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CRE 8900 SSB - don't know if anyone had posted this yet

I got the 8900 pretty much set up. Set the mic gain to 45,the heat sink and the radio was getting fairly warm with the mic gain set at 63. Got to unthink,'Galaxy'. The frequency display is still a little too dim in daylight in a mobile setting. Used to Galaxy bright. It's obvious that the 8900 is more of a nighttime radio. Maybe i can slip some bright leds in around behind the display. The mic mic pins aren't as robust as a standard 4 pin connector. I'll. have to be cautious about that. Went up on 27.605 MHz LSB and talked with my brother who has a Cobra 2000 GTL. My frequency display never wavered but I had it set to monitor SWR during transmit so I'll have to check that out. Had a DX contact with a mobile rig in Salt Lake City but my brother inadvertently stepped on me and he had a fifteen minute conversation with him. Later I talked to a local on 28.285 am and he said he had a better receive signal on me(10 watts dead key vs. the Galaxy's 4. I like the fact that I can set the roger beep tone and duration to my liking(450 hz). Got the radio temporarily plugged in to the car's power socket but the K40 cig lighter power plug/wire isn't adequate to supply enough current during transmit. I saw a 2 volt drop when keyed down and speaking into the mic. Got the talkback on 3 out of a scale from 1 to 63. Any higher and I get feedback. I use a little external speaker that makes it easy to feedback on anything but faintly heard talkback. I suppose a external speaker like a Uniden Bearcat put behind the seat would help. Overall I am satisfied with this radio. I'll put the Galaxy play purty in the house for a base. The display in this pic is over four times as bright as it actually looks to the eye.
 

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m42duster said:
Do you like it? Do you have any noticeable issues?
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Aside from the bad glue job on the faceplate and the not so bright freq display, I like it. I'll use the Galaxy as a base to shock the natives into subjection(read LOUD). I have no use for the CW part as of now so I'm not concerned with that
 
What kind of vehicle you put it in? You leaving it on the dash? Really need to run power out to the battery if at all possible...but you probably knew that... Daylight always sucks! lol

I love links like this...just makes it a lot easier to go ahead and save the money back to get one. (y)
 
It's my day off and I 'm just putting it through the moves. I couldn't 't get it until the post office owned at 10 am this morning. Also I was physically examining the radio. I'll save the hard mounting for another day. I've. Been searching the Internet to see if I can get a programming disc that they first came out with. The rest of the time I've been talking to others on it and adjusting the different parameters. I got to get out of the car and clean the snow off of the antenna. It's at 2.5 Swr.
 
Ultra quiet with no noise showing on the S/RF scale but now with the sun rising,skip is starting to roll in. The little buttons that include the function button move around a little when you wiggle them. Must be the board they're mounted to. At least one person I talked to liked the echo on this radio better than the 959. As far as the mic goes,it could use a smaller coiled cord. The mic itself gets some getting used to being small and lite. With it hooked up to a Road Pro SWR/Power meter,at full power it's keying 10 watts and swinging to 35 watts/40 backwards whistle. On SSB it's swinging to 38 watts on channel 27.205 MHz LSB. It it most likely show better numbers on a bird meter and with a better antenna. I'll redo the test upon receiving and installing the Sirio PL5000 antenna
 
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The frequency display is reminiscent of the early 8900's that CBRadioMagazine did. The left side of the display is brighter than the right side. Again,the camera phone makes the display brighter that what it actually is
 

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