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Post by BBB on Dec 28, 2015 23:12:39 GMT -5
Santa brought a small delivery. An Anytone Smart CB Radio. This is an ultra compact AM/FM CB transceiver capable of some decent RF output. Small price too...59 bucks, plus you get 10 meters as a bonus  It goes on 11 meters with just a removal of a solder bridge. A few small adjustments of the AM power & AM modulation pots woke up this little radio that could. It utilizes a Fairchild FPQ13N10 as the final (capable of 65w on the data sheet; more like 30 watts in the real world) I set mine up to key at 4.5 watts and swings to 18w. It's all cast aluminum finned casing does get warm. Construction quality and functionality are on par with the other QiXiang factory commercial grade radios. This radio is a third the size of a Uniden 510 or a Cobra 19. Spitfire, maybe you could wedge one of these in the Zipper car   Quarter and red wire nut for size comparison:  |
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss 
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Post by Sandbagger on Dec 29, 2015 7:21:31 GMT -5
Santa brought a small delivery. An Anytone Smart CB Radio. This is an ultra compact AM/FM CB transceiver capable of some decent RF output. Small price too...59 bucks, plus you get 10 meters as a bonus It goes on 11 meters with just a removal of a solder bridge. A few small adjustments of the AM power & AM modulation pots woke up this little radio that could. It utilizes a Fairchild FPQ13N10 as the final (capable of 65w on the data sheet; more like 30 watts in the real world) I set mine up to key at 4.5 watts and swings to 18w. It's all cast aluminum finned casing does get warm. Construction quality and functionality are on par with the other QiXiang factory commercial grade radios. This radio is a third the size of a Uniden 510 or a Cobra 19. Spitfire, maybe you could wedge one of these in the Zipper car Quarter and red wire nut for size comparison: Nice little radio maybe slightly smaller than my TRC-479. What kind of dead key/max PEP power can you get from it? Will it support a 10 watt dead key (40 watt PEP)? |
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Post by cbrown on Dec 29, 2015 9:38:42 GMT -5
That is small! Maybe I can fit that into the Subaru. These small cars were not designed for additional equipment in the dash.
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Post by doctor on Dec 29, 2015 11:33:50 GMT -5
Where did you find it for 59 bucks, I came across some but $100, what model number is it, the UNCLE HO lists many units with different numbers.. DOCTOR/795  |
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Post by MonkeyMan on Dec 29, 2015 12:25:43 GMT -