Yeah..... I chalk that 959 up to a lesson learned for sure!
I couldn't resist popping the covers off of this 497 this evening and running a couple checks on it just to satisfy my curiosity.
One thing is for sure......it's a completely different animal to me.
All and I do mean all components are surface mount.
The four mosfets are fastened to a 1/4in thick aluminum block and also full shielded.
A nice feature is that all of the VR pots are labeled on the board.
The lack of info is def going to be a problem for some but I will tell ya this...
Frequency was right on the money out of the box.
The conversion took a whopping three seconds.
Modulation was already as high is it could go without flat topping.
Low power is 3 watts and high power is 60 watts.
The first "helllllllooooo aaauuuuddddiiioo" showed 110 watts pep.
I marked the high power VR with a fine tipped pen and moving it just the thickness of the pen line, gave me just over 130 watts pep.
I honestly done see any reason for this radio to need anything else touched.
I'm stuffing my RK56 mic in it and running it!
This thing is a keeper for sure.
It most certainly wouldn't be "all that" to some folks who have been around radios all their lives but it is the best radio I have ever owned. We'll see how it holds up in the long run.
I'm definitely putting some good photos together, and I will post more about it.
One lesson I learned is...... The factory sure can make power a lot cheaper and less frustrating that I can. Lol!
But for me.... experimenting and learning new things are worth their wait in gold.
Joel
