Which of these two Radio 's would you chose

[InTheClouds]

Do not worry about Ch25, he is just a grumpy forum member. Go for any Sirio Antenna, even the 1/2 wave GPA will be ok. The 5/8 wave with radials may or may not work better depending on how high you are mounting it. He is grumpy, short answers, has fixed opinions that never vary, at least there is that consistency. By his account of the radios... some people are managing to speak 10,000 miles+ with their "illness" radios.

Both of the radios shown are ok actually. I have used the DR-135 in the past and I totally blew away any DX I had made on some old multi mode Cobra 30+ years ago. So what ch25 says is not the final word.

When it comes to radio, it is rarely either the radio or the antenna that is the limiting factor.

Your biggest potential problem is received noise floor. This is your one major issue... noise is the local random noises (typically hiss and crackles/buzz) from man made domestic and industrial sources. On a CB/multimode radio we have an S meter. It shows S 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9... if you turn on a radio and you see for example S5 constantly lit that means any station you RX will need to have a higher signal than that. S5 is a disaster really for anyone serious about radio. Some have S7 or even S9 it makes radio not even worth bothering with.

Yes you will receive some summer skip at above even S9 but it is not a enjoyable hobby waiting for that.

If you want local chat then you need a vertical (as everyone else will be vertical locally) Between a vertical TX and horizontal RX antenna there can be 20dB difference or more in polarization losses. For DX, as in speaking to Europe and globally (potentially) I would use a horizontal dipole antenna strung up as high as possible. A horizontal will be good for DX (in 2 directions at least) as once the radio waves hit the ionosphere above they get split into 2, refract and recombine and come down in neither horizontal or vertical polarization so it will not matter that your antenna is horizontal for this type of radio work.

The more details about what you want to achieve the better we can advise. On the face of it you need any Sirio vertical 1/2 wave or 5/8 wave as high as you can get it if you wish to speak 28 miles. If you have a high noise floor that may still be a challenge depending if your or your family are on elevated land or not (hills) and any obstacles between you.

Any decent set up antenna and any decent radio will not be the limiting factor for your fun. Your received noise floor will.

[Mudslinger]

Personally I am not a fan of either radio. They work well enough, but build and reliability are not great.

I have had a couple of the CRE/DR135/DX10 radios and have had issues with the displays failing. If I had to I would go with the older model (6900/5000/5555 etc)

There is a good reason why older radios, especially uniden SSB stuff is so sought after.

As for antenna, either the Sirio GPS 1/2 wave or GRE 5/8 are much better built and perform better than the Venom/Sigma/scorpion generic types which are made from bacofoil and have a rubbish matching coil; arrangement.

[InTheClouds]

Give me a brand new radio by CRT or Alinco any day of the week. Only high RX noise is more annoying that being told, you are off frequency mate, your audio is scratchy, you sound distorted, why can I not get a full 12 Watts out etc. etc. old radios can be a lot of trouble that no one really needs.

Instead of some old out of tune, dried out electrolytic caps, dust box that every Tom **** and Harry non tech has been fiddling with. I am fairly sure rig doctors love to keep the old junk going because the surface mount technology (miniaturization of components) means they cannot charge people for repairs.. of which old radios will need many.

Ok if you are full on retro head with money to burn yes it could be fun but for chatting to the family go new. How much is a tune up ? More than £30.00 would not be sensible when a new and decent radio is just over £200.00

Maybe a CRT 9900, slightly more complicated radio for a beginner but something to learn and grow into learn it well and be done with... absolutely nothing wrong with that radio, this German tech proves it, noise spurious and harmonics all fine, run that at 1/2 power and it will be fine even on FM without a fan. Just over £200.00 a bargain !

[Air]

Thanks @ch25
I already looked for the Jackson, I like that you could access all
the controls without menu hopping, would be nice to find one.

I will look at the SS3900 too, was looking at the 7900, its getting old though,
what do you or anyone else think of it, reviews give it a pass mark in that its
on frequency, and has most options available from button presses.

I looked up the Antennae you mentioned, not overly priced, will keep them in
mind, I see you can get a plastic reinforcer to help keep the ground plane twigs
together.

[Air]

Give me a brand new radio by CRT or Alinco any day of the week. Only high RX noise is more annoying that being told, you are off frequency mate, your audio is scratchy, you sound distorted, why can I not get a full 12 Watts out etc. etc. old radios can be a lot of trouble that no one really needs.

Instead of some old out of tune, dried out electrolytic caps, dust box that every Tom **** and Harry non tech has been fiddling with. I am fairly sure rig doctors love to keep the old junk going because the surface mount technology (miniaturization of components) means they cannot charge people for repairs.. of which old radios will need many.

