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Stryker 955HP SSB - hitting stores this week
- Thread starter cbradiomagazine.com
- Start date
Yup just another gimmic for the gadget geeks to salivate over..... :bored:
****YAWN!****
Oh i agree 100%. Im NOT impressed at all about the radio......
Ill keep my old school stuff...........
BtW just bought a nice, used, clean, STOCK HR 2510 that more than likely will run rings around that 955 on SSB any day!
I would like to see how it plays.
Yes it has obnoxious roger-beeps that some of us have no use for, but at least they can be turned off, unlike some of the early Superstar radios.
I am sure you can set the face color to the one setting that you like and then select the Dim setting that you want.
At least it will be a new board.
The Export Market has been fed a steady staple of RCI boards for quite some time.
Not that it has all been bad, the new 2950DX/70N2 style models shine well after they got the MOSFET bias/and power levels figured out.
Most of the rest are based on some 3600/6900 board that has been around for a while.
There have been hints that there is a new board that Ranger has been working on, smaller, SMT, one would suspect that they might be PC programmable, because it looks like that is where most new stuff is going.
Really everything that has been coming from the standard run of the mill radios has been in the way of more power by adding a amp section to the basic radio..
Anyway,
If it is a stable radio, works good in all modes, with a better front end and allows you to program most of the features of the radio that you want, it might be worth looking at.
I have to agree $500 is not competitive when the Optima can be had for less and they are getting good reports so far.
I look forward to the review and letting some get in the hands of users, then we can see if they were worth waiting on.
73
Jeff
Yes it has obnoxious roger-beeps that some of us have no use for, but at least they can be turned off, unlike some of the early Superstar radios.
I am sure you can set the face color to the one setting that you like and then select the Dim setting that you want.
At least it will be a new board.
The Export Market has been fed a steady staple of RCI boards for quite some time.
Not that it has all been bad, the new 2950DX/70N2 style models shine well after they got the MOSFET bias/and power levels figured out.
Most of the rest are based on some 3600/6900 board that has been around for a while.
There have been hints that there is a new board that Ranger has been working on, smaller, SMT, one would suspect that they might be PC programmable, because it looks like that is where most new stuff is going.
Really everything that has been coming from the standard run of the mill radios has been in the way of more power by adding a amp section to the basic radio..
Anyway,
If it is a stable radio, works good in all modes, with a better front end and allows you to program most of the features of the radio that you want, it might be worth looking at.
I have to agree $500 is not competitive when the Optima can be had for less and they are getting good reports so far.
I look forward to the review and letting some get in the hands of users, then we can see if they were worth waiting on.
73
Jeff
So, price and color changing lights aside, in my testing last night and this morning I found this radio to be bang on frequency straight out of the box. I had a long conversation with WR178 this morning to discuss how it sounded on air and he reported that the audio was very good (with the stock microphone, we tested a turner +3 desk mike and SRA-158 and the stock mike sounded the best).
I've known WR178 for years and I trust his on air opinion, when a radio doesn't sound good on the air he's always the first to tell me.
As for tuning I usually try to max everything out initially and see if there is distortion or overheating and then back it down. With adjusting the internal pots up AM is keying 15 watts and peaking at 65 watts, SSB is peaking around 75. Both AM and SSB will peak 5 watts higher with a whistle but that's not what I usually go by. I was running this through a low pass filter for testing. I have heard some early reports of 80-90 watts output from some people, I'm guessing this can depend on the tuning, microphone, meter etc. The heatsink got warm to hot to the touch but nothing extreme for 20 minutes of straight talking. Frequency stability remained right on from turn on to turn off.
With the radio "peaked" WR178 and two other stations reported zero distortion, ever when I added the Turner +3. They said it didn't sound overmodulated and audio was loud and clear.
I also got good reports last night from a station in Canada and good feedback from a station in Las Vegas this morning. In the next couple of days I plan to do some on-air recordings so I can hear it for myself and compare it to a couple of other radios.
Receive on the radio is very sensitive to the point of being noisy (much like the CRE 8900 I just reviewed). Just like with the CRE 8900 I found that you'll most likely want to back the RF gain down a bit to reduce some of the noise and it won't have any large effect on your incoming signals.
Now in regards to the roger beep, lights and echo that everyone on here keeps commenting on, let me give you my take on that.
Stryker had loud AM only radios and they picked up a following of people who liked their radios but everyone had been asking for them to do a SSB radio. That crowd wanted one that was stable on frequency and had more options but also was still loud on AM. Stryker knows who their customers are and the people that liked their AM radios also liked the echo, talkback, colors and roger beeps. They are marketing to who buys their radios.
Color changing - the rotating display part I would never use, I don't need a lightshow, and some of the colors just aren't very usable, but there are two blues and a green that look quite nice and work well for night time. Additionally there is a hugely variable dimmer on this radio and so you can adjust the brightness down to whatever level you want or none at all.
I do like the fact that everything on the radio is the same color - I know with some of the radios lately you'd have a different color LCD, channel selector, meter, backlighting etc. So it's nice to see everything one color.
Roger Beeps - There are 6 different types of beep sounds, you can turn it off. If you don't want it, don't use it.
Echo - Again if you don't want it don't use it. Now the cool thing about the echo on this radio is it has a on/off switch that is separated from the controls. One of the big complaints from echo users has always been that if you want to go on SSB you have to turn off the echo and you lose your echo "positioning" or the settings that you liked. With this setup you can set the echo where you want it then use the switch to turn it on and off without messing with your settings.
As for the price - yes it's an expensive radio but it's pricing is in line with the magnum S9-80 and it has more features. Can you buy a nice used HF radio for just a bit more, or a 2970N2, yes, but the people who are considering this radio likely are the guys who liked the original Stryker radios and wanted a SSB radio that can do all the same stuff as their AM radio plus SSB.
