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RANGER 3500

TonyV225

TonyV225

W9WDX Amateur Radio Club Member
Apr 18, 2005
5,824
323
143
Wisconsin
I have one here that Im trying out or will be hooking up to try out or test its in EXCELLENT shape My buddy bought it and decided he didnt want to go this route in his mobile so he said he wants to sell it for $150.00 to get money together to buy a mint near perfect in the box Galaxy DX2527 I have in the closet here.

I was wondering about these Ranger 3500 are they pretty sturdy are they junk whats it worth?? I remember friends running them in the 1990's but I never really asked about them or had interest in them. If its worth the $150.00 he paid then I was concidering partial trade towards my Galay base radio. The 3500 has owners manual and another book of all the modifications and upgrades.

He told me this 8 pin is the same pinout as all my Yaesu HF rigs which is kinda neatas I said the radio really is in good shape he said it takes a bit to warm up and stablize the few times he ran it but after warm up its a fantastic radio. I seen there is a sticker right on the radio from the manufacture stating it needs warm up time.

I know it needs a new power cord this one is short and looks like its just ratty with no fuse inline I can look into this if its no big deal and either get a new power cord or if its not posssible doing that Ill repair or redo this one.

Anyways it really is in good shape and I believe it was purchased from the original owner Ill try it out Sunday night here after deer hunting any information suggestions and or help appreciated Thanks......Tony
 

I sold one a month ago for almost twice that price. Mine was in near mint condition with the box. They come in two versions: the 100w and the 35w. The 100w one is the one I sold. They have AM transmit that is clean and sweet as one of the better ham radios do. Try putting a Turner+3 on it and hear the great reports come in. SSB is fantastic -too. So is the FM. I still have another 35w Ranger AR-3500 that I may keep - or sell if I can get $250 for it - or I won't sell it. They are valuable because they can be easily modified to go from 24mhz to 29mhz and the way they SOUND when TX'ing.

As you know by now, they have no 'channel indicator' - just a frequency readout. The power plugs didn't have a fuse on either radio that I had. One thing - is to NEVER adjust the pots inside unless you are willing to replace them. I 'heard' that the factory sprays something on the board the renders the tuning pots useless; thwarting any 'tweakers from tweaking them'. I don't know if that is true; but someone that knows a lot more about these radios than I did gave me that tip.

There are a few pages on the net that are devoted to these radios with LOTS of info.
Look it up and you will see.

The ONLY downside to this radio, is that once power is turned off of the power supply, they will lose their programming. The programming to get the frequencies unlocked can be found at the Defpom page. Additionally, they have a cure for the memory loss that this radio has. They show a way to use a 9v battery inside the case with a diode to keep the memory that has been programmed (after 10 steps to get there...) when the radio is turned off. A 'true classic' great-sounding 10-11-12 meter radio if there ever was one!

BTW-The mic wiring is the opposite of a Cobra wiring. Just flip pin 1 for 2; and pin 3 for 4 on your mic plug. I believe that is correct. Use the Turner+3 to give it the radio some compression and - W O W!

I wrote a review on it a few months back - here:
http://www.worldwidedx.com/hf-bands-hf-rigs/33588-ranger-ar-3500-whatizzit.html
 
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This thing is an 8 pin Yaesu pinout was there a 4 pin model or are you referring to me making a 8 pin to 4 pin jumper I kinda lost you here a bit but all the info is great and appreciated.

I was thinking the wife could use it mobile for 10 meters in her work car instead of leaving her Kenwood TS-50 in there she hardly uses it so I was thinking of letting the kids us it for 10 meters in the house because of the matching AT-50 auto tuner. But now that I see the memory loss issue and huge reprogramming steps I would think my wife would probally (SNIP) my manhood if I did this to her LOL!! Ill maybe dig the 2970 outta the closet and put that in her work car

maybe if I keep this Ill run it in the house this thing really looks to be next to new.
 
TonyV225 said:
This thing is an 8 pin Yaesu pinout was there a 4 pin model or are you referring to me making a 8 pin to 4 pin jumper I kinda lost you here a bit but all the info is great and appreciated.