Ok if you are full on retro head with money to burn yes it could be fun but for chatting to the family go new. How much is a tune up ? More than £30.00 would not be sensible when a new and decent radio is just over £200.00

Maybe a CRT 9900, slightly more complicated radio for a beginner but something to learn and grow into learn it well and be done with... absolutely nothing wrong with that radio, this German tech proves it, noise spurious and harmonics all fine, run that at 1/2 power and it will be fine even on FM without a fan. Just over £200.00 a bargain !

Would you go for the 9900 which is older, or the new KPO 5000 Plus and it
variants, which has some newer components, like those power transistors are upgraded,
or are the power transistors on the 9900 the same, I see a lot of mention on the tube from
US people about how much better the new / latest KPO 5000 plus is.

Thanks for posing

[Air]

Personally I am not a fan of either radio. They work well enough, but build and reliability are not great.

I have had a couple of the CRE/DR135/DX10 radios and have had issues with the displays failing. If I had to I would go with the older model (6900/5000/5555 etc)

There is a good reason why older radios, especially uniden SSB stuff is so sought after.

As for antenna, either the Sirio GPS 1/2 wave or GRE 5/8 are much better built and perform better than the Venom/Sigma/scorpion generic types which are made from bacofoil and have a rubbish matching coil; arrangement.

Thanks for posting. Were the screen issues with the DX 5000 or the newer DX 5000 plus.

[Air]

Do not worry about Ch25, he is just a grumpy forum member. Go for any Sirio Antenna, even the 1/2 wave GPA will be ok. The 5/8 wave with radials may or may not work better depending on how high you are mounting it. He is grumpy, short answers, has fixed opinions that never vary, at least there is that consistency. By his account of the radios... some people are managing to speak 10,000 miles+ with their "illness" radios.

Both of the radios shown are ok actually. I have used the DR-135 in the past and I totally blew away any DX I had made on some old multi mode Cobra 30+ years ago. So what ch25 says is not the final word.

When it comes to radio, it is rarely either the radio or the antenna that is the limiting factor.

Your biggest potential problem is received noise floor. This is your one major issue... noise is the local random noises (typically hiss and crackles/buzz) from man made domestic and industrial sources. On a CB/multimode radio we have an S meter. It shows S 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9... if you turn on a radio and you see for example S5 constantly lit that means any station you RX will need to have a higher signal than that. S5 is a disaster really for anyone serious about radio. Some have S7 or even S9 it makes radio not even worth bothering with.

Yes you will receive some summer skip at above even S9 but it is not a enjoyable hobby waiting for that.

If you want local chat then you need a vertical (as everyone else will be vertical locally) Between a vertical TX and horizontal RX antenna there can be 20dB difference or more in polarization losses. For DX, as in speaking to Europe and globally (potentially) I would use a horizontal dipole antenna strung up as high as possible. A horizontal will be good for DX (in 2 directions at least) as once the radio waves hit the ionosphere above they get split into 2, refract and recombine and come down in neither horizontal or vertical polarization so it will not matter that your antenna is horizontal for this type of radio work.

The more details about what you want to achieve the better we can advise. On the face of it you need any Sirio vertical 1/2 wave or 5/8 wave as high as you can get it if you wish to speak 28 miles. If you have a high noise floor that may still be a challenge depending if your or your family are on elevated land or not (hills) and any obstacles between you.

Any decent set up antenna and any decent radio will not be the limiting factor for your fun. Your received noise floor will.

Thanks for posting, lots of information here for me to chew on.
I was looking at the Strykers, but they seem to have the same board as some of
the cheaper sets, like the KPO 5000 Plus model, and there is crazy difference in the price.

My immediate need is to have an emergency communication channel to my family, 28 miles away,
there are hills, and we are not on the hills, I do not know anyone who has a CB in my area or where
my family live, so its going to be a gamble I have to take, I assume there is no repeaters for SSB,
so I can not trace my signal to a point and set up a repeater either.

But I still want to dip my toe in the water and see who is around, so I need a radio to do
some fishing.

[Air]

Give me a brand new radio by CRT or Alinco any day of the week. Only high RX noise is more annoying that being told, you are off frequency mate, your audio is scratchy, you sound distorted, why can I not get a full 12 Watts out etc. etc. old radios can be a lot of trouble that no one really needs.

Instead of some old out of tune, dried out electrolytic caps, dust box that every Tom **** and Harry non tech has been fiddling with. I am fairly sure rig doctors love to keep the old junk going because the surface mount technology (miniaturization of components) means they cannot charge people for repairs.. of which old radios will need many.

