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President Bill any opinions?
- Thread starter DaleH1985
- Start date
About the size of a pack of smokes, weighs just about a pound - top panel (insert tray) is all heatsink and thick die cast aluminum so it "mounts" the bracket. Single screw / bolt each side.
Remember it's aluminum - so bolts used to mount it can strip, then you're screwed...
Bottom panel - speaker interesting mounting though Press to fit, insert style, with "tang - clip" to hold speaker to PLASTIC (yes metal case top and board, uses top metal panel for heatsink and nearly entire support) thin bottom piece. Although not sure of wear tear and vibration and the effects of time on that panel - gave the speaker a good tone but little fidelity - look inside, you'll see why - small value caps to keep working voltages up but ability to pass fidelity - poor - almost reminded me of the RCI2970's tiny little speaker "membrane" type and how little it was but make that plate vibrate even with the heatsink. That's what gave it it's bass response.
Now, if you play football - basketball or hockey - the thing is not meant for strong arm tactile press here types or wrench the knob with your steel tendon thumb - because it is not meant for fat fingers.
Got a magnifying glass? Wait, you're Steve Austin - you'll need to recharge your Bionic eye often because a lot of the display is simply "channel" and any thing else you may have touched and gone beep with - well, say hello to the next one - you can't read fine print - then forget it...because you'll be frantically trying to remember how to restore your initial conditions when you reached over to turn up the volume and hit squelch and then mistakenly placed a finger to brace your thumb and "the last thing I remember officer was hearing this BEEP and so I panicked and never saw you, the light or that guy with the T-shirt that says "I HATE CB'ers" .
Could be a fun little radio to play with while you re-awaken to see your maker while still in your coffin - at least ask the Parlor help to supply you with a mag-mount "lil-Wil" while you call out your fathers name in heaven...
Remember it's aluminum - so bolts used to mount it can strip, then you're screwed...
Bottom panel - speaker interesting mounting though Press to fit, insert style, with "tang - clip" to hold speaker to PLASTIC (yes metal case top and board, uses top metal panel for heatsink and nearly entire support) thin bottom piece. Although not sure of wear tear and vibration and the effects of time on that panel - gave the speaker a good tone but little fidelity - look inside, you'll see why - small value caps to keep working voltages up but ability to pass fidelity - poor - almost reminded me of the RCI2970's tiny little speaker "membrane" type and how little it was but make that plate vibrate even with the heatsink. That's what gave it it's bass response.
Now, if you play football - basketball or hockey - the thing is not meant for strong arm tactile press here types or wrench the knob with your steel tendon thumb - because it is not meant for fat fingers.
Got a magnifying glass? Wait, you're Steve Austin - you'll need to recharge your Bionic eye often because a lot of the display is simply "channel" and any thing else you may have touched and gone beep with - well, say hello to the next one - you can't read fine print - then forget it...because you'll be frantically trying to remember how to restore your initial conditions when you reached over to turn up the volume and hit squelch and then mistakenly placed a finger to brace your thumb and "the last thing I remember officer was hearing this BEEP and so I panicked and never saw you, the light or that guy with the T-shirt that says "I HATE CB'ers" .
Could be a fun little radio to play with while you re-awaken to see your maker while still in your coffin - at least ask the Parlor help to supply you with a mag-mount "lil-Wil" while you call out your fathers name in heaven...
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I wouldn't judge the Bill FCC by it's size...I have the McKinley which is also a small radio, but paired with a 1x2 amp and I can talk and receive from one end of Dallas County to the other with no problems...DX is also not a problem with the radio as I have made quite a few DX contacts with it on AM and SSB...And the SSB contacts was done barefoot since the amp I have does not have a ssb delay switch.
Way they get the radio so small is by using a modern day SMT board, which is what most manufacturers are going to anyway...
Not allot of mods for the New President radios that I have seen, on the McKinley there is a pot you can adjust for modulation and ssb, which do need adjusting out of the box to make the radio come alive, but other than that, there's really nothing else that needs to be done...Not sure on the Bill FCC, but it may have the same pot for modulation that the McKinley has.
