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Anytone at-6666 v3

I have not had a 13N10 fail in anything that came with them but I do not do the golden screw driver action and I never peak them for more power than the OEM has them rated for. If we are talking a high power export radio with dual finals or more in fact I will turn them down bellow OEM rated power. If I need more power I can build an amp. Cool running radio's last forever and do not blow parts regularly. A radio should last at least a decade preferably 2 between parts replacements baring the odd electrolytic failing. This assumes you are not using it in a battle tank, fighter plane, helicopter, dirty dusty hot tractor or a paint mixer!

Then after you reduce the power output to 10% to 30% less than the OEM put on the side of the box you adjust your RF output power knob to 12 O'clock and let it swing and the radio will last almost forever.

Wait for a part to fail usually a voltage regulator give it a good 10 to 15 years. When it does die re-cap all the stupidly low voltage caps, power filter caps and upgrade the voltage regulators, re-grease everything or go to high end sil-pads not the cheap ones! Give the old girl a nice alignment maybe upgrade to a powered electret mic if the radio did not come with one and rechristen the radio as a new radio! Pick all the glue out!! Oh replace the speaker and de-ox anything that needs it, re-oil, clean the board. If it did not come with a conformal coating from the OEM consider adding one only if in a mobile environment. Replace old wheat lamps with LED's of the same color not toxic white- trash bad for your eye's and brain bright blue! It is scientifically proven that blue LED's are bad for your eye sight and your brain that is not opinion. On the other hand a bright blue metallic flake Bass boat is ok for your eye's and brain. I have in the past posted the research paper on this topic google is your friend in this case. That is why red and green have been used historically on high end lab equipment, military equipment, radio's, and aviation gear!
 
I can’t stand it no more...

So you’re telling me they work great right out the box? They don’t need no stinking super tuning or magic fairy dust sprinkled in them? No parts changed out to make them work correctly cause the engineers don’t know what they’re doing?

Are you trying to tell me that possibly Apple makes them because they “just work”?
No if Apple made them then they would work great out of the box at first then 2 years in an update would hit them and the performance would degrade. That and Apple designs all of their products especialy computers to fail in a very predictable fashion. Let us say a product needs an 100V voltage regulator or 100A rectifier Apple will use one rated for 85V or 85A. Why? They know that 75% of them will make it out of the warranty period with out failing but none of them will make it out of say Warranty plus 1 year unless they are used in a dry cool environment so Alaska, Siberia and Antarctica. Then they make the cost to repair or replace insanely high so that it does not make sense to do anything but buy a new one. Nope I was an Apple Fan decades ago but PC's are cheaper, faster, easy to repair or upgrade. Apple is not what they once were not even close! Apple is for well trained ultra consumers! They are not the Toyota of the PC industry they are more like the Mercedes of the PC world......glitz and glamour and fine to lease but money pits if you plan on owning them past 3-5 years.
 
So the video from Palomar showing the temperature on a max mod is a liar?
Only a fool would modify a radio for more power and think it will run cooler. Upgrading the components of a radio can help the radio to run cooler but only if you keep the power output the same. The cheapest and most reliable way to make a radio run cooler and last longer is to turn it's output power down.

I can take a stock Toyota 3rzfe 2.7L I4 engine that came to market with 150HP up to 300 to 400HP with mostly stock internal just swapping out the pistons, cam shafts and modifying the throttle body for boost. It will hold together for a long long time but it is not going to last 200k, 300K, 500k or a million miles not even close. Everything is a compromise and as power density goes up reliability and MTBF/MTBO get's reduced.

Every notice that the world best athletes seldom live to ripe old ages and even when they do they are getting some serious problems fairly young. It does not matter if it is electronics, mechanical or biological as performance goes up life span and reliability tends to go down. On the other hand those insane 8HP 100 ton engines that were used to pump water out of mines or power huge factories are still going strong 200 years latter with almost no replacement parts. Top Fuel Drag Car's and Formula One cars need constant work and have very short parts lives compared to a daily driver. The rules are the rules and you can not get around science and math.

Everything is a compromise!
 
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Here's a side profile - the best side to show what I'm going to suggest you try to work with in the vehicle or even when you're using it at home base or mobile under counter or on the dash...
at6666-front001w.jpg

Ok, see that mic connector? Got a radio like the size of a PC122 TRC465 or Eagle Sidewinder - you have an idea of the footprint - hold your radio to the screen until it's about that size - note the location of those knobs. Panel switches. Tuning dial and manual rotary encoder... Let alone the display...