Ok if you are full on retro head with money to burn yes it could be fun but for chatting to the family go new. How much is a tune up ? More than £30.00 would not be sensible when a new and decent radio is just over £200.00

Maybe a CRT 9900, slightly more complicated radio for a beginner but something to learn and grow into learn it well and be done with... absolutely nothing wrong with that radio, this German tech proves it, noise spurious and harmonics all fine, run that at 1/2 power and it will be fine even on FM without a fan. Just over £200.00 a bargain !

Would you go for the 9900 which is older, or the new KPO 5000 Plus and its
variants, which has some newer components, like those power transistors are upgraded,
or are the power transistors on the 9900 the same, I see a lot of mention on the tube from
US people about how much better the new / latest KPO 5000 plus is.

If I picked up what the German tester said, the 9900 has some hearing loss / RX losses,
but at the same time it has a good noise floor, and is quite sensitive, so could in fact
bring in similar signals to a radio with a better RX ability and a slightly worse noise floor.
So all in, its not a bad set.
The 9900 is also more expensive than the new KPO 5000 Plus, is it worth it.

Thanks for posing

[Mudslinger]

[/quote]
Thanks for posting. Were the screen issues with the DX 5000 or the newer DX 5000 plus.
[/quote]

The first was an alinco DR135, the second a CRE8900

They are basically the same radio.

[InTheClouds]

I can only comment on radios I have experience of. 9900 is a decent radio for the money. No idea about transistor upgrades etc. sorry. All you need to concern about is getting 2 verticals up as high as possible one for each station and hope for the best.

Probably the more reliable method would be 2 horizontal antennas (I forgot to mention this) Horizontal antennas tend to pick up less local noise
than vertical antennas. Quite possibly 2-3 S points difference. So an S5 of noise on a vertical might be an S2 on a horizontal. However this will be much less good for hearing other local CB people as they are vertical.

You would also have to orient the horizontal antennas so they effectively parallel and in the TX/RX lobe of a horizontal dipole.

Imagine the black line is your horizontal dipole above ground below... most energy is radiated towards the 0 and 180 polar positions, thus why both
stations antennas should run parallel for greatest chance of contact. The good thing with this is both stations would jhave lower RX noise than a vertical likely has.. so greater chance to make the contacts. However.....

Horizontal dipoles do have some down sides..things to consider would be the space situation at each house, how would you hold them up, they are typically fed in the middle, fibre glass poles are commonly used but the tops can bend a lot meaning you often cannot use the top 3 sections of the mast as they bend in too much with typically antenna wire. Pros and cons.



It is a shame you could borrow some kit for a while first. You have to suck it and see and try and adapt, best part of €600 to invest
to try. 28 miles is quite a distance without someone being on a hill. There are certainly no guarantees it will work.

[Air]

Thanks for posting. Were the screen issues with the DX 5000 or the newer DX 5000 plus.
[/quote]

The first was an alinco DR135, the second a CRE8900

They are basically the same radio.
[/quote]
Thanks for clarifying this, the newer versions may be better, or not.
I think how production volumes are so high there has to be the odd
break down no matter who the manufacturer is, I notice the numbers
have crept up since Covid19 messed things up, lots of people pushed
to do jobs they are not properly or trained at all to do just to keep the
boat afloat. Not a good time to be buying anything in that regard.

[Air]

Thanks @InTheClouds, good information there.
If only I had not sold my forklift, 5meter Mast, then put another 6Mtrs
of tubing on that plus the antennae, and it was battery operated which
gave me power for weeks on end, a guy building a house that bled no
heat, they have a name, passive I think, very low energy input, bought it off
me as a backup, the batteries were solar and wind charged, huge 480 Ah at 48 volts
if I remember.

Living and learning.

[InTheClouds]

I have no idea what any of that meant but anyway you have enough to be getting on with.

If you need 2 radios and 2 antennas (one for each station) you could buy one radio and 1 antenna
first and use that set up to test for noise at both house locations with verticals. If you get unlucky,
and people do you might have S9 of noise at one or both ends then you are screwed.

At least you only bought one set up.

If you are rural then noise will quite possibly be lower, in an urban environment you might have a higher chance
of someone having an offending item of equipment spewing out noise over a wide range of frequencies. Like poor
quality switched mode power supplies etc. Not fun to hunt down and have a diplomatic chat about for most people.

Good luck.

[Air]

I have no idea what any of that meant but anyway you have enough to be getting on with.

[Air]

I think am going to go with one of the following, as mentioned, buy one first
and see how it goes rather than ending up with two sets that don't work for
my situation.
CRT SS9900 Version 4 or CRT SS7900 that goes down to 25.??? Mhz.

I can't see the point in having to jump through menu settings to
adjust the newest hot feature on the KPO DX5000, the noise reduction
takes too many steps to get to, and its likely something that will be used
often, if they put a separate button for it, then I would go for that.

Trying to get a power supply is my next step.