President Lincoln II + Review Part 1

Video:YouTube/M0OGY

So here it is, Part 1 of Dave's review of the latest version of the Lincoln 2. As you will be aware previous versions have been plagued with faults so it will be interesting to see if President have finally sorted out this radio.

This is the first part of Dave's review and more videos will follow in due course.

One thing I noticed on Dave's video was the missing resistor(Seen on Simon The Wizards radio) which is in the same place as the white wire on previous versions which you cut to allow export mode! Dave's radio doesn't appear to be in export mode at the moment so I'm guessing that once the resistor is removed you may need to enable expanded frequency coverage via the software.... 

... OR Maybe the resistor on STW's radio has actually been added and is required for export?

NEW President Lincoln 2+

So the revisions to President radios continue. Following on from several revisions of the poorly received Grant 2 and previous revisions of the disastrous Lincoln 2, President have now modified the Lincoln 2 once more and we have the Lincoln 2+

So what's different this time?

Not a great deal by the look of it, a few adjustments to the way the controls work to make them a little more responsive and the Channel 19/9 has been replaced with a EMG 1/2 button which does exactly the same thing!

The internals look almost exactly the same, so not much to see there.

    (Click to enlarge) - Images:Neuner and SimonTheWizard

One welcome change is an expanded frequency coverage. This new version covers from 24.800 to 29.700 giving access to the 12m band if you have the licence to use it. 

    (Click to enlarge)

Simon The Wizard has seen the radio and reports that the receive is improved on previous version(LINK). This is good news but I'm sure many people will be thinking "I've heard all that before" with the Grant 2, Grant 2 Premium, Grant 2 Premium Low Noise Version which all promised much improved receive but for many just simply failed to deliver. 

Most of the 'problems' with President radios recently could have been avoided if they had just taken the time to get the radios right first time round. Many of the complaints are quality control issues and are quite frankly unforgivable.

So having owned 2 x President Grant 2's (One of which broke, went back for a repair then back again for a refund), a President Lincoln 2 (Which had to go on its holidays to France to have multiple issues resolved) and a President Jackson 2 Chrome(Which went back for a refund due to the god awful SSB and wobbly controls), would I want to spend more money on yet another President radio???????

Simple answer - NO!

Anyway you can see this latest revision on the President website: LINK or take a look at Simon's Blog for more photos/videos: LINK

Blast From The Past - Realistic TRC2001

The Realistic TRC2001 was a basic 40 channel UKFM radio with 4 watts output(Specs say 3!!!). It also had the -10db power reduction switch which was a legal requirement at the time.

Specifications:

You can see this little radio 'in action' by looking at this YouTube video by icomman:

https://youtu.be/RPkqulJRQe0?t=5m10s

(The Audioline 341 is also featured earlier in this video if you'd like to look at it)

CB Radio: German Duplex Repeater

I've often heard a duplex repeater on channel 40 on the mid band (27.405) and wondered where it was located. With thanks to Reiner who spoke to me on-air via some amazing propagation, I find that this repeater is located 805m above sea level near Ochsenwang (QTH locator JN46RN) in Southern Germany.

Currently the repeater is using a fully legal Midland Alan 48 radio with 4 watts output. The transmitting antenna is a Sirio 827 with the receiving antenna being a Sirio Super 12.

Being a duplex repeater you need to transmit on an input frequency and listen on the output frequency. 

The input frequency is 26.565Mhz with the output being on 27.405Mhz. Please note that the input frequency is not legal in the UK and many other parts of the world but is legal in Germany being on their channel 41.

So why not take a listen when the conditions are right?

If you do decide to use the repeater please make sure you operate in a responsible manner and remember that this repeater was set up to improve local comms in a mountainous area and priority should always be given to local stations. 

The repeater group also has a Facebook page which you can see here: LINK (Closed group, you will have to ask for permission to join)

Is My CB Radio Off Frequency?

Video:YouTube/Ringway Manchester

Take a look at this video, does the Midland 78 Plus have a problem?

My thoughts are that the Midland is working fine and the problem is actually with the male trasmitting station who is probably overdriving the audio on his radio or maybe is using an older CB or some HAM radio equipment set on 'WIDE FM'. The female station sounds fine.

Modern 'legal' CB radios have very tightly controlled specifications and the receive on these radios is very narrow. Anyone using older CB radios or incorrectly set HAM radios would sound distorted as shown on the video. If someone is using a HAM radio they should of course have it set to NARROW FM, wide FM just splatters over several channels and sounds awful.

But what are your thoughts? Please add comments to the discusion on YouTube!

Magnum 1 - 11 Meters RX

Video: YouTube/M0OGY

In the third part of his review, Dave tries the Magnum 1 on 11m RX.

The radio certainly appears to receive very well, certainly a lot better than some of the other radios which have become available recently. 

I think this radio could do well depending on the price....! 

First Radios Appear on President USA Website

So after a bit of a wait the first radios have made an appearance on the President USA website.

Nothing exciting, just 2 x AM only Radios. They are obviously playing it very safe at the moment. We have the Johnson 2 USA and the Johnny 3 USA.

JOHNSON 2 USA: CLICK

JOHNNY 3 USA: CLICK

So what will be the first SSB radio? Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it will have to be much better than the offerings we have over here in Europe unless they want to kill off their US business before it even gets going!

New Year Propagation - 47H1 - Denmark