Magnum OmegaForce S-45 HP Review

[Robb]

more useful for what ? the new front mic 148s drift badly on ssb and sound horrible . they are useless for ssb IMO .

in a perfect world with everybodies radios being on frequency a locked clarifier would be ideal ..... and clarifiers wouldnt be necessary . CB radio is far from a perfect world though . not everybody has rock solid equipment and its easier to compensate for all of them than to expect all of them to set their rigs up to play nice with mine .

being off frequency is definately a sign of a duck though . hehehe

Everybody thinks their radio is always on freq; and they never are. It is like you said, in a perfect world this would not be an issue. When I talk SSB, everybody is always off a little bit high or low. sometimes they are tuned as I am. Unlocked clarifiers are a MUST on any radio that I own or use.

 

[331]

Is the clarifer open on the AM/FM sides too? Also has anyone had an issue with the memory channels erasing when you switch it to PA mode? Mine does this ever so often.

 

[tuner]

I would love to buy one!! my old Delta force is getting a bit tired. I agree they are killer rig with huge receive.A bit of a problem for me in my mobile, too much noise sometimes, but still love it. great post!

 

[kazz330]

I think I'm going to order one of these instead of the magnum 275 :w00t:

 

[dd18]

Robb, I have sent you a email message via this site.
rgds,
Dave

 

[jazzsinger]

Two words: Better audio and swing = better intelligibility by those who hear you. Simple - right?

Wrong,all i hear is distortion as my speaker rattles.if i wanted to listen to that i could tune in any commercial radio or tv station or buy a remastered CD and listen to that crappy sound,overmodulation is tiresome on the ears,doesn't matter how you package it up in fancy mods its still distortion and it sucks.

 

[jazzsinger]

Everybody thinks their radio is always on freq; and they never are. It is like you said, in a perfect world this would not be an issue. When I talk SSB, everybody is always off a little bit high or low. sometimes they are tuned as I am. Unlocked clarifiers are a MUST on any radio that I own or use.

Only the self deluded or those few people with extremely expensive frequency counters believe their radios are spot on frequency,i agree unlocked clarifiers/kc shifts are a must on any radio that has mediocre frequency accuracy/stability (virtually all cb's).

 

[331]

Wrong,all i hear is distortion as my speaker rattles.if i wanted to listen to that i could tune in any commercial radio or tv station or buy a remastered CD and listen to that crappy sound,overmodulation is tiresome on the ears,doesn't matter how you package it up in fancy mods its still distortion and it sucks.

AM 11 meter radios purpose is to be loud and proud. Double sideband suppressed carrier transmission = loud and proud if adjusted right.

The people you are hearing have cliped limiters and mic gains set to max on the radio and a power mic.

:bdh:

 

[Stany]

27 MHZ AM receive sensitivity

Dear Robb,
The Omegaforce specifications about AM receive sensitivity refer 1 microvolt for 10 dB sinad. It looks to me an high value. Now, can you compare omegaforce, on this aspect, with others radios that have a very, very good AM sensitivity? I have ordered an omegaforce s-45hp .... The AM receive sensitivity is very important for me. Do you think, about this aspect, that i will have a bad surprise? Have the HR2600 radios a better am sensitivity?
Thank's for your respons

 

[walterb]

S45HP

Stany,
I have an S45HP and had a S45 both have very good receives, did have a problem with the Noise Blanker on the the S45HP and called Magumn and sent the radio over to Ca for repairs under warranty, now the S45HP sounds and works like the S45 that I had. Its has very good receive. I had a Cobra 2000GTL that had a very hot receiver and the first S45 would hear everything that the Cobra 2000 would hear and some stations that were midway out there it would hear them better than the Cobra would on direct comparison, I never new that until I did a direct comparison..............Oldtimer

 

[76Q]

too many defects, that seems to be the norm with many equipments these days. I've had to rework a wilson 5000 connector that came brand new shorted. My K30 went short in the rain and i had to put coax sealant at the whip ferrule to solve it.

