I'm working on the written review but I thought I'd give you guys an idea of what I think so far.
Pros
- Awesome looking at night (Yes it has three different colors but I've had it in the mobile for a couple of days and it really lights up nice for use, maybe not pretty but very visible and not overly bright)
- Receiver is nice, quiet and sensitive. Had no trouble hearing anyone and it worked very well in the mobile.
- SSB audio and swing are good. Not as loud as my RCI-2950DX or Magnum 257HP but reports came back as clear (and with the EC-2018 people said the audio sounded really good).
- Frequency stability is spot on much like a 2950
- Tons of options to play around with
- Software works well and you can program it from the computer
Cons
- Radio has very little swing on AM. Audio is below average and muffled
- I turned up the modulation inside and added a power microphone and it just won't swing like most other exports on AM and audio remains muffled even with a power microphone. I've talked to someone else and they reported the same thing and that another party is trying to work out a NPC mod. My impressions are that it may make it sound better but the radio still won't be anything special on AM. Maybe if Sam Lewis add's a Top Gun Compressor and Modulator to their version they can get some more life out of it.
- Output is average for an export, after tuning it still isn't doing the watts (AM or SSB) of a newer style (Black Face) 2950DX.
- Talkback is quiet and no variable (seems to be always on with my radio and another person said theirs is only on when echo is on?)
- No microphone gain
- Stock mike is okay but nasal sounding
- SSB carrier balance out of wack from factory, high spurious emission, needed adj
So what you'll read in my review in more detail is the following -
Cool radio because of the features and programming. Everything works well and very cool to customize for your own use. They finally are starting to make clarifiers more like what we want to see.
As a barefoot SSB radio it definitely works well and with an aftermarket mike sounds good. If you run a lot of AM you won't want this radio at all.
If you run amps you probably won't want this radio - it definitely doesn't drive them as well as other export models, although if you are someone who likes to drive amps lightly on SSB it might be a choice.
Overall I think it's a very cool radio and I love what we are starting to see for options. And while the receive is nice and the radio is a breeze to use, when it comes to actually "talking" on a radio for DX or trying to make that far off contact I'd choose a 2510, 2950, Magnum 257 over this radio any day. It doesn't quite stack up to other exports in terms of audio or output/swing. The freq stability is there which is great but without the talk power I just wouldn't make it my main rig. Fun one to keep in the shack, but not the holy grail yet
If it had mic gain, better AM audio and acted more like a RCI-2950 in terms of output and swing it probably would have become my daily talker.
Also important to note - no warranty, no technical support, and no customer service. There isn't an actual U.S. company putting their brand name on these, they are being imported by distributors so if your radio dies....you are SOL.
