buying another radio

[longhaireddwb]

Well, Not Me but...

A guy i work with is wanting to pick up a new radio. He wants 100w, variable talkback and dimmer, not just off and on switches. A large meter would be nice but not a deal breaker. He'd like to try SSB but right now has never got into it so far. I know as we all do, A loud radio! Strong audio with no distortion.
With driving company trucks we can only hook into the posts on the dash for power. they have 10amp circuits for radio connections.
He has good antennas and I can tune them for him so that's not a problem.

Now for the question. He seen on-line that CustomCBradios.com has a good sale on the 94hp. And with the tune-up and RX mod they sell it comes out to about what others are selling them for right now.
DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS COMPANY? GOOD PLACE FOR RADIO WORK OR ARE THEY JUST A CUT AND CLIP TYPE OF SHOP?

Thanks for any info. I want to point my buddy in the right direction. I looked around myself and couldn't come up with another radio that fits what hes wanting. If someone see's something I missed let me know so I can pass it along. Hes still getting the fund together so it might be a week or three before he buys.

 

[roadrage]

I see you already suggested the radio I was going to recommend. The Galaxy 94 HP. My only concern is if the 12V power socket in the dash will supply enough amperage to feed a 100W radio. I'd have to double check, but I imagine the draw would be about 15 amps and even more on SSB.

I have never purchased or had work done at Custom CB Radio, so I can't say.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

Online Conversion - Ohm's Law Calculator

 

[roadrage]

On the manufacturer's website, the 94HP draws a max current of 14 amps on AM and 25 amps on SSB.

Ohms law doesn't specify the capability of the dash socket though.

 

[w9cll]

Most sockets are fused for 20 amps but the wiring to that socket is quite small for the given amperage. When I first installed my 706 I had it plugged into the socket and I did run the rig at 100 watts. I noticed the plug and wiring were getting hot after a few minutes of use. I backed the power down and the wires cooled. I have since changed to directly wired to the battery.

 

[4ZERO99]

I bought a brand new dx-959 from CustomCBradios.com several months ago and I would not recommend them, that radio was supposed to be aligned, peaked and tuned as well as the viagra board put in which it was, this was over a $300 radio, after a while I noticed that it was not on frequency and I couldn't get it on frequency with the clarifier on sideband, later I discovered that 3 of the of the solder areas were not soldered and the pins were just sticking through the wholes, the viagra board would take a good 20 seconds to get on frequency, like it had to build up to it to get there.

I ended up having to re-tune this radio, the viagra board and solder those three components and all is working good now.

This is just my experience with them, I am still waiting for a reply from my emails to them and this was several months ago.

 

[4ZERO99]

Another thing I forgot is that there is a cap either put in or was in there near VR-14 that was shorting out at times on another component near by I found by accident I had to bend away from the other component. It was causing my power supply to kick out and the radio would not come on.

 

[9C1Driver]

I bought a brand new dx-959 from CustomCBradios.com several months ago and I would not recommend them, that radio was supposed to be aligned, peaked and tuned as well as the viagra board put in which it was, this was over a $300 radio, after a while I noticed that it was not on frequency and I couldn't get it on frequency with the clarifier on sideband, later I discovered that 3 of the of the solder areas were not soldered and the pins were just sticking through the wholes, the viagra board would take a good 20 seconds to get on frequency, like it had to build up to it to get there.

I ended up having to re-tune this radio, the viagra board and solder those three components and all is working good now.

This is just my experience with them, I am still waiting for a reply from my emails to them and this was several months ago.

You should have sent that 959 back to Doug, he is very anal about his radio's and probably has the lowest failure/problem rate for radio shops. Not to mention he is the 959 guru if there ever was one.

I had a Texas Ranger 696F several years ago with a Viagra board that had been installed by Key cb. That radio drifted so bad I thought it was a Galaxy 88 or 99. Viagra boards must be real touchy or something.




Longhaireddwb, you tell your friend that Doug at Custom CB is an outstanding tech and will make sure that Galaxy 94 is rocking when he gets it. If you do a search on this forum for "custom cb radio" you will find that many members have bought from him and are very happy. Don't let some guy with 21 posts and an axe to grind steer you wrong.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

As long as you get stable supply voltage I think the Viagra boards do fairly well. The Viagra board in my 959 goofed up when it was in my car and I unplugged it from the board for a while. Later on I plugged it back up in the house on a stable power supply and it's been working good ever since. One tech told me that it has to have a stable 8 volts to run right.

Note: when my 959 was in my car,I tapped into my stereo amp rack power distribution tap. The 1 farad stiffening cap would would charge periodically and might have been starving my 959 for a stable power supply.

 

[longhaireddwb]

Thanks for the reply's. I thought that I had heard good things about customcb but I hadn't been looking for a rig in a long time. Isn't Doug the guy that used to work with Sparky's?

Anyway. Sorry to hear the problems you had with the 959. Once in a while sh-- happens. I would hope that if you would have sent it back he would have done you right. At least a good shop would have I hope.

as far as running a 100watt rig off of the studs on the dash, I've done it myself without any problem. I looked at the wires behind the studs and they are a good size so I dont think that would be a problem. I will let him know he needs to keep an eye and hand on those connectors and wires for the first few days to be sure its not warming up.

Anyone else have another radio that will fit the bill other than the 94hp?

 

[4ZERO99]

You should have sent that 959 back to Doug, he is very anal about his radio's and probably has the lowest failure/problem rate for radio shops. Not to mention he is the 959 guru if there ever was one.

I had a Texas Ranger 696F several years ago with a Viagra board that had been installed by Key cb. That radio drifted so bad I thought it was a Galaxy 88 or 99. Viagra boards must be real touchy or something.




Longhaireddwb, you tell your friend that Doug at Custom CB is an outstanding tech and will make sure that Galaxy 94 is rocking when he gets it. If you do a search on this forum for "custom cb radio" you will find that many members have bought from him and are very happy. Don't let some guy with 21 posts and an axe to grind steer you wrong.

Maybe I should have sent it back, but point is this radio shouldn't have been sent to me in this condition in the first place, so I'm the lucky one and I have no axe to grind with this company or anyone else if your referring to me, it is what it is and Longhaireddwb asked and I reported my experience with this company.

It's my experience like it or not.

 

[len sandora]

great tech

I see you already suggested the radio I was going to recommend. The Galaxy 94 HP. My only concern is if the 12V power socket in the dash will supply enough amperage to feed a 100W radio. I'd have to double check, but I imagine the draw would be about 15 amps and even more on SSB.

I have never purchased or had work done at Custom CB Radio, so I can't say.

His name is Doug and he is one of the best.Snake radios is another real good shop. Thanks My name is Len and go by 327 from Long Island and only talk ssb for the last 30 years 38lsb and 39 lsb.