Radio Shack HTX-10 Review

[westtexan]

Radio Shack HTX-10

I have had this radio for about 10 years, alway mobile with a hamstick antenna. I have made a few SSB DX contacts, but with a mobile antenna and only 25 watts I hear many operators calling CQ that cannot hear me.

Pros:

• Low price. This is one of only a handful of affordable 10 meter radios that allow a technician to get onto an HF band without paying hundreds of dollards.
• I personally prefer the T-style power connector that is common to Yaesu radios. I'm glad that Radio Shack did not use yet another connector type.
• The noise blanker does make a noticeable difference, especially with all the vehicle electrical interference while operating mobile.
• If you have strong enough signals, the scan funtion is nice. Most signals I hear are not enough to break through the squelch if I have it turned up high enough for scanning.

Cons:

• I often have to adjust the fine tuning knob. I don't know if my radio has frequency shift or if the other operators are not on 1Khz frequency steps. It works well, but I'm not sure if this is a problem or feature.
• The RF gain seems like an on/off switch. Below a certain point I can barely hear a signal, then it is highly amplified with no variation in between.
• The mic seems more like a toy than an amateur radio mic. It doesn't seem to cosmetically match the radio.
• No CW. Though you can hear CW via SSB, there is no way to send it. This is one feature provided by the HTX-100 that has tempted me to upgrade to that model.

 

[Moleculo]

I think these were the same radios as the early Magnum 257, except that Radio Shack made it very difficult to mod for out of band use. It's good to see yours is in such good shape for being mobile for 10 years!

 

[eagle1911]

I have an HTX-10 I've used for a long time.. I love mine! They're very similar to the Magnum 257, but they don't have variable RF power with is kind of lousy since that's a feature I'd like to have. Great radio for the price..

 

[Turbo T]

A friend of mine has one of these he bought used, at what I'd say, is a steal.....compared to what I have been seeing them sell for.

I have noticed on his it seems to have some frequency drift, which for a true 10 meter ring, I cannot understand. it's not as if we're discussing a Galaxy SSB radio.

However unlike the Magnum 257, one thing I like about the HTX-10 is at least you can tune in 1kHz steps; on the Magnums you can only tune in 10 kHz steps. You can go in between the 10 kHz steps, but it involves pushing a button and then telling the radio to go to the 1kHz position, which then it only stays within that 1kHz segment. i.e. in "normal mode" the 257 tunes like this....28.400, 28.410, 28.420, etc...set it up to 1kHz mode and it tunes like this...28.400, 28.401, 28.402, 28.403....until you hit 28.409, then it goes back to 28.400....not all that user friendly IMO.

I don't suppose anyone's ever figured out how to set up an HTX-10 to drive an amp w/o over-driving it...?