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Need suggestions on a radio... AM/SSB

Dang man you got a toss up between the three radios that would be my next purchase. Are you going base or mobile??? I had once a Galaxy DX22B which i think uses the same board as the 2970. Not too sure about what the upgrades or changes the have made with the "n2" but i know they talk real well all around. Personally I'm a galaxy guy all the way but that's just me..... Everyone tells me how much they suck, and I still keep buying them and absolutely love them. But if your a first time user I would stick with one of the three that you're looking at. As someone else said once you go on sideband you don't go back. This is true for the most part.... until you get a system with a good enough signal to make contacts on AM. But if your gonna hang out on 27.3850LSB you will have a lot of fun with 100watts. I know i do it on a daily basis. Well 120-150 watts, or whatever my DX95T puts out with the 2sc2290's. BE A PIONEER GET THE OPTIMA!!!! let us know how it works for you.

another great rule of thumb.

How ever much money you spend on a radio/amp you should spend double on your antenna and feedline!!!!!
 
I had a 2970N2 right out of the box not work correctly, I was ticked, had to send it twice to the factory repair place and they fixed it the second time, I was not in the mood to mess it anymore, got it new when Sparkys was still open on a black Friday sale, so I got it cheap, sold it as soon as it got back working right. I'm sure that was just a fluke but sometimes some radios are a lemon as with all products so down the road it went. Nothing more upsetting to spend a ton of money thinking you did the right thing and get disappointed right out of the box. Any of the 2950 radios I had used or new worked fine, that's why I sprang for the 2970N2. It was the Optima after that and love it anytime I use it. On the YeticomNZ site there is a Jopix, single final radio but does a lot of freebanding you might want to check that one out
 

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Well maybe because it was a new radio right off the line? I'd like to run the n2 for the power already there at hand.. No amp needed. ..


What's the jopix about versus the mk3? Just the single final? Why can the jopix freeband better than the mk3?

Also so you think that the 50w from the optima , or the 100w from the stryker or the 200ish watts from the 2970n2 wouldn't do well on AM?
 
Please don't take this wrong, that is not my intention, why are you going to spend big money on a cool radio if your going to use it on AM?? If that's the case just get one of those high power Stryker or Galaxy radio, power on SSB isn't that big a deal as long as the audio is clear and not blaring like a trucker on AM. I got back into the radio stuff about 2000 after a 14 yr lay off, first time on lower side of 39 I found a group and haven't talked on AM at all. Maybe to listen if it's a dead quiet night but not to talk. Just my 2 cents and like I said please don't think I'm giving you a hard time, SSB and AM are like night and day difference.
 
This is one of the only forums I see the optima pushed so hard, that's why I'm reluctant. Not many reviews neither. I don't doubt you/it but I wanna look into it more.

Also, I'm not going to use it solely on AM... I just wanna have it function on both. I've never been on AM or SSB.. So I wanna have the option of both so I can try out both.

I've heard videos of the 29xx and the noise didn't sound that bad. Is the optima no where near as bad?
 
^^ ab v c^^ get the 2970n2 then i think that would be your best bet. as far as i know they have complete continuous coverage 24-32mhz and youve got 150watt output which is more than enough to get you up and over the noise on 19 if your on the highway and plenty of punch to do some very good skip talkin on 38LSB and should be enough to go global on 27.5550. get that 2970n2 and a wilson 1000 mag mount for the mobile and a sirio gain master for the base and a good 35amp power supply and you will be talkin reallllllyyyy well.

GO WITH THE 2970N2 AND CALL IT A DAY!!!!
 
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mroneeyedboh said:
I wanna eventually amp my mobile, so that's an option in the near future too
How much does an amp effect the SWRs?
Click to expand...

The 2970n2 (if throttled back quite a bit) would go nicely with a texas star dx500 get you up to 500w which would be great for am and ssb dont expect to go on ch 6 and get your name called but most other channels you should do ok

in regards to the swr question. If your SWR is good without an amp on, it shouldnt go up much more with the amp on just make sure with the amp off (and inline) that your swr is a flat 1.1-1.3 no higher, Regardless of whether you operate mobile or base i highly recommend investing in a set of meters, prefferably one that shows foward and reflected power and SWR. Its never overkill to be aware of how your system is running at all times. So if you see something wrong with your output power or alot of reflect SHUT IT DOWN and figure out what your issue is.

are you going base or mobile?
 
What's channel 6? I've seen that a bit where people are saying getting your name called out... I would assume Its a big dogs channel
Do I have to leave the meters in line? Also I'm going mobile

Now see I just got another reply on another forum saying that the n2, is no good. He said his tech said the MOSFETs fail a lot and the units are not rugged enough for mobile use... I haven't seen this and a few big techs ( dtb is one ) said the RCIs are good to go... What gives. I know everyone likes what they like ,but damn if the cb/export world isn't divided and not settled on a few units.
 
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whatever you get will be the greatest radio there is ,,,,,, IF ,,,,, you have nothing to compare it to.. me and several others have had all the radios you are looking at and we have said out of all of them if we had one radio to keep it would be the optima

look at ebay, every time a shipment comes into the US, they sell!, But you rarely see them come up for sale used,, true you don't here a lot about them on the forums, but most of the time people don't come on forums to post just great things,, most of the time you come on forums looking for answers to problems/issues you are having with a set-up.

I work on cars and there is a saying that goes something like "you have a good experience you tell a couple people,, you have a bad experience and you tell everyone!)

your not going to find any cb style radio that is 100% perfect, but the optima is probly the closest to a true hf ham rig that you will find.

again whatever you get im sure it will work fine and be great,
 

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