With the imminent release of the new President George II I'm sure there are many who wonder, "Should I buy one?"
It's always exciting when a new radio comes to market. We first heard about the George II on the blog back in April 2021, and in the following 28 months there has been much discussion about the radio.
What will it look like?
What features will it have?
How much will it cost?
Well we all know what it looks like, it actually looks very similar to the Grant II, indeed President could easily have called this new radio a Grant III. We also know all of the features on the radio, all the usual suspects along with the Noise Reduction Circuit which works so well on other radios. So everything is looking good.....
However, the price..... It appears that the radio may well be touching £300 if early pricing is to be believed. Now that is a lot of money for a legal radio especially when you consider the alternatives out there such as the CRT 6900, CRT 9900, Ares II, Superstar 3900 (2023) and the simply brilliant CRT 7900V.
The radio will have to be something really special to justify a £300 price tag that's for sure.
Now I know what some will be saying, you always pay more for President radios because they are built better, they are of a superior quality.
Well that was certainly true back in the day when President radios often did have the edge over competitors but I'm not altogether sure that is still the case.
Let me explain with a little personal history....
Back in 2014 I bought the President Grant II and the President Lincoln II.
The Grant II initially appeared to be a good little radio but many users including myself reported random 'blips' on the signal meter. When sitting on SSB the signal meter would occasionally spike up to S9 for no apparent reason. Not a major issue but certainly annoying. Users also reported that he radio seemed to pick up lots of electrical interference when the radio was used at home.
One other niggle was that the Grant II did not give access to AM and SSB when in the UK mode, users had to switch between UK and EU modes to use the now legal AM and SSB. This was a major omission and one which would be corrected in a an updated model a few months later, much to annoyance of those early adopters who were now stuck with a relatively sub-standard radio which was also worth a lot less on the secondhand market. The noise issues, however, remained. Thus another new version, the Grant II Premium, came along some time later.
Third time lucky? Well no! Many users still complained about a noisy receiver.
Myself, I bought the original Grant II and the newer version with AM and SSB in the UK mode, the later of which lasted about 8 months then suddenly developed a problem with the receive whereby the S meter was stuck permanently at S9. The radio was returned to the dealer for repair, who apparently sent it onto President, and after many weeks of waiting it came back covered in scratches and greasy fingermarks - The radio was promptly returned for a full refund!
My original Grant II carried on for a few years but then suffered from the common 'Boot problem' where the radio would not power on correctly. This was due to a fault on the ON/OFF/Volume switch. Numerous Grant II's ended up with this problem, enough for Knights Electrocom to stock replacement switches!
Now onto the President Lincoln II, again bought in 2014.
Well, where do I start?????
Dodgy channel change control which often skips channels, or doesn't work at all.
S-Meter: Jumps about like a mad Frenchman with frogs in his underpants! It never stood still, up and down all the time at random.
Noisy receiver: Every little crackle or electrical pop was amplified 10 times over, possibly the noisiest receiver ever found in a 10/11m radio.
Wobbly Knobs!!!! (Self explanatory)
These issues were considered so bad that President took the unprecedented decision to fix them at no cost. Users could send their radio to President's factory in France and they would carry out repairs. Admittedly, most people were very happy with the radio when they got them back from France but it was not the best experience to have when buying a new radio.
President Lincoln II v's Grant II
So you'd think that President would learn from their mistakes...
Well in 2015 I bought a shiny new President Jackson II Classic Limited Edition (That's a mouthful). A lovely looking radio, all chrome with an analogue S--Meter, very nice...
Until you switch it on!
WOBBLY KNOBS AGAIN!!!
The knobs were so loose they would wobble if a woodlice sneezed within 50 metres of the radio. The switches were not much better.
The receive was superb.... on AM and FM but switch to SSB and oh my lord.... It was a garbled mess especially on strong signals but even on lower signals. My radio was also off frequency by about 300Hz making it impossible to take part in a net where everyone else was on frequency and you sounded like Donald Duck on ACID!
The SSB on the Jackson II was poor!
So a few years go by and in 2019 there's a new President on the block.... The McKinley!
Lots of hype about this radio, will it be the one that puts President back on track?
To be fair, YES! The McKinley gets pretty favourable reports from many of its users. The radio performs well in most cases although the receive does sound a little noisy but not as bad as the Grant II or Lincoln II.
I bought one and I'm generally happy with the way it performs.
It does have some small niggles, the squelch is a bit 'poppy' and you sometimes get a 'clunk' when it kicks in. The auto-squelch is set far too high, often cutting out stations with signals up to S7.
So not perfect, but a step in the right direction.
Fast forward to 2023 and after 28 months of waiting the George II is almost in sight. Should I buy one? Should YOU buy one?
I think a lot of people will hesitate, maybe see reviews from early adopters, we've been caught out before with President. Can the George II outperform it's rivals?
Hopefully President with pull a rabbit out of the hat and give us a superb radio, one which works as it should, with a good receiver, one with controls that are tight, fitted well, and don't break...
Fingers crossed!
(Worryingly the ON/OFF/Volume knob on the George II looks identical to the one on the Grant II.....)
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