as big a fan of the 148/grants as i am, i must admit that the tiny meters make it a difficult radio to run mobile for a meter watcher like me.
The 959 gets points for having a sensitive receiver, big time TX audio when modded correctly, and a meter that you can actually see while driving.
it loses points for being noisy, hissy, and crappy adjacent channel rejection when compared to the 8719 chassis.
however i cannot comment on what it's like when using DSP.
receiver alignment in one of these is not just a straight forward "max all the coils" operation.
when done right, they work very well and can hear gnat sneezes.
when done wrong, they will wake you up every time you pass a gas station.
I suppose this is why my favorite radio for quite a few years was a cobra 148GTL with a 959 face on it. all done in blue of course since that was the rage back then.
as for the NPC, it really wakes one of these radios up, again, when done right.
if you don't have a scope, don't bother doing it. just crank the AMC pot up and be done with it. (kidding. don't do that)
for those that do want to try it, don't use a 100 ohm resistor. start with a 1K ohm trimmer.
adjust the modulation to 100% before doing the mod.
then solder in the diode and the trimmer temporarily.
now set the deadkey for 2 watts (don't bother with NPC if you want to run a 4 or 5 watt carrier).
now adjust that trimmer for nicely curved negative peaks with no flat lining.
(usually ends up around 390 ohms).
i always remove the trimmer, measure it, and replace it with a fixed value resistor of the same value, but that's because i have about 50 pounds of resistors at my disposal.
LC
Thx for the radio-specific insights. Got mine at Larry’s CB and he mentioned, that, awhile back the 959 was
needing time on the bench to perform well. Not now, as they are close to “right” straight out of the box.
I picked a NIB RK-56 off the shelf to go with the 959 and also purchased a KL-203p. He connected all units on the bench after checking radio, and experimented with all settings to be certain things were as they should be.
We didn’t discuss any mods. As a retailer he can’t afford comebacks, so Less is Best (is my assumption). He’s had the shop 20+ years. (You’ll quite a few local drivers at that quadrant of the metro area with
nice radio rigs; guess where they got them).
I’ve mainly been traveling in the dark, and in rural areas. Ideal conditions given high traffic volume. It’s near astonishing (to me) to have a radio this quiet (I also haven’t plugged in anything else to compare). Radio as “radio”, then.
Yesterday trying to get out of metro DC/Baltimore the ambient noise level had gotten high. Not much to hear, anyway.
Radio volume & speaker adjustments didn’t yield much change,
but backing off RF Gain or increasing Squelch didn’t either.
There wasn’t anything hiding in the bushes.
The
GNF feature looks good as of today to experiment with cutting the higher-pitched stuff on AM (even if an SSB feature).
The
High-Medium-Low Filter against NB/ANL .Is another
I’ve been listening to a V4 Lincoln the past few months, so my ears are adjusting, too.
If the 959b is noisy, hissy and has low adjacent channel rejection, that isn’t yet apparent. The WEST MOUNTAIN RADIO CLEARSPEECH DSP SPEAKER
is a game-changer.
The (3) PALOMAR ENGINEER Coax Filters are the newest addition. Still have the MORGAN Bandpass Filter to add back in.
I haven’t owned the competition from the dark ages (Ha!) which may have had these noise quality filters, but am pleased to see I can modify “sound” of transmission in order to keep radio turned up with less grating on nerves. Will have to get more time in familiar D/FW for a feel about performance in a noisy environment.
NPC-RC looks intriguing . .
just not this week.
PS: As I’ve been writing this I’ve had a driver keep up chatter for nearly 20-minutes. Have to figure he’s at 65-MPH plus. Never weak, just got stronger then less-strong in approaching and continuing past this rest area (in hills).
Longer time in approaching, went away sooner after he passed.
.