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Galaxy pluto / galaxy 99v
- Thread starter jrd426
- Start date
Pluto is older.
99V is newer.
Both could be pretty old, just the same. Seems to me the Pluto was imported by an outfit who had no real incentive for quality control. That radio was smuggled into the country full functional. The "10-meter" fiction had not yet been put to work. This many years down the road that may not mean much. Any issues it had new out of the box should have been taken care of decades ago. The 99V was imported by the Texas Star folk in San Diego. Just make sure the Pluto has a 6-Amp reverse-protection diode soldered to the lugs inside the power socket. Seems to me that this practice began with the San Diego folks in the mid-1990s, long after the Pluto was discontinued.
Two radios that could each be way past drinking age will compare more usefully by mileage as anything. A low-miles Pluto might be better than a 99V with 100,000 miles in a dump truck.
73
99V is newer.
Both could be pretty old, just the same. Seems to me the Pluto was imported by an outfit who had no real incentive for quality control. That radio was smuggled into the country full functional. The "10-meter" fiction had not yet been put to work. This many years down the road that may not mean much. Any issues it had new out of the box should have been taken care of decades ago. The 99V was imported by the Texas Star folk in San Diego. Just make sure the Pluto has a 6-Amp reverse-protection diode soldered to the lugs inside the power socket. Seems to me that this practice began with the San Diego folks in the mid-1990s, long after the Pluto was discontinued.
Two radios that could each be way past drinking age will compare more usefully by mileage as anything. A low-miles Pluto might be better than a 99V with 100,000 miles in a dump truck.
73
Last edited:
jrd426 -
I bought an original Galaxy 2100 (later renamed PLUTO)) way back in the day. It was the first clone of the Uniden-built 148GTLdx/Superstar 360FM. It copied the Uniden circuit exactly, so it was rock stable frequency-wise. But like Nomad said, "no quality control." Circuit board material was junk, and build quality was non-existent. But after some rehab and serious mods, it was a great talker.
The later Galaxy clones modified (cost reduced) the Uniden circuit and drifted like a boat. I never had my hands on a 99V, so I can't comment.
I really enjoyed my 2100. It was stolen, and I'm certain some low-class MFer is enjoying it somewhere.
- 399
I bought an original Galaxy 2100 (later renamed PLUTO)) way back in the day. It was the first clone of the Uniden-built 148GTLdx/Superstar 360FM. It copied the Uniden circuit exactly, so it was rock stable frequency-wise. But like Nomad said, "no quality control." Circuit board material was junk, and build quality was non-existent. But after some rehab and serious mods, it was a great talker.
The later Galaxy clones modified (cost reduced) the Uniden circuit and drifted like a boat. I never had my hands on a 99V, so I can't comment.
I really enjoyed my 2100. It was stolen, and I'm certain some low-class MFer is enjoying it somewhere.
- 399
No, no... this is incorrect. They are similar radios, but not the same.
The 2100 was a single final radio, The band switch was 3 position with a hi/lo button to access the 6 bands, it had a CH9 button, CW mode, and the beep was on all the time.
The Pluto is a dual final radio, a 6 position band switch, RF power on the face, no CW mode, button to switch the beep on and off and the SRF/SWR was moved to a more conventional button instead of on the combo switch for the calibrate because the RF power was added to that control knob.
I would say that the 2100 and the PLUS are closer to each other than the PLUTO would be, but they are all similar radios with slightly different features.
My recollection of the 2100 is not so rosy. The frequency counter was built without a way to compensate for the radio's carrier-crystal frequency offset when changing modes. Wires ran through the adjustment holes in the counter's shield box from the mode selector. A sketchy afterthought that didn't even work that well. The display offset just wouldn't adjust quite right.
Biggest problem it had was brittle-wire disease. The usual stranded wires in the wiring harness would solder directly to a pcb foil, passing through a hole in the board like a component lead. Doesn't sound so bad, but the molten solder creeps up between the strands of the wire, "gluing" them together into a solid conductor. But the solder creeps only so far up the wire. Where it stops is a transition from solid wire to stranded wire. Causes brittleness, since any flex in the wire at that point creates a small-radius bend. And that's how you fatigue a metal to failure, is with small-radius bends. Wires that pass through the pc board and solder to it would just "spontaneously" break off at the first pothole of the day. Whatever function that wire had served when it was connected would go away.
Worst part was that if you disturbed the wiring harness just a little bit while making some small repair, the radio would spontaneously develop a new fault the next day when the last strand of one of those wires finally snapped.
The 2100 model may have evolved some improvements that I never saw, but the one I still have became a basket case before it rode too many miles in my air-cooled VW bus.
Besides, I never did get it to sound legit on sideband.
RCI solved this issue soon after by using single-row header-pin plugs to attach the wiring harness to the pc board. The spring-contact pins inside those single-row sockets have a clamp that puts all the strain of flexing onto the wire's outer jacket, not the conductor inside. So long as the header pins don't get oxidized or loose, this makes the radio a better long-term bet to be reliable.
73
Biggest problem it had was brittle-wire disease. The usual stranded wires in the wiring harness would solder directly to a pcb foil, passing through a hole in the board like a component lead. Doesn't sound so bad, but the molten solder creeps up between the strands of the wire, "gluing" them together into a solid conductor. But the solder creeps only so far up the wire. Where it stops is a transition from solid wire to stranded wire. Causes brittleness, since any flex in the wire at that point creates a small-radius bend. And that's how you fatigue a metal to failure, is with small-radius bends. Wires that pass through the pc board and solder to it would just "spontaneously" break off at the first pothole of the day. Whatever function that wire had served when it was connected would go away.
Worst part was that if you disturbed the wiring harness just a little bit while making some small repair, the radio would spontaneously develop a new fault the next day when the last strand of one of those wires finally snapped.
The 2100 model may have evolved some improvements that I never saw, but the one I still have became a basket case before it rode too many miles in my air-cooled VW bus.
Besides, I never did get it to sound legit on sideband.
RCI solved this issue soon after by using single-row header-pin plugs to attach the wiring harness to the pc board. The spring-contact pins inside those single-row sockets have a clamp that puts all the strain of flexing onto the wire's outer jacket, not the conductor inside. So long as the header pins don't get oxidized or loose, this makes the radio a better long-term bet to be reliable.
73
While you are correct about the difference in faceplate layout/features, both radios had the same circuit board. The 2100 had had a single final, but the board had provisions for the 2nd final, which was added in the Pluto. Internally, they are the same.
- 399
Robot voice could be a deciding factor. The 99 has that big meter that lets you give signal reports on the go.
I was very tempted with a nice Taiwan 99v that I recapped but I went with a 95t instead, the 6900 series board and the red display made the difference for me.
And Toshiba 2290's in the amp section make a difference too! I've got a 95t2 that's a nice talking tadio.
Robot voice almost won it for the 99v over the 2290s, it was close. I almost hate to run Toshibas as expensive as they are but the output sure looks good on the scope, swinging from 25 up to 50 avg and almost 150 peak mfj watts.
I've considered trying to mount that amp board into the rcix9 heatsink, I think would make a nice radio. Sounds good in theory anyway.
I guess I am lucky I came into the game late, I love me some hg transistors and IR mosfets, If it pops who cares, If I pop a Toshiba, Motorola or mitsubishi it almost deserves a memorial service and I get a sense of guilt.
That's a funny way of putting it
.The Toshiba's with some care will last. I guess I'm old school, I see the Toshiba's as reliability.