Ok, next clue - try to operate all those functions while driving.
View attachment 27300

Anything less is just a memory...
Yes very true! The same thing is true of the Stryker Radio's deep menus but even worse the front pannel is covered with switches and buttons. The RCI 2950 is too large to fit in a modern car and not look trashy on the dash. It is too big to fit any place else were it can be seen with out taking your eye's off the road and the controls reached and operated easily with out having to look at the unit. Is the 2950 UGLY to look at? Yes Ugly as can be. Likewise the Origanal President Lincoln HR2510 great size and decent control but really needed to be back lit also UGLY as sin but easy to use and could be mounted in more locations. Fast-forward to today the AT-6666 and the like are fantastic size but the user interface and controls were designed by a moron! The Uniden PC-122 great size and controls are fine but not easily expanded for broad band free banding and single conversion unit and again ugly. What we need is a radio about the size of the old President Lincoln with just a few controls on the outside back light, 10-12m coverage that does away with all the stupid gimicky stuff and deep menu's. Build so that standard parts can be used to replace the switches and pots when they fail just old analog controls. Use rf rated transistors for the finals I do not care if they bipolar, fets, LDMOS just make sure they are rated for RF and can take a sever mis-match at all phase angles and have high beta gain at the voltage we have in a car or have boost transformers to get them where they need to be for gain! They have to improve recieve and get rid of all the noise!!! They have to fix sad pathetic audio bandwidth! They have to give us at least one digital mode for low power DX for both audio and data!
 
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There are less than a handful of people making videos of radio that are not using it to solicit work.
Rule of thumb is if they are working on radios for customers and doing videos they are all sales pitches and you can't believe more than half of what they say.

Now the Anytone...
The ones in the cars were never opened.
I took them out of the boxes... unlocked them... and put the in the cars.
I have been asked who worked on them. Not a soul. The last guy to see inside is over in China.
Great little radios out of the box.
Does your radio get warm when talking on AM?
I have a new at6666. I also just installed it in the car and started talking. Nobody ever inside it except for the manufacturer.
I run the AM dead key at 8 Watts and it swings about 35-40 Watts. Microphone gain at 36 (full).
I'm concerned the heat sink gets rather warm. I know that's what they supposed to do but it still in the back of my head. I get good reports of clean AM and SSB modulation. On SSB I run the RF power fully open. Around 60 Watts pep.
Should I be concerned about the heat build up when running on AM.
 
Well fellas, I got a v3 version of the radio in Monday and finally got around to cracking it open to do some quality inspection. So just for future owners I wanted to say this newest batch changed to the vishay irf-520's just like what Ranger uses. No more 13n10's. After checking bias voltages, carrier adjustments and the typical light adjustments it runs just as good as the v2 (with 13n10's) I'm using as a mobile but much cooler. It's about 10 watts less pep but I don't think it'll be noticeable unless you're a meter junkie. I know there are several folks that had blown finals with the previous ones using the n10's and although I haven't ran into that issue only time will tell how these do as far as longevity. When I get free again to tinker with my personal stuff I'll put the older one on the bench to compare and see what else is changed or upgraded in this newer version. Many knock them for being Chinese but I've had a great streak with the anytone bunch so far and I'm a RCI chassis guy by preference. Anyhow, there isn't much info on these rigs out there so I figured I'd share my findings with others on here. Hope everyone has had a blessed start to the new year!
Different folks, different strokes. I've never had a lescomm special so I've got nothing negative to say but I've heard a lot of good things about Lester himself. That said, if it's a great rig to you that's all that matters my friend. Back closer to topic now, yeah it's a nice radio with some good potential but that's only my opinion and others who agree because they too have owned one. So far so good here no complaints! They aren't perfect and they'll carry the black box radio stigma but compared to many other "black box" radios it's a for sure winner in many areas others aren't so much. I've really enjoyed the Magnum 1 but for me this quad 6 out performs it in several ways. A wicked little radio is one way to put it!
The quad six is an outstanding radio indeed. with only a few simple mods and the equipment to view the waveform with etc, a powerhouse of a radio bodacious audio and excellent carrier development and peak output. 1 1/2 watts to 11 Watts average on low 4 Watt 224 watt high average, 80 + p e p. Hardy, sturdy, and very well made, these radios handle vibration and over-the-road use very well. The only drawback that I receive feedback wise is being menu-driven, but once that is set up pretty much everything else is just the knobs like every other radio. Good product made by the same factory that makes the styker line of radios. In fact the anytone quad 6 board is nearly identical to the Stryker 955hpc board.
 
Happy New Year All i just picked up a used AT q6 but forgot to ask its mfgr date how an i identify what yr it made ? seems to work well still needs installing in truck but all functions work i have a ?'n about the auto ASQ it has setting 1-9 so i set it 1 with rfgain low then turn rfg up meter reg'd higher but sq still doesnt break ? seems fine in normal mode sq works at 5 or so but asq set to 1 and it seems like it wont break sq now im only useing rfg knob as adjustment no real transmitted signals just rf hope u know what i mean any input TU
 
oh forgot to mention it has a tone board installed verfied in menu opt's i opened it up too can only see 1 final in back on side of it has 13n10 on it thats all i know. can i identify yr of mfgr from inside board #s or anything any info please Aloha All
 

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