10 meter Radios

[Jjoshjl]

I am about to start dipping into the 10M band and was curious about radios... Will I be disappointed in the radios the seem to have channels like a CB or would I be better with one I can dial in the frequencies like a 2M. It seems almost all 10M radios are "channel" driven...

Thanks in advance!!

 

[N9PVW]

You want to be able to dial in the frequencies.

 

[alcahuete]

You made a great observation! Almost all 10m radios are channel driven, and that is because they are largely manufactured to be used illegally on CB. Some like the Ranger have a VFO of sorts, but in the long run, you are going to be much happier just buying a normal HF radio with all the bands. You'll have it for when you want to venture elsewhere, and the price is not that much more (used at least) than one of these "10m radios."

 

[jaspence]

Except for sideband, 2 meters operates on fixed frequencies, not with a variable dial. Early 2 meter sets used crystals or a set of thumb wheels that limited the user to 5 kHz steps. Modern radios still use the same steps controlled by a processor. The performance on 2 meters is more or less consistent depending on conditions, while 10 meters is able to talk thousands of miles under good atmospheric conditions and other times just static.

 

[Jjoshjl]

Except for sideband, 2 meters operates on fixed frequencies, not with a variable dial. Early 2 meter sets used crystals or a set of thumb wheels that limited the user to 5 kHz steps. Modern radios still use the same steps controlled by a processor. The performance on 2 meters is more or less consistent depending on conditions, while 10 meters is able to talk thousands of miles under good atmospheric conditions and other times just static.

Correct... I should have been more clear. What I meant by dialing in was just that I had much more control over what frequency I was listening to ...my current 2m Dials a 2.5k step.... Thanks

 

[alcahuete]

Correct... I should have been more clear. What I meant by dialing in was just that I had much more control over what frequency I was listening to ...my current 2m Dials a 2.5k step.... Thanks

The Ranger series will do just that. It's actually like a real ham radio. Ranger is probably the only one of the companies who actually developed the radio originally for ham radio. They had a 6m radio too back in the day. Now, even the Rangers are used as illegal CBs, but they do work really well. Back when the bands were good, I used mine mobile. Put out close to 200w.

Brand new, the 2950 is going for around $300. The 2970 goes for around $430. You can regularly buy used HF radios in very good condition for $500. Heck, there was a FT-847 today on QRZ (that I just missed buying.....damn it!) that went for $575 shipped! Covers HF, 6m, 2m, 70cm all mode. Is it the best radio money can buy? No. It's a shack in a box. But it will smash the hell out of any of these 10m radios, and you won't need to upgrade when you get a new license, or take care of whatever your limitation is of only working 10m.

 

[Jjoshjl]

The Ranger series will do just that. It's actually like a real ham radio. Ranger is probably the only one of the companies who actually developed the radio originally for ham radio. They had a 6m radio too back in the day. Now, even the Rangers are used as illegal CBs, but they do work really well. Back when the bands were good, I used mine mobile. Put out close to 200w.

Brand new, the 2950 is going for around $300. The 2970 goes for around $430. You can regularly buy used HF radios in very good condition for $500. Heck, there was a FT-847 today on QRZ (that I just missed buying.....damn it!) that went for $575 shipped! Covers HF, 6m, 2m, 70cm all mode. Is it the best radio money can buy? No. It's a shack in a box. But it will smash the hell out of any of these 10m radios, and you won't need to upgrade when you get a new license, or take care of whatever your limitation is of only working 10m.

I'm just now getting into my tech license and am looking to utilize it best... But I think your right... Get an HF radio that does more than just 10. Cheers!

 

[spongella]

Alcahuete has the best advice, if you can afford a ham transceiver that covers HF/VHF go for it. I once owned an Icom 746 that covered HF to UHF but like a dummy I sold it. What was I thinking (sigh).

 

[chief21]

If there is any chance at all that you might eventually become interested in other HF bands, don't limit yourself to the 10m band only.

