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RCI-2950dx3
- Thread starter Dorian
- Start date
If you buy one new out of the box, the conversion is easy. There is a modular mini board that plugs in behind the frequency counter. There are youtube videos showing where to plug it in at. This is all it takes to open the TX from 24Mhz to 32 Mhz.
As for alignments, the new radio should be good enough. Even still, any alignment could be moved some during shipping.
Save your money and just buy the radio as is but I would ask if the radio box is factory sealed because I heard some of these radio shops will take the mini board out and sell it seperately or try to get you to have them sell you a conversion and BS alignment.
I've heard the same, make sure you're getting everything that comes from the factory with it.
I have no experience with radio shop supply so I can't help you there.
yes sir, it is, I think I made the right choice going with them, time will tell. I've got a TS-350v to go with that 2950,
I would disagree with this thinking. Export radio's are tuned and aligned at the factory for 10m use, and they are "ballparked in" at best. You are time and money ahead by purchasing the radio from a shop that does good tech work. Let them do the conversion and re-align the radio for 11m use. This way it gets done right one time and shipped to you. Only exception to this is if you have a good local tech or you can do the work yourself. With newer radio's being all surface mount and most require some soldering for the conversion I would leave it to a pro.
Why would that be? I'm willing to bet the export radio manufacturers know who their primary target customers are and that's the CB/freeband crowd. The 2950 models are used by some hams but that's about it. The rest of the exports with roger beeps, echo boards, noise toys, and other gadgets are less likely to be used in someone's ham shack. Besides, 10 meters is illegal to operate on without a license and most freebanders have some respect and know to stay off the ham bands.
I
I was only talking about the 2950.
This radio's TX conversion is way too simple and it was design that way on purpose so any CB/freebander can do it himself so that goes with what I said previously about who these radio's are designed for.
Other exports require snipping a wire or moving a jumper. Why pay a radio shop to do that?
What alignment?
I recently bought a 2970 and it was good enough to go. The TX frequency was close enough and all I did was a slight adjustments to the AMC pot and hi/lo pots for a better 4:1 deadkey/peak balance. That's it!
Anything else would be unnecessary and falls into the category of " hacking a radio ".
There is plenty of info on this forum and elsewhere to perform these simple adjustments.
It seems the op already ordered the radio and will do the TX conversion himself.
Loosecannon has posted several times that from the factory these radio's have the receive set for 10m and it needs to be re-aligned for 11m use. Maybe he can chime in here and clarifiy this.
I have never had a radio that did not need something adjusted. From the factory they are ball parked in. You even stated this, "I recently bought a 2970 and it was good enough to go". I like better then good enough.
As far as what needs aligned? Check out cb tricks they have the complete alignment procedures. There are a number of setting that need checked, a good tech will spend close to an hour on this. To each his own I guess.
I have never had a radio that did not need something adjusted. From the factory they are ball parked in. You even stated this, "I recently bought a 2970 and it was good enough to go". I like better then good enough.
As far as what needs aligned? Check out cb tricks they have the complete alignment procedures. There are a number of setting that need checked, a good tech will spend close to an hour on this. To each his own I guess.
We see very little difference in performance before and after alignment with this model and the previous "DX" RCI radios.
The 2950-based radios use a technique called "track tuning". If you have looked inside an old tube-type receiver you would see a main tuning capacitor with plates that move together or apart as you turn the tuning knob. You'll usually see at least two separate sections, sometimes three or four of them, all turning together on the same tuning shaft. This is so that separate sections of the receiver will be properly peaked over a wide range of frequency coverage, each section with its own tuning capacitor.
The RCI radios do this in a different way. A component called a "varactor diode" behaves just like the big metal-plate tuning capacitor, but it's controlled by a DC voltage fed to it, rather than by turning a shaft.
The computer that runs the radio feeds a tuning voltage to one of these diodes to set your operating frequency. Every 40-channel radio you ever saw (but one or two) has one of these diodes in it, setting your channel frequency using a PLL circuit.
RCI put these voltage-controlled capacitor diodes into the receiver and transmitter sections of the radio as well. This has the effect of re-peaking those circuits as you tune from 24.5 to 30 or more MHz automagically.
The need to re-align a simpler-type radio for 11 meters is no joke. Just about any of the so-called "10-meter" radios you see with a 2-digit channel display will benefit from having the alignment optimized for 11 meters. Not all, just most of them.
But the RCI2950/2970 radios they sell now will almost never show an improvement you can see by aligning it for 11 meters.
73
The 2950-based radios use a technique called "track tuning". If you have looked inside an old tube-type receiver you would see a main tuning capacitor with plates that move together or apart as you turn the tuning knob. You'll usually see at least two separate sections, sometimes three or four of them, all turning together on the same tuning shaft. This is so that separate sections of the receiver will be properly peaked over a wide range of frequency coverage, each section with its own tuning capacitor.
The RCI radios do this in a different way. A component called a "varactor diode" behaves just like the big metal-plate tuning capacitor, but it's controlled by a DC voltage fed to it, rather than by turning a shaft.
The computer that runs the radio feeds a tuning voltage to one of these diodes to set your operating frequency. Every 40-channel radio you ever saw (but one or two) has one of these diodes in it, setting your channel frequency using a PLL circuit.
RCI put these voltage-controlled capacitor diodes into the receiver and transmitter sections of the radio as well. This has the effect of re-peaking those circuits as you tune from 24.5 to 30 or more MHz automagically.
The need to re-align a simpler-type radio for 11 meters is no joke. Just about any of the so-called "10-meter" radios you see with a 2-digit channel display will benefit from having the alignment optimized for 11 meters. Not all, just most of them.
But the RCI2950/2970 radios they sell now will almost never show an improvement you can see by aligning it for 11 meters.
73
That's good information and I'm glad you responded. That said it does concern me about the horror stories we see about the 2970N2 radio's. There are some current posts running here on the forum talking about brand new radio's that have bias settings off, and the AM dead key settings are way off as well. Some also seem to draw way more amperage then they should. Then after some things get re-set inside the radio the amp draw is more in line with where it should be. The best deal would be to have a good honest local tech take a bone stock 2950/70 and at least give it a once over. This way he could check modulation levels, set your carrier levels, and make sure the radio is on frequency.
I'll admit we have seen some of these with the radio-final bias set too high, or the same setting in the amplifier too high. And the max carrier power on AM should never be set above 30 or 40 Watts. A radio set for much more than that could hurt itself if a knob gets bumped and nobody notices.
That can cause overheating and premature failure.
Having the alignment settings checked for suicidal tendencies is probably wise. You'll want to turn up the AM modulation limit, most likely.
Getting it checked by a reputable tech may improve the longevity before it breaks down the first time. But a boost in performance you can tell?
Not so likely.
73
That can cause overheating and premature failure.
Having the alignment settings checked for suicidal tendencies is probably wise. You'll want to turn up the AM modulation limit, most likely.
Getting it checked by a reputable tech may improve the longevity before it breaks down the first time. But a boost in performance you can tell?
Not so likely.
73
Thx everyone, I canceled the order, i'm gonna use that TS-350hdv with the anytone 6666 for 11m. I am going to treat myself to a brand new kenwood TS-590sg get that old cushcraft R4 with the RK-45 warc band add on out of the garage and play RADIO!