The receive was one of the best as any that I have had over the years. On an average to quiet day there was next to no noise level. I found that most of the time I ran with the squelch off, I have had radio's where this would drive you nuts in five minutes.

My best contact was an 18 mile mobile to mobile contact with a friend of mine in a tow truck. He was running a Galaxy 95T2 on a 4 foot fiberglass antenna. At 20 miles he said he lost me even though I could still hear him. I was barefoot with a Wilson 5000 mag mount.

My first surprise was that the Sky Thumper coffin style replacement test mic sounded better then my Road King 56. This radio has Audio to burn and swings like a monster. I did alot of testing with a very pickey base station friend of mine. He noted numerous times on his meter 3-4 "S" units of swing. He next got out in the mobile to double check and again, plenty of foreward swing.

Next up I had him run the radio on his base so I could hear it. I must say the on-air sound is very smooth and punchy. When he went to the D104 desk mic he was blowing some serious smoke, wow. With his 4 pill on he was locking down the channel on the north end of the city with ease.

I just moved and I have not been able to locate my good watt meter. On a radio shack RMS meter I was seeing a 2 watt dead key and peak watts of 8. This is the same reading my Magnum Delta Force and a Galaxy 88 gave. Both those radios have peaked at 35-38 watts so I can ballpark it in at dual 1969 final power range.

For the purpose of this test Sparky sent me the radio cold, all he said was we did a new package on it and tell me what you think. I give it two thumbs up, nice smooth punchy audio thats plenty loud but not blarring. Combine that with exellent receive and you have one cool radio. I did take a peak and noted a 520 mosfet final inside. Sparky will have to tell us what the bench numbers are. There was also a light talk-back which I also like.

The new High Powered-RC Enhanced Cobra 25 is a winner. If your in the market for a hot Cobra 25 I would buy this one brand new ready to go. Do it right the first time and you never have to take the cover off again.

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"... it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go."

Power outout is just about 42 watts Bird at 14 Volts, from a 3 watt dead key.

My thoughts on building this radio were a smaller footprint radio with the power to be heard with.

They are available now, but not on the website...yet (What else is new!)

They are available by calling us.

With approx. 4-6 days to build.

Sparky

OWNER-PART TIME TECHNICIAN-FLOOR SWEEPER

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"... it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go."

Thanks!

Sparky

OWNER-PART TIME TECHNICIAN-FLOOR SWEEPER

I think you have a winner with this radio.

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"... it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go."

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"... it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go."

Last Edited on 12-Sep-2008 7:11 AM

lv480

Last Edited on 15-Sep-2008 8:02 PM

Once I get the radio installed and tested, I'll post my own review in this thread.

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"... it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go."

I'll post a little more about my experiences with this radio sometime over the weekend.

(Posting this to "bump" the thread)

Since I didn't want the talkback on all the time, Sparky wired it to the NB switch so I could turn it off. That keeps the NB on all the time, but that's the way I would normally run this radio.

Sparky did a GREAT job on this radio!

Gotta run. I'll try to post more info later this weekend.