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31 October 2015
President Electronics Promotional Videos!!!
President have released several promotional videos for their radios, none of which appear to point out the many serious flaws in the equipment!!!! (poor echo, crappy audio, overload on SSB, noisy receive, ghost mic keyers, AGC problems, loose controls, channel skipping etc....)
And then they give us a video entitled "Good Old President" - Yes President that was when you did know how to make good radios......! Sadly no more!!!!!
Videos: YouTube/President Electronics
THE BIG NET 2015!!!! - Final Reminder!!!!!
Modified President Grant 2 - Less Noise, Improved Receive!
Video: YouTube/prespostt.com Text from their YouTube channel: "RX modified Grant 2 in an electrically noisy environment coming from the antenna. Notice the dramatic change in NB operation Stock on right and modified on left Modified radio has a tunable S-meter and smoother RX audio modified to my own like. S-meter is very lazy on SSB with weak signals but it is set to 50uV S9 and 160uV S9+10dB and working correctly in all modes. Fix is about to come but have to figure out best way to do it.
Both radios have same sensitivity measured 12dB sinad in all modes. You have to use slightly more volume in AM/SSB to hear the weakest signals.
President should have done Grant 2 this way from the beginning
www.prepostt.com" So the question has to asked - Why cant President make a decent radio when a simple mod is all that is needed????
Dave (M0OGY) takes a look at the latest, and hopefully the best, incarnation of the President Grant 2!
Earlier models suffered from minor niggles which annoyed some users. President do appear to have listened to their customers and have modified the radio accordingly.
In this video Dave runs us through the features and gives us a look inside the radio showing the differences between the new and old model. In PART 2 we'll see how the radio performs on air.
So You Send Your Faulty President Grant 2 Away For Repair.......
I am (or rather was) the proud owner of 2 President Grant 2 radios. However a few months ago one of them developed a fault. For no apparent reason the S-Meter would show a constant noise level of S8-S9 even without an antenna attached! (See video below)
So I contacted the retailer from whom I bought the radio, they were very helpful instructing me to return the radio immediately.
The radio was sent and upon receiving the radio the retailer contacted me telling me that they had sent the radio to President for their assessment and action.
Several weeks went by and nothing heard so I contacted the retailer who in turn contacted President. President apparently informed them that they were having to completely replace the main board in the radio and it would be completed shortly.
Several more weeks went by and again nothing heard. By now the radio had been away for two months!
I once again contacted the retailer who once again contacted President. They were informed that the radio would be returned soon.
A few days later I get a message that the radio had been repaired and is on its way back! Yipppppeeeee!!!!
The radio arrives, I open the box and I see my lovely President Grant 2 covered with greasy fingerprints. So covered in fact that when you held the radio you could physically feel the greasy residue on the radio. Furthermore, the front plastic screen on the radio was covered with scratches and marks which had not been there when the radio was sent for repair. I immediately contacted the retailer to inform them of this unpleasant discovery. They were quite naturally very shocked to hear about this and promised to take up the matter with President.
However, after weeks of trying to get someone at President to return their calls/emails the retailer said they had given up and offered to sort out the problem directly with myself. Something that I very grateful to them for and I personally have now reached a satisfactory conclusion to this awful experience.
But it does raise the question about Presidents apparent customer service, How could they possible ruin a customers radio then apparently ignore all attempts to get it sorted out?
Makes you wonder!
Anyway here's a short video showing the state of the screen on my President Grant 2 when it came back from repair......
Celebrating 34 years of legal CB radio in the UK - Monday 2nd November 7pm-10pm - Main Net on Ch34 UKFM (27.93125Mhz)
9 October 2015
Rip Off Britain? - CB Radio Price Comparisons
Many UK operators (Including myself) feel that CB radio prices in the UK are too high. But are we justified in thinking this?
To try to answer this I have looked around the web to get the prices of radios sold in Europe to compare them to UK prices.
Below you can see price comparisons between radios on sale in Europe verses the UK:
I feel that there is only one conclusion to be taken from the prices shown - With differences of up to 34.5% I think there is a little room for prices to fall in the UK!
* Exchange rate as of 09/10/2015
President Jackson 2 Chrome Limited Edition: First Mini-Review
So Presidents flagship CB radio the Jackson 2 Chrome hit the shops in the past few days. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the very first to become available. Having used it for a few days these are my initial findings based on the radio I have in my possession:
The radio looks gorgeous, with a style that takes you back to the 80's.
In the box you find the usual standard microphone, mounting bracket, power lead, instruction booklet etc.
On closer inspection the 'chrome' controls actually look quite 'plasticy'. There is also some play on the controls. They wobble from side to side. The radio itself seems well built with a nice heat sink on the back (Hinting at a higher power output!). All the switches and controls are brightly backlit and the analogue S-Meter is clearly visible.
