Stryker HPC-955 V.3

[slowmover]

It’s fair to call the review one about mobile choices; 10M performance with 11M ability.


11M performance, though, has the problem of bad typical install. Poor signal capture most mobile rigs.

There’s you and there’s everyone else reacting to events reported on-road:

It’s easy to tell STRYKER audio while on the road. Distinctive. Always has been. “Better” than A/T.

PRESIDENT is also different than others. Not loud per Stryker, just not another C29 sounding radio.

UNIDEN is usually weak. Needs power mic; needs “something” more than just a KL203. Possibly the close second in popularity to C29, but far distant in radios easily heard.

Those of us with “best radio rigs” aren’t as affected. Stryker gets thru among the great unwashed majority.


As to “hype”:

Give yourself about two weeks to cover this map routing at 62-MPH with four hour stops at each Letter noted. 12-14/hours daily on AM-19. No excursions elsewhere (band/channel) longer than 12”. Maybe 2X daily.

Depart 0400 and finish by 1500 each day. Radio on by 0300 and off after 1600 once next days trip plan entered into dedicated GPS.



This map shows a two week OTR dispatch series. No shutdown for weather.

Different conditions across different areas produce different results to judge radios.

It ain’t hype.

.

 

[Chris155]

It’s fair to call the review one about mobile choices; 10M performance with 11M ability.


11M performance, though, has the problem of bad typical install. Poor signal capture most mobile rigs.

There’s you and there’s everyone else reacting to events reported on-road:

It’s easy to tell STRYKER audio while on the road. Distinctive. Always has been. “Better” than A/T.

PRESIDENT is also different than others. Not loud per Stryker, just not another C29 sounding radio.

UNIDEN is usually weak. Needs power mic; needs “something” more than just a KL203. Possibly the close second in popularity to C29, but far distant in radios easily heard.

Those of us with “best radio rigs” aren’t as affected. Stryker gets thru among the great unwashed majority.


As to “hype”:

Give yourself about two weeks to cover this map routing at 62-MPH with four hour stops at each Letter noted. 12-14/hours daily on AM-19. No excursions elsewhere (band/channel) longer than 12”. Maybe 2X daily.

Depart 0400 and finish by 1500 each day. Radio on by 0300 and off after 1600 once next days trip plan entered into dedicated GPS.

View attachment 191222

This map shows a two week OTR dispatch series. No shutdown for weather.

Different conditions across different areas produce different results to judge radios.

It ain’t hype.

.

How many miles is that?

 

[EAFrizzle]

Been running my G90 mobile for about six months now, and it's a different animal than my QT-60Pro or any export 10-12 M rig. It's perfect for my use, but if I were consistently on the road for long stretches, I might have the QT-60Pro in the car as well. It just does a little bit better hearing on 11 meter AM than the G90. The NRC with adjustable levels on RX and TX does a lot more to the audio than the single settings on the G90.

That being said, I think the Stryker (or any other export rig) is a far from optimal choice for a new ham. First, they probably already have a similar radio getting into ham from CB. Second, something like the G90 gets you used to running the controls on a full-sized HF rig. Third, what does a ham do with a 10-12 meter rig during solar minimum? Not as much as he could with a G90.

I still hook up the QT-60Pro at the house occasionally, but the G90s are my daily drivers, and the precise wattage control makes them easy to dial-in when driving an amp.

If price is the deciding factor between the 955 and G90, I'd say just buy a QT-60Pro and save another couple of hundred bucks, no one on the other side of your DX is going to notice the difference between 60 and 100 watts. If features and performance are the factor, the G90 is a clear winner. If big CB AM audio is your game, the 955 is the ticket. A buddy back in Houston used to run a 955 as a base until he got to hear his SSB audio on another radio. Didn't take him long to sell it, but YMMV on SSB.

 

[WSAC829]

It ain’t hype.

It’s hype. Stryker is living in the past and on their name, not their "distinctive audio" these days. The old Styker radios, sure. They had hella audio back in the day along with the Magnum Delta Forces, etc. These days they are no different than most other Chinese 10 meter export radios audio-wise. My observations are from consistent local “base to base” and random DX communications, so no changing terrain, variable RF noise, etc like in a mobile environment. I have never heard a 955 v2/v3 that blew me away, or “stood out” from the crowd. Call it what you will, but $400+ for a 955 is a waste of money IMHO.

 

[WSAC829]

A buddy back in Houston used to run a 955 as a base until he got to hear his SSB audio on another radio. Didn't take him long to sell it, but YMMV on SSB.

Exactly. They are nothing special. Not $400+ special.

 

[slowmover]

That being said, I think the Stryker (or any other export rig) is a far from optimal choice for a new ham. First, they probably already have a similar radio getting into ham from CB. Second, something like the G90 gets you used to running the controls on a full-sized HF rig. Third, what does a ham do with a 10-12 meter rig during solar minimum? Not as much as he could with a G90.


All of with which I basically agree were I going to start down Amateur Road. Walt did the review to request. He did say he felt it better than competition.

Stryker still sounds different coming off of big trucks even with NRC type. But one has to get out of one’s regional bubble to appreciate differences, as said. Picking up the fainter signals at distance, pre-dawn, for example. TN ain’t Idaho.

There’s some ear-training involved when one’s income is reliant.

For a mobile in big truck I’d rather avoid an amp. Not be dependent on such. Mobile in automobile it’s more appealing. Display & Fearures, too.

At home I can’t imagine not getting an HF rig (used) that is a better fit.


Is a 955 better than a Washington? It’ll be seen that way by most of those coming from CB land even if we discount name recognition.

There aren’t — at this time — any Stryker fans posting here. So I believed it important to use that vid as a continuation of an otherwise too short thread.

In general no one’s gone wrong in big truck long-term hard use buying STRYKER. It’s only fair to reflect that.

Hard enough to get’em to always buy SSB.

So 10M a cherry on top. “You and yer boy when he rides with you next summer can get Tech with a radio already top drawer otherwise”

And get a base station set so his little brother can learn, “what’s what in SSB when y’all make that last turn 55-miles out.”

.

 

[robertwbob]

humm i like my 955. i traded my q6 off . i despised it. change bands must circle the corral no back up 1 band. i get great reports before i even say stryker.