The 29XX series doesn't have echo or talkback and some CB'er don't like them as they seem more complicated than say a Galaxy. This radio definitely is giving the CB crowd the bells and whistles the AM crowd likes but it also is blending these with newer technology and greater stability.
Two days into testing this radio I can say that it seems initially to be a very capable radio technically speaking. In terms of audio, output and frequency stability it's definitely a big step up from previous export radios.
Now as a ham radio operator could I use this radio on 10 meters? I'm guessing it would do fine because it's stable and the audio reports have said it's clear and not overmodulated. BUT the radio doesn't have easily adjustable tuning steps. You have to go into the function menu to change the step increments. With the software (which I haven't jumped into yet) you likely can program in your favorite frequencies which would be helpful, but I can say pretty confidently I wouldn't be using this radio as a 10 meter radio on a daily basis. I think the CRE 8900 or a 2950DX is a better "dual" option for that.
That being said - for the average CB'er this radio is going to be much easier to just turn on and use than a CRE 8900 or a 2950DX. It's definitely aimed more at that crowd than the operator who does 10/11/12.
Only other complaint so far other than the step tuning is the channel selector isn't as robust as I'd like (similar to the Magnum S9) and it does occasionally skip a channel.
Lots more to come.........and these are just my first reports so don't hang your hat on anything yet...
I've known WR178 for years and I trust his on air opinion, when a radio doesn't sound good on the air he's always the first to tell me.
As for tuning I usually try to max everything out initially and see if there is distortion or overheating and then back it down. With adjusting the internal pots up AM is keying 15 watts and peaking at 65 watts, SSB is peaking around 75. Both AM and SSB will peak 5 watts higher with a whistle but that's not what I usually go by. I was running this through a low pass filter for testing. I have heard some early reports of 80-90 watts output from some people, I'm guessing this can depend on the tuning, microphone, meter etc. The heatsink got warm to hot to the touch but nothing extreme for 20 minutes of straight talking. Frequency stability remained right on from turn on to turn off.
With the radio "peaked" WR178 and two other stations reported zero distortion, ever when I added the Turner +3. They said it didn't sound overmodulated and audio was loud and clear.
I also got good reports last night from a station in Canada and good feedback from a station in Las Vegas this morning. In the next couple of days I plan to do some on-air recordings so I can hear it for myself and compare it to a couple of other radios.
Receive on the radio is very sensitive to the point of being noisy (much like the CRE 8900 I just reviewed). Just like with the CRE 8900 I found that you'll most likely want to back the RF gain down a bit to reduce some of the noise and it won't have any large effect on your incoming signals.
Now in regards to the roger beep, lights and echo that everyone on here keeps commenting on, let me give you my take on that.
Stryker had loud AM only radios and they picked up a following of people who liked their radios but everyone had been asking for them to do a SSB radio. That crowd wanted one that was stable on frequency and had more options but also was still loud on AM. Stryker knows who their customers are and the people that liked their AM radios also liked the echo, talkback, colors and roger beeps. They are marketing to who buys their radios.
Color changing - the rotating display part I would never use, I don't need a lightshow, and some of the colors just aren't very usable, but there are two blues and a green that look quite nice and work well for night time. Additionally there is a hugely variable dimmer on this radio and so you can adjust the brightness down to whatever level you want or none at all.
I do like the fact that everything on the radio is the same color - I know with some of the radios lately you'd have a different color LCD, channel selector, meter, backlighting etc. So it's nice to see everything one color.
Roger Beeps - There are 6 different types of beep sounds, you can turn it off. If you don't want it, don't use it.
Echo - Again if you don't want it don't use it. Now the cool thing about the echo on this radio is it has a on/off switch that is separated from the controls. One of the big complaints from echo users has always been that if you want to go on SSB you have to turn off the echo and you lose your echo "positioning" or the settings that you liked. With this setup you can set the echo where you want it then use the switch to turn it on and off without messing with your settings.
As for the price - yes it's an expensive radio but it's pricing is in line with the magnum S9-80 and it has more features. Can you buy a nice used HF radio for just a bit more, or a 2970N2, yes, but the people who are considering this radio likely are the guys who liked the original Stryker radios and wanted a SSB radio that can do all the same stuff as their AM radio plus SSB.
The 29XX series doesn't have echo or talkback and some CB'er don't like them as they seem more complicated than say a Galaxy. This radio definitely is giving the CB crowd the bells and whistles the AM crowd likes but it also is blending these with newer technology and greater stability.
Two days into testing this radio I can say that it seems initially to be a very capable radio technically speaking. In terms of audio, output and frequency stability it's definitely a big step up from previous export radios.
Now as a ham radio operator could I use this radio on 10 meters? I'm guessing it would do fine because it's stable and the audio reports have said it's clear and not overmodulated. BUT the radio doesn't have easily adjustable tuning steps. You have to go into the function menu to change the step increments. With the software (which I haven't jumped into yet) you likely can program in your favorite frequencies which would be helpful, but I can say pretty confidently I wouldn't be using this radio as a 10 meter radio on a daily basis. I think the CRE 8900 or a 2950DX is a better "dual" option for that.
That being said - for the average CB'er this radio is going to be much easier to just turn on and use than a CRE 8900 or a 2950DX. It's definitely aimed more at that crowd than the operator who does 10/11/12.
Only other complaint so far other than the step tuning is the channel selector isn't as robust as I'd like (similar to the Magnum S9) and it does occasionally skip a channel.
Lots more to come.........and these are just my first reports so don't hang your hat on anything yet...
And the sad thing is thats VERY VERY true!!!! It will then be sold later for pennies on the dollar when the poor sap has no cash..........
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