Pages

18 October 2016

Superstar 3900EU - Driftin' The Night Away?


So after many weeks of talk about the 'new' Ranger Superstar 3900EU and comments about poor frequency stability, technical reports produced etc, Simon The Wizard (Simonthewizard.com) took the plunge and bought the radio from the guys at Radiozing and this was what he had to say about the frequency stablity of his radio:



"Out of box:

27.415 USB and connected to a external counter it transmitted 27.411.2 

20 minutes later as warmed from cold delivery box 27.415 was 27.414.8 till move course a small percent off notched centre then read 0

Today, radio sat in room 24.2c and turned on from cold fresh start 27.415 was 27.413.6

20 minutes later with course a little off centre to the right its on 0

That's the initial try out"




So almost 4000Hz off frequency from cold - Oh dear, that is not good. Don't get me wrong, radios do need to warm up and most radios will 'drift' a little but I have a 35+ year old Cobra 148 which much more stable than this.

Indeed, one of the worst radios I've had recently was the Presdient Jackson 2 Chrome which was 300-400Hz off frequency and that was terrible to use with constant adjustments to the clarifier as the radio warmed up.

It really is a shame as the classic looks and simplicity of this radio appealed to many people but the Superstar 3900EU appears to have lived up to it's poor reputation on this occasion.

No comments:

Post a Comment