 

[k6cpo]

Except for sideband, 2 meters operates on fixed frequencies, not with a variable dial. Early 2 meter sets used crystals or a set of thumb wheels that limited the user to 5 kHz steps. Modern radios still use the same steps controlled by a processor. The performance on 2 meters is more or less consistent depending on conditions, while 10 meters is able to talk thousands of miles under good atmospheric conditions and other times just static.

Have you got your bands confused?

Every single 2 meter radio I have is equipped with a VFO, capable of tuning any frequency within the band, dependent of course on the step setting.

 

[AK9R]

Let's get back to talking about 10m radios.

 

[needairtime]

Speaking of 10M radios, I ended up getting a dead Commanche Blackhawk, though there are some good leads out there for a service manual for a sister "rebadge" I haven't been able to find one that matches the PCB...a lot that are very similar.

Anyway when I got it I noticed a "mod" in it. No leads on googling any text on the mod. My guess is that it was meant to allow it to run in the so called "Childrens Band" but cannot confirm...

Anyone happen to know some more details about this, maybe even heard of mods for it and what it'd do?

I was kind of dismayed that it was modded and it a significant potential contributor to its death, and hence a bit dismayed about it so I shelved it. No way to tell what was modded or attempted to be fixed, at best it's just a parts unit now, especially with no matching service manual.

At least the price was right.

 

[alcahuete]

Not sure what the mod was, but opening that radio for 11m did not require a mod...a few simple keystrokes on the menu.

 

[2IR473]

Would this work for your Comanche Blackhawk radio ?
Albrecht 485/Magnum 257/RoadPro Titan II/Blackhawk

 

[needairtime]

Maybe. I don't know how many rebadges there are out there, and agree with the x/y/z/... designation that there are a whole bunch of them. They all appear to have the same chips on the board but the other "stuff" on the boards are different. Like that picture on that website in post #14 definitely has that same chip and the pots/lamps are the same locations, but all the passive components are different/different locations.

The suspected mod board has two ICs on it - a CMOS 4017 counter and a 4069 hex inverter, maybe it was intended to push the button sequence to get it into the Chicken Band every time it was powered up? No idea.

Wonder if this radio is worth to fix, the digital/logic/memory circuitry on it is dead and maybe more, no idea. I was hoping to at least find the service manual so I could use the analog portion, would be nice to have a working SSB modulator/demodulator I could control with my own digital circuitry to replace the dead portions, at least. But there's a chance the analog stuff is also damaged...

Based on the fact there are so many rebadges, seems like this is a fairly popular radio or mass produced enough that it's not worth to repair...?

 

[needairtime]

This is the "mod" board. Does not look too substantial, but not knowing what the function of where the wires connect, not sure what it does. It does look like some of the wires hook up to the front panel buttons.



So close but not quite the same... All of the dangling wires go to the "mod" board.

Looks like 2 of the wires may be attributed to pushing buttons for the user, two are for power and ground (what else?), and the rest I have no idea. Being able to reset the logic board might be a good start in figuring out what it still does or not, alas, nothing I've seen seems to match yet.

BTW was able to find the SM for the Realistic HTX-10, which supposedly is a clone. But the HTX-10 actually matches the radiomods.co.nz site photo. Just not the Blackhawk, though at least it does confirm that the PLL is indeed part of that big IC which can be good or bad...

 

[WB9YBM]

the two things I'd consider important are: FM capability (put in your own PL if you have to), and repeater split--you might need to do a bit of digging, but those radios are out there (you might need to check CB shops--maybe Walcott? for the best selection). From the Chicago area I'd used to work into a repeater in the Bahamas and then onward from there--in other words range can be really amazing when you combine a 10M opening and a repeater!

 

[needairtime]

It appears the Magnum 257 / Radioshack HTX-10 / Albrecht 485 are more similar to each other than the Blackhawk. Both the digital and analog boards are different -- about the only thing they have in common are the form factor, microphone, front panel (but the controls are different locations). The chips appear to be different too, the blackhawk has a SY-202 instead of the SY-204 the others have though they all appear to have the same IC package.

Oh well, this radio is probably bin worthy, at least nothing paid, nothing lost...