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export radio poll
- Thread starter hotrod
- Start date
i like that ranger 618 under the optima aswell ...lol good thing i got a year
till income tax again lol.. lots of choices
Tired radio? Heh! That coming from someone with an avatar such as yours! Those style radios never get tired because they can be serviced unlike all of the present day radios with SMT, "no user serviceable parts inside" designed to be tossed away, along with having a poor MTBF spec.
Leave the romantic attachment part out of it... but that's why there are so many FT-101 units and Kenwoods still in operation and the used price values they bring.
The AR 3300/3500 radios are just as old as the HR 2510 series of radio, and suffer the same age related problems, as well as parts availability problems because Clear Channel is no longer around.
When the 3300 first came out, it had problems just like new radios today.
They suffered from signal overload, low audio on FM mode and warble problems on TX.
As far as I know bobs is the only qualified person to work on them, and add the upgrades needed to make them a better radio.
They were a good radio at the time, but it is built on 1980`s work.
As for SMD used into todays radios it is not rocket science to work on, you just need the proper tools and learn the technique.
The Kenwood/Yaesu radios are in a totally different class.
When the 3300 first came out, it had problems just like new radios today.
They suffered from signal overload, low audio on FM mode and warble problems on TX.
As far as I know bobs is the only qualified person to work on them, and add the upgrades needed to make them a better radio.
They were a good radio at the time, but it is built on 1980`s work.
As for SMD used into todays radios it is not rocket science to work on, you just need the proper tools and learn the technique.
The Kenwood/Yaesu radios are in a totally different class.
I have to say I side with Duster, old radios are just that, old, some work ok some need to be recapped, and after all that work hope it works right. The new stuff might not be the best all the way around but they work, everything other than a Galaxy stay on frequency on SSB have good audio and some might have a receive issue if someone is real close but all in all they do work well. I guess in 10 more years we will be saying how good the SMT stuff really is. I've had a bunch of new radios come and go and not had a solder issue with any of them. I do remember cold solder joints on some of the older radios causing issues, so new or old the bottom line is talking and receiving, which I do every day. Out of all the turds and good radios to come through here the last 10 years or so I am still Loving the Optima
Its not a personal insult --- it was a satirical comparison to that tired looking mug shot guy you have for an avatar. If I remember correctly you recently had another picture of a sketchy looking, jail-bird resembling face for your avatar. Who's next on your list .... Danny Trejo? Don't break the tradition! http://lh6.ggpht.com/-oSYFfp0ajPk/U...achete-danny-trejo-black-and-white-amboom.jpg
The 3300 had a couple of issues but the 3500 didn't. It was race ready right out of the box... designed to compete directly against Icom/Kenwood and priced lower, to seal the deal with potential buyers. The 3500 didn't need upgrades other than a simple jumper to the PLL for freq. expansion (called soft freq. expansion). Modulation didn't need tweaked nor did the rf out. To compare the 3300/3500 to an HR2510 or HR2600 is apples to oranges... a stock ClearCom radio still tops even a modified President.
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