Here is a link that shows you how to get more out of the President Bill FCC...
http://radioaficion.com/cms/president-bill-fcc-mods/
Way they get the radio so small is by using a modern day SMT board, which is what most manufacturers are going to anyway...
Not allot of mods for the New President radios that I have seen, on the McKinley there is a pot you can adjust for modulation and ssb, which do need adjusting out of the box to make the radio come alive, but other than that, there's really nothing else that needs to be done...Not sure on the Bill FCC, but it may have the same pot for modulation that the McKinley has.
Here is a link that shows you how to get more out of the President Bill FCC...
http://radioaficion.com/cms/president-bill-fcc-mods/
Had one come into the shop a year or so ago, before that "Andy" came out - so Boss wanted to show it off and one of the first mistakes he made with it was with the mic cord and it's ring connector - almost cross threaded the thing by accident.
But once seated and turned on, you could see there were going to be problems with the panel,
It only took one to show up and he had a day with it.
If you get one, the "F" key and channels will let you scroll thru a set of commands - one of them is PW - that is 0123456 - like "Andy" and some others - Lincoln and McKinley may be on that list (President series)...
But once seated and turned on, you could see there were going to be problems with the panel,
- the display uses pivots up or down to "channel change" the thing
- - and on every corner is a button so again as said earlier
- - if you have fat fingers and try to use this thing you may wind up hitting the panel to change the channel or bump the corner buttons....
- - it's smaller than your smartphone and the display is LCD
- - with FINE TINY abbreviated print
- - you select / toggle the various functions from those corners
- - hit the wrong corner and WX blares in when you expected to hear the channel come back to you.
It only took one to show up and he had a day with it.
If you get one, the "F" key and channels will let you scroll thru a set of commands - one of them is PW - that is 0123456 - like "Andy" and some others - Lincoln and McKinley may be on that list (President series)...
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So basically what your saying is they are a bitch to work on because of the size, and if you have fat fingers they are a bit hard to operate....
Other than that....what do you think of the radio itself as for as how it works and sounds?
There is one small piece of advice that not many caught -
Remember what the issues of size and the sacrifice of needs to make it work...
It was dealing with the Speaker and that is just for starters.
The quality may be ok, but they sacrifice some of the fidelity and you get a flat sounding radio - but if it was not for that small size they can have a GREAT little radio if they simply provided larger caps...and a speaker that can rattle right along with it. It's simply too small.
220uF doesn't cut it well like 330 to 470uF in any other "Standard size" platform.
Remember too, the Ribbon cable - one thing the boss' likes us to know is to how to turn on and off the lock and unlock for the bands - he TORE that ribbon cable but tried to show us how to use the "F" - Menu (which I think is stupid because of the inherited messy finger touch and span you have to play with) but can be hard on the parts because you can easily get frustrated using it to program one feature.
The thing also uses a LIVE USB port - doesn't mean it will load up MP3's but it is a live data port - so if you plug in your smartphone - you are on your own as far as privacy and protection from snooping this unknown port can do to your electronics of the phone. (Possible ARM technology)
Good luck - I'll stick with what I know... Thank You...
Remember what the issues of size and the sacrifice of needs to make it work...
It was dealing with the Speaker and that is just for starters.
The quality may be ok, but they sacrifice some of the fidelity and you get a flat sounding radio - but if it was not for that small size they can have a GREAT little radio if they simply provided larger caps...and a speaker that can rattle right along with it. It's simply too small.
220uF doesn't cut it well like 330 to 470uF in any other "Standard size" platform.
Remember too, the Ribbon cable - one thing the boss' likes us to know is to how to turn on and off the lock and unlock for the bands - he TORE that ribbon cable but tried to show us how to use the "F" - Menu (which I think is stupid because of the inherited messy finger touch and span you have to play with) but can be hard on the parts because you can easily get frustrated using it to program one feature.
The thing also uses a LIVE USB port - doesn't mean it will load up MP3's but it is a live data port - so if you plug in your smartphone - you are on your own as far as privacy and protection from snooping this unknown port can do to your electronics of the phone. (Possible ARM technology)
Good luck - I'll stick with what I know... Thank You...