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MAGNUM 257

TonyV225

TonyV225

W9WDX Amateur Radio Club Member
Apr 18, 2005
5,824
324
143
Wisconsin
I just recieved one via mail today and boy what a neet little radio it is/ I am going to put that in place of my little Uniden PC122 I have in are spare car. I made a few 10 meter contacts on the 257 tinight and audio reports were great with the stock mic. I got a handheld D104 M6B with the radio aswell and Im going to keep the original mic on it seeings how I have it set where nobody new I was running a stock mic until I told them. I thought hell thats pretty good. I have the older style 257 but all the same it sure is a solid little unit tracks good on SSB and as I said it has great audio I just found the adjustment I needed for setting it to my likings and no problems. I thought the knobs were a tad chinsey but hell for what these radios cost who is gonna complain abot knobs or sweat any of the small stuff for that matter. These have plenty of cooling as far as heatsink aswell . All in all if you or anyone is looking at these for a purchase I wouldnt hesitate I gave it :thumbup:
 

I have the blue version and it also works great, always fine reports, and I use the stock mic, and opened the pot inside .

DOCTOR/795
 
Mine is the old version (orange display) I to opened the audio in the mic and it sounds great I got a D104 with it and I didnt think I needed to put it on that radio the stock mic works great I will however have to maybe open the mic and back off on the audio a bit it picks up background noise. As I said Im totally impressed with this little radio Ive only seen to radios that carry monster audio with stock mics and that my wifes Kenwood TS-50 and now this Magnum 257 it truly is a great buy for a spare or extra toy for the money a real space saver aswell. I made my first contact to DX land today with the radio alone with a lil wil antenna it was to new york I was surprised this little thiong had the ears it does and with that lil wil antenna to boot. LOL
 
I've had one of the newer models (Blue Disp) for about 6 months and am really impressed by the performance. About 2 months ago I picked up a Landmatic 557 (same radio as the 257 that Magnum used to sell as the 357), it has the umbilical cord with its own amp; I would highly recommend this one.... same performance as the 257 with 170 watts; rock solid on ssb to boot.
 
yes they really are nice little radios. i have been unable to duplicate audio quality of the stock mic when used mobile. an internal tweak or 2 both inside the radio & the stock mic got better results everytime as compared to every power mic i tried on it. therefore, the stock mic wins! only used mobile, it has talked all over north & south america & europe on its <50 watts, usually getting 59's. my only complaint is its ability to suck in noise. it can be a bit bothersome, adjusting the rf gain low enough to quiet the radio hurts weak received signals, but in quiet areas, it is one heckuva radio for $169 that i paid!
 
davegrantsr said:
yes they really are nice little radios. i have been unable to duplicate audio quality of the stock mic when used mobile. an internal tweak or 2 both inside the radio & the stock mic got better results everytime as compared to every power mic i tried on it. therefore, the stock mic wins! only used mobile, it has talked all over north & south america & europe on its <50 watts, usually getting 59's. my only complaint is its ability to suck in noise. it can be a bit bothersome, adjusting the rf gain low enough to quiet the radio hurts weak received signals, but in quiet areas, it is one heckuva radio for $169 that i paid!
Click to expand...


Great info DGSr.

You mentioned the only downfall that I have found with these units too ! Mine seems to pick up a wierd sort of noise if I'm near some big operators on AM. Now if I'm in the great wide open .....IT performs amazingly well . Excellent on SSB !!
 
Great radios - in the mobile if you have a car with lots of electrical noise they like to pick it up, but other than that I never had any complaints.

I added a D104M6B and it only had the radios swinging 1 watt higher and everyone said the stock mike sounded better. Just adust that internal mike pot on these radios and you're ready to rock and roll.

Never should have sold mine :(
 

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