The radio features include: Roger Beep, NB/ANL/Hi-Cut, Priority Channel, SWR Meter, VOX, Fine/Course Clarifier, RF Power Adjustment, Squelch/ASQ, Mic Gain, RF Gain, External Speaker Socket.
AM and FM incoming and outgoing audio is nothing short of excellent. The supplied standard microphone works very well. However SSB is a different story. In common with several of the newer radios (Most notably the President Lincoln 2) I found that the Jackson 2 Chrome suffers from distortion on strong signals on SSB. You can reduce the RF Gain and this will clear up most of the distortion but if you are listening to say two stations talking, one of which is nearby and the other is a distant station you find yourself constantly having to raise and lower the RF gain to listen to the two stations.
The radio also appears to 'drift' slightly on the receive and occasional clarifier adjustments are needed.
Furthermore, the radio I have is slightly off frequency on transmit. I don't have a frequency counter to test this exactly but comparing it to several other radios (including amateur equipment) the Jackson 2 appeared to be approximately 300Hz low in frequency on both USB and LSB. Whilst not a massive amount this was enough to provoke several comments from other stations who were having to tune me in and is on the verge of being outside specifications!
All the SSB problems were still evident when the radio had been used for some time and was fully warmed up.
I tested the power output on my radio and found the following:
4 watts on AM/FM and 8 watts on SSB when the radio was in STANDARD mode.
13 watts on AM/FM and 18 watts on SSB when the radio was in EXPORT mode.
Therefore when in STANDARD mode the radio is bang on with the power output on AM and FM but considerably short of the allowed 12 watts on SSB.
One other disappointing thing is that when in STANDARD mode and operating in the UK setting the radio will only do FM, there is no access to AM or SSB on the mid band frequencies. The mode switch is used to switch the radio between UK40 and EU40 and has no effect on the operating mode. I realise that the UK CB radio market may be small but you'd think that some 15 months after AM and SSB were legalised in the UK radio manufactures would accommodate this into their new radios.
CONCLUSION: I had really high hopes for this radio and had been looking forward to getting my hands on one but I have to say that I feel rather disappointed. Sure the radio LOOKS fantastic but the SSB problems are unforgivable on a 'top of the range' CB radio and the loose, wobbly controls have no place on a top of the range radio. The lack of AM and SSB in the UK mode is another serious omission for UK operators.
If this radio retailed for £149 some of these problems could be dismissed but when you are paying £249 you expect something special and I feel that this radio comes nowhere close to being special!
Having previously faced much criticism over problems with the Lincoln 2 and the Grant 2 I was expecting more from President this time around but sadly it looks like they haven't learnt from their mistakes.
The World first look at the President Jackson 2 Chrome Classic CB Radio!
President Jackson 2 CHROME - World's First Photos!
So the rumours appear to be correct (Someone did buy one!) and here we have it, the first pictures of an actual President Jackson 2 CHROME in the real world!
Looks like a lovely radio for sure and very difficult to get your hands on due to a limited supply.
Out of the box it has all the usual Multi EU bands with 4 watts AM/FM and 12 watts SSB, and can of course be set to EXPORT mode with a little extra output power.
It remains to be seen if this radio will become a truly 'classic' President. Only time will tell!
Small seems to be all the rage these days! This radio has been around for a while. Not as good looking as the Albrecht AE6110 in my opinion but still a nice little radio that manages to do what radios costing 5 times as much cannot - It gives you AM in UK mode!
3 October 2015
President Jackson 2 CHROME:
Nevada Starts A Price War? - £239
So it's started, first we had Knights pricing the President Jackson 2 Chrome at £249. Now we have Nevada firing the first shot with a price of £239 (Thats when they get them in stock of course, so you may need to wait). LINK: CLICK HERE
As I have already said on the blog, I had one of these radios in my hands last week and was tempted but the price put me off. It has not gone unnoticed that some 10 days after the radios became available a search of YouTube comes up with ZERO videos of this new radio. That suggests that I am not the only one who thinks the price is too high. Normally when a new radio comes out you find videos/reviews on YouTube within hours of the radio going on sale. Yes they are in limited supply but there are now plenty of radio dealers around Europe who have them in stock. You'd think that SOMEONE would have bought one a stuck it up on YouTube!
Maybe the well publicised problems with the President Grant 2 and President Lincoln 2 are still playing on peoples minds?
Poor band conditions no doubt have also had a part to play. It is understandable that when the radio is so quiet people don't feel like spending hard earned cash on new equipment.
So I wonder, which supplier (if any) will be the first to offer this radio at a price under £200?
The answer is - Probably none of them! But I'm sure that if it were to happen, this radio would sell really well!
