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I am kicking around the idea of putting a small ssb mobile rig together and I have been out of the CB loop for a bit to long, been playin on VHF and HF a bit. Is the RCI 2950 and 2970 still the best at SSB operation? I know that true HF ham rigs modded to cover 11m will sound better on SSB but they lack on the AM side so I am wanting to get something thats still good on AM but great on SSB. I am open to suggestions on any SSB rig so fire away. I am still in the "tire kicking" stage and dont have imediate plans to purchase, just doing homework right now. I will also be throwing a lil somethin somethin behind it for those good dx days too
I'm a huge fan of the 29xx series of radios. Yup, short of a HF rig, they are still the best SSB rigs on the market. If you are planning on installing an amp, then I'd go with the 2950 low drive and put a nice AB biased amp behind it!
Hey PH, great to see you posting again. I have to agree the RCI 29's are great, I have a 2970 that I use in my truck. The last few months though my Yaesu FT-450 has seen full time duty as my base radio. The recieve is far superior to any of my other radios and the AM audio is good per my local friends. I have yet to try it in my truck but may in the future. This radio will never be "Super Trucker" loud on AM but its recieve and SSB make up for that.
If you can find one, a President HR2510 10 meter radio would be my best bet. Of course I'm biased to the 2510, but I had a 2950 and it was great too. I don't know much about the Magnum 10 meter radios, but if I had the $$ I'd like to try out the Magnum 275 HP.
9-7-1 Coastal Maine Mobile usually hanging out on 38 LSB
At the home QTH, Uniden Madison/Realistic TRC 457
In the mobile, HR2510/Grant XL
IMO...the 2510, 2600 (with Chipswitch) or Lincoln are the best compromise.
The 29XX radios have great sounding ssb, but I've never heard on on AM that was stroing w/o sounding raspy or dirty
because they just won't talk well on AM w/o clipping the AM limiter. The adjacent channel was also sub par. Sorry...
2950 lovers...that's just been my experience.
the Uniden radios don't have great rejection either, but have FAR superior noise blankers to the RCI chassis. Once
gone through by Rogerbird or Doc, they will put out more power than the RCI...although the new mosfet 2950's get close.
The AM audio is better and I find them a more straightforward radio to operate. Should never have let my last one
go...and if I find another, it's going to be a keeper. Find a Chipswitch radio and get 30 memory channels and 12-10m
coverage too.
Preacherman
yup 2510's are great radios you can find them on qrz.com in the swap meet section. even though it's a amature radio web site many times the guys selling radios don't hound folks about not having a amature ticket to but these they don't ask don't tell. but you won't go wrong with either of the 3 radios 2510,2950's or 2970's being dx models or N2's or the older amber face RCI's
I believe the HR2510 is a great radio as well & are hard to beat in there price range. Especially with the chipswitch installed if you can find one!
I have experience with both the HR2510 & the older RCI-2950, and although the 2950 is a fine radio, I prefer the 2510. I suppose a lot of it is personal preference, but I don’t think I will ever part with my 2510’s, great overall AM & SSB performance; I have heard a few on the air as well & always thought they were great sounding radios & glad I have one.
I get great reports on both radios, so I think either would be a good choice. I got the 2950 not too long ago, about a month ago. I did not talk on SSB in a while, & figured I‘d test it out. Talked to some locals I have not talked to in a while on SSB, & got great reports right away that the audio sounded very nice, same with AM though, I personally think the 2510 audio tonal quality is better but either way several locals said the 2950 sounded very nice, I have it set to stock output & modulation as well (both radios set like this, I try to keep my audio clean anymore, as loud as possible, but with minimal distortion)
In my opinion the 2950 has a slightly noisier receiver (not by much); more of the white noise I guess you would call it, but it still receives well. The noise blanker on the 2510 is much better then the 2950 (at least for me it seems that way), I get bad interference from one of my TV’s & the 2510 mostly takes it out, where the 2950 don’t.
I really don’t care for the weird knobs the 2950 uses for the MIC GAIN, SQUELCH, & the RF GIAN, don’t really bother me since I barely use them, but nonetheless there awkward to adjust. I like the overall layout of the 2510 better, the controls & buttons were better situated.
I love the large display on the 2950, but I wish they would have labeled the meter with S-UNITS rather then just blank bars, seems useless to me. If the 2510 display was the same size as the 2950 but still with the 2510 layout, that would be awesome!
Both rigs are pretty simple to use once you get use to them, the chipswitch if you have one takes a little time to remember all the functions, but you get use to it & it easy to program. (I had to read the manuals to figure out how to program both radios!) I suppose I’m biased to the 2510 too, but I always wanted to play with a 2950 & gave it fair testing compared to my other radio, just not my first radio of choice, but I still think it was a great performer.
Did I type too much here? Probably! lol, haha. But just wanted to share my thoughts on both the radios I am familiar with that were already mentioned. Both nice radios, but we all have different opinions on our equipment. It would be nice if you could “test drive” a few different radios & pick the one that fits you best, but unfortunately that’s not something many of us get to do when buying radios stuff.
Take it easy man & I hope you end up with what you want! There are lots of different radios out here to choose from. Have fun!!!
I am really new here but have been around radio for years..... I would suggest an older Cobra 148GTL (side mic mount) as they were one of the best talkers around and can be "jazzed" up a bit! Better yet would be the HR2510 or Lincoln if you can find one in good shape.... Next on the list would be the 2950 and then the Magnum 257. That is just my opinion. I have two older 148s and I get good compliments on them all the time. If you do find a good 2510 then opt for a Road Devil mic, (red) as it makes the 2510 talk with out over modding.