Along the lines of this thread, I heard someone over the air announce that they had to return a Magnum radio-out of the box failure. You get what you pay for and sometimes you don't, so sad. If the knobs feel like they are about to fall off from new, its simply a bad sign of other parts falling off to, JMO. I'd stay away from shoddy build. Oh yeah, and don't mistaken a noisy receiver as high sensitivity. 1uV sensitivity for 10dB S/N is very poor considering RCI is tuned to <0.5uV 10dB S/N. The best transceivers are quiet, have good filters, adjacent channel rejection, image rejection, clean modulation maxing out about 100%, clean swing that maintains 100% modulation as the carrier follows that modulation, etc. Why drive a backyard rigged 4x4 pickup when you can drive a refined Jeep Rubicon or something luxo and still has brute force like a Hummer or even better, a Ranger Rover? Get serious and call a turd like a turd. RCI and RCI manufactured Galaxy have their stuff together with their latest big audio radios. Don't take my word for it, continue to use those overmodulated crackle boxes and refined ears will continue to poke at how terrible your radio is modulating. The clean signal talkers get more meaningful responses. If your only gig is to instigate a response of any kind, then so be it, but know that you are getting your response because you sound so terribly loud, rather than nice and loud. JMO

 

[VA3ES]

OK - where do I start? I suppose I ought to give y'all a brief bio or rundown of my experience.

Been a Ham for over 40 years. Started out in 1964 as an SWL, then played with CB a bit, but concentrated on my Ham license; got it in 1969. Have been an RF technologist my entire career. Worked in land mobile, broadcast, broadcast satellite systems, and everything else.

OK- down to business - I've been a high-power AM op on the ham bands since I got my ticket. (In fact, I'm the Canadian Director of "AM International", or AMI, an AM users organization.) In the amateur AM world, we use something called negative peak limiting, or negative cycle loading, or variably called "Ultramodulation". This is a form of Positive peak stretching. In AM modulation you can have your positive peaks extend infinitely in the positive direction, but you must limit the negative peaks to 100%, or suffer from carrier cut-off and spaltter. In amateur AM we aim for about 150% positve peaks, derived from various broadcast peak limiters, such as Orban, Dorrough, Volumax, etc.

The resulting waveform is double sideband REDUCED carrier. This is precisely what the Top Gun Modulator achieves. Though I'm not sure the Top Gun Modulator actually stretches the positive peaks, it does produce DSBRC. The resulting waveform has some distortion on it, but it is slight and unnoticable. Virtually all AM broadcasters today run 125% positive peaks. The only distortion is heard on cheap AM receivers with cheap diode detectors. Modern solid state IC detectors don't pick up any distortion. DBRSC should not cause any significant audio distortion.

Next - CTCSS. Yes, a CTCSS board would have been a nice addition. Why it wasn't included is a mystery. Maybe there were manufacturing cost considerations and they had to balance their market targets for maximum profit? I think so.

In any case, one can purchase a 3rd party tone board from any number of companies - Communications Specialists, Piexx, etc.

My experience is that most 10M repeaters in North America don't use CTCSS, or if they do, use it to eliminate local interferance while allowing DX signals to pass unhindered. (They do that by using comparative squelch systems.)

Finally, there is loads of AM on 10. I'm up there all the time, around 29.000, with my either trusty Viking Ranger, or my HR2600. The 10M AM section extends from about 28.980 to about 29.250 or so. 29.000 is the AM calling frequency.

Oh and I fully intend to buy an OmegaForce S45HP as soon as I can find one; I just love it!!! (It'll have to share the shelf with two HR2600's and an HR2510!!!) Yes, 10M is one of my favorite bands.

I hope that helps.

 

[BJB]

Ok! Thanks for your help! I think I'll get one this week.

Did you end up purchasing one of these? I would interested to hear what you think of this unit. I reside in Australia and came across the Magnum Delta force at a local shop. Whilst surfing the reviews I came across Robb's review on the Magnum Omega force S-45 HP which is not readily available here. I was quite impressed with the performance and it would give me the flexibility of having a powerful unit for the 10/11 meter band. I would have to source a US dealer that would be prepared to ship it after it had been tested and tuned ( and expanded for 11 meter). It is a long way to post back for warranty work so I want to know that it is not a DOA.

regards.

Bruce

Victoria.
Australia.

 

[VA3ES]

First, try www.yeticomnz.com. Dave Donaldson is a member here, and can be reached by email: 91dd018@gmail.com He sells them, amongs other fine radio equipment.
Second, if Dave can't help you, I might. My good friend Mike, VA3MPM, retails Magnum products. We just ordered a bunch of S45HP's for our local club. He might be pursuaded to ship one to you. You can PM or email me. Check with Dave first, as he is closer to you!

Whilst surfing the reviews I came across Robb's review on the Magnum Omega force S-45 HP which is not readily available here. I was quite impressed with the performance and it would give me the flexibility of having a powerful unit for the 10/11 meter band. I would have to source a US dealer that would be prepared to ship it after it had been tested and tuned ( and expanded for 11 meter). It is a long way to post back for warranty work so I want to know that it is not a DOA.

 

[AA1QD]

Not for nothing, I have never seen a Dosy meter that showed LESS watts than a Bird. That is why I affectionately call the Dosy "the happy meter".