MAGNUM 257 HP Review

[222DBFL]

Camaro1 that must have been you the guy was speaking about, said he got a call asking about them. I called as well and I ordered one, should be to me tomorrow. New toys oh yeah.

 

[camaro1]

ya I ordered one also, I have a buddy im trying to get on the radio, we will see if its worth keeping or not and try to get him set up

 

[Turbo T]

And is the soldering of the con ports very hard? I can solder pretty good but don't want to ruin a good radio either.

Its pretty easy. Use a 20-30 watt soldering iron from Walmart or RadioShack. Don't unsolder the diode on the board, use a solder sucker to remove the old solder. A small amount of solder across the connectors on the back side of the board is all you need. Don't forget to reset the CPU before firing up the radio.

 

[222DBFL]

Thanks for all the info guys, it has helped tremendously. It is much appreciated and I am glad to have my radio.

 

[222DBFL]

Did you get your radio yet Camaro, mine came in a day. Easy mod for 11m and I like it so far, time will tell.

 

[camaro1]

should be here tomorrow or thursday

 

[222DBFL]

Good to hear no problems with mine yet everything is working properly.

 

[222DBFL]

Have you got your radio yet camaro1?? And if so is it working well for your friend? Mine seems to be doing great, I talked 60 miles away on am channel 20 in a mobile, had good reports on the other end. Hope this radio works out for you like it is for me. God bless.

 

[camaro1]

ya got it,, all seems good,, am is very loud, ssb sounds good. stock mic works good with the radio. i don't like how the variable power works, it only lowers the dead key on am but still swings to full power, and on ssb it turns the power almost completely off,, the manual says to use the mic gain to control ssb power,

i still like the optima mk3 better for ssb, optima is 5khz is the default freq change, and the variable power works on am and ssb and it has the ssb filter, but for the price the magnum 257 seems to be a very good radio


also something odd, I plugged the magnum into the same p/s and antenna that I use with the optima mk3 and the local that I talk to all the time said my signal was down about 2 s-units, (he didn't know I was trying a different radio),, odd because the magnum on my meter seems to do about 20 watts more than the optima on ssb,,, but who knows I didn't do a back to back test so it may have been conditions/weather,, not sure

 

[11me8up]

talk back

I know the thread is a few months old but I would like to know how I can tell if I'm buying the newest 257HP and not a NOS. Is there a way I can tell if I'm buying a new model 257HP? Possibly the SN or even the fact that the radio could have a talk back. I might have misunderstood some of the posts but it seems that some of the newest 257HP's have a talk back. Which I would never use but if it's a good way to tell if I am purchasing the latest model that would be great. Thanks for any info I'm pretty new here so I just want to get started off on the right foot or maybe I should say right frequency Bob

 

[9C1Driver]

The last version 257HP had the 2018 mic and talkback, all you can do is see what is for sale. the 257HP is a fine radio, I love mine.

 

[Turbo T]

Yep....you have to buy the Xtreme 2018 echo mic to get the talkback feature on the last run of the 257HP.