What is the WORST rig you've ever had?

The worst has to be the Ten-Tec Jupiter.

 

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???   <!--emo&

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

 

Only rigs I've ever had to send in for service were the Yaesu FT-90R due to it'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.

 

QUESTION BOYS!!!

Why in Hell if someone COMPLAINS about anything on QRZ.Com they're acussed of "VENTING???"

They VOICE they're own opinions, so what gives you "FEW" guys the RIGHT to say that'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!!!".

es 3s,

Jim/nn6ee

 

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

 

the rigs that I have to gripe about were (1) National's NCX-3, had a receiver broad as a barndoor both on SSB & CW. I don't think any optional filters could be added without doing your own design changes! 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!

 

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's)

 

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't very technical, and the dealer wasn't much of one, until I finally got a refund, from the dealer not Gap, after contacting the dealer's home store and president.

I'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!

 

Worst rig? The choice has to be based on the design. It'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's because you never used a 753.

The 753'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!

 

I AGREE ABOUT THE EICO 753 !

THE ONE I HAD WOULD RUN AM, SSB AND FM, ALL AT THE SAME TIME !

IT WAS THE WORST PIECE OF JUNK I EVER SAW !

 

</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!  Then take a commercial rig through the same area......[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Maybe, but I don't think it'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'm told the old RS 2-meter rigs did really well for intermod, but also wouldn't operate outside of the band at all.  Don'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've owned has been really excellent when you take age, design features and compromises into account.  I'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

 

The worst radio gear I'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'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'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'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 (&#33, and the second one didn'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'll send it out.  AVVid in Texas has been great for Kenwood and Icom stuff I've sent them to fix.

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

 

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

 

Alinco is the worst company I ever dealt with.  In 1995 I bought 2 DR599T mobile radios and a DJ580 walkie talkie.  The 599T's were advertised to receive the aircraft band, but couldn't without modification's that I had to hassle for on the phone.  Alinco'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's both blew up in separate mobile installations within a week of each other almost exactly a year later.  After I sent over $300 for factory service on them, only one was returned operational.  When I called them back about the other one returned that still didn't work, a rather smart-mouthed young fellow said I could return it again for another estimate.  Of course I wasn'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't support.

 

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