I was thinking the wife could use it mobile for 10 meters in her work car instead of leaving her Kenwood TS-50 in there she hardly uses it so I was thinking of letting the kids us it for 10 meters in the house because of the matching AT-50 auto tuner. But now that I see the memory loss issue and huge reprogramming steps I would think my wife would probally (SNIP) my manhood if I did this to her LOL!! Ill maybe dig the 2970 outta the closet and put that in her work car

maybe if I keep this Ill run it in the house this thing really looks to be next to new.
Click to expand...

i run that exact same radio in my mobile with no memory loss.tick is if you turn
squelch fully counterclock wise it clicks like a volume knob does .doing this actually
resets the pc.more info on this is at cbtricks.com rob check your squelch make sure
its NOT turned fullycounterwise .these radios are awsome mines the 35 watt version though
 
Ok so now one thing I noticed is this thing has not been tampered with it sound good but even with a power mic I tried s few base and mobile you hve to talkk loudly and Im guessing audio needs to be turned up.

Problem is .... It was said here in my thread that I cant adjust these setting I have info tons in a folder along with the owners manual but I dont want to screw this thing up if this is true about variables breaking upon turning or adjusting.
 
I believe the 8-pin mic plug is for ch up/down. My AR-3500 has the 4-pin. The 8-pin plug was an expensive option for that radio back in the day...

You can try to adjust the modulation if you want. I never did nor had to for mine. I can't tell you to do it - as I can't say what will happen for sure. If you measure the mod pot with a meter before you adjust it - maybe you can find another pot from an old junker radio with the same resistance/ohm value. That is what I would do. Or measure all of the pots you want to adjust/replace and buy them - maybe 4 or 5 @ $.40 each tomorrow if you don't have any junk radios to salvage from.
 
tne audio in general isnt real good some say it sounds robotic or something of the sort. I tried a few astatics wired yaesu 8 pin and a sure 526T wired yaesu 8 pin along with a yaesu handheld and my yaesu md-1 desk mic they all sound distorted or have what they say was a robotic sound.

This radio is so clean factory stickers and all but I wont take it if theres an issue kinda p!$$es me off to be honest. I read some outstanding reviews on the 3300 and 3500. Well we will see what happens :headbang
 
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TonyV225 said:
tne audio in general isnt real good some say it sounds robotic or something of the sort. I tried a few astatics wired yaesu 8 pin and a sure 526T wired yaesu 8 pinalong with a yaesu handheld and md-1 desk mic they all sound distorted or have what they say was a robotic sound.

This radio is so clean factory stickjers and all but I wont take it if theres an issue kinda p!$$es me off to be honest. I read some outstanding reviews on the 3300 and 3500. Well we will see what happens :headbang
Click to expand...

MINE DOEST /NEVER HAD any OF THESE ISSUSES .only thing is radios actually have great audio depending who tuned it with mine using a astatic d104m6c i run the mike gain
on radio only to 12oclock. thaTS IT.
 
Well I opened the cover and this thing has been messed with. There is a metal box mounted (soldered to the top of a VCO and to the transformer) I dont know what the hell its for there are 2 holes with variables in them but they do nothing so Im thinking it was disconnected there was a wire that was snipped and shrink wrapped.
 
I have a Ranger 3500 (100W) version. I've had no trouble with it. I did have to adjust the audio some. I'm running a Midland Noise Cancelling Mike with mine. No problems and it works great. Had it for sale here a couple months ago but no serious buyers. At this time I'm not using it but that may change.I really like the radio. Haven't had any of the issues you spoke about.
 
TonyV225 said:
Well I opened the cover and this thing has been messed with. There is a metal box mounted (soldered to the top of a VCO and to the transformer) I dont know what the hell its for there are 2 holes with variables in them but they do nothing so Im thinking it was disconnected there was a wire that was snipped and shrink wrapped.
Click to expand...
Hey Tony; did you ever get that radio straightened out? What happened with that situation?
:blink:
 

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