR-33 as well. Maybe it was quite popular, I dunno. 1.5 watt, 12 channel rig, woo-hoo!!

[ka0gkt]

I've been lucky, several 2-M rigs and few problems. The biggest problem was with a Midland 13-510. The biggest problem was poor contacts in the fly-lead connectors between controls and PCBs. I ended up removing the connectors and soldering the wires directly to the boards. No more problems.

Otherwise, there have been several "Broadband" rigs which seem to get clobbered by intermod easier than oh say the IC-25A...too bad the older rigs aren't set up for multiple CTCSS (PL) tones.

[WA2ZDY]

I honestly can't think of any mobile rigs I've had much trouble with. I had an HR2B that wasn't too bad. Genave was junk but I never owned one. I did have an ML2 and that was a good rig. Big and heavy for 10w out, but hey, it was from 1971. ICs, transistors and that 6360 in the final. All the bases were covered!

I had a TR33 and yes, that was a good rig. That it only needed one crystal for each channel and one could switch to direct on the output of the repeater was really nice. I wouldn't mind having one of them here on the shelf for jollies.

Fun stuff.

[K8ERV]

Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ July 21 2005,08:35)]ERV: I've forgotten what the OPPOSITE of the "alligator" was called. #It was all ears and no mouth, but what was the animal/term?
Haven't heard of that one. Maybe Ross Perot?

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[K9STH]

BRL:

The "term" was "elephant": Big ears, little mouth.

Glen, K9STH

[wa4brl]

Elephant. THAT'S IT! I guess I didn't remember because we didn't have any of them in the tidewater Virginia area. Nothing but alligators back in the 70's (at least for us 1-watt mobiles). http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[K8YS]

Quote[/b] (WA2ZDY @ July 22 2005,05:55)]I honestly can't think of any mobile rigs I've had much trouble with. I had an HR2B that wasn't too bad. Genave was junk but I never owned one. I did have an ML2 and that was a good rig. Big and heavy for 10w out, but hey, it was from 1971. ICs, transistors and that 6360 in the final. All the bases were covered!

I had a TR33 and yes, that was a good rig. That it only needed one crystal for each channel and one could switch to direct on the output of the repeater was really nice. I wouldn't mind having one of them here on the shelf for jollies.

Fun stuff.
I still have an HR2B -- somewhere, in a box, in the basement.

[WA7KKP]

Worst rig -- Kenwood TM741 . . . .

Nice with all the features, and two other bands to use, but unless you have the book, you can punch the wrong button and end up gawd knows where . . . . Denfinitely not user friendly, in a mobile situation.

Maybe that's why it hasn't seen DC or the light of day in years. Wish I had the grand invested in something better. If I sell it I'll loose my shirt, so I'll just keep it for now.

Gary WA7KKP

[k0fo]

I have an Icom IC-2800 that I absolutely loathe. Crappy receiver (on both 2m and 70cm), ludicrous user interface, display is virtually invisible in daylight and when it's cold outside, you can turn the rig on and wait for 15 minutes for the bleeping display to come on at all.

The only reason it is still in my car is I'm too lazy to rip the thing out.

[AC0H]

I've never owned a 2m only mobile rig.

I've had an Yaesu FT-5200 which is a fine rig but lacks the memories of today's rigs.

Several friends have had the ubiquitous Kenwood TM-241. When you buy that rig get two, one to use for a while and the other for spare parts.

Right now I've got an Icom 2720 in the truck and it has got to be the worst damn rig ever built or designed. It's an intermod queen, runs hot, burns up finals, etc... Just a terrible rig. Pretty much done with Icom V/UHF equipment.

[wb6bcn]

I used to have a Gonsett Communicator II, One of the worst mobil rigs I owned, The worst was a RCA CarPhone. One of the best was a Gonsette Communicator IV. All these were the 2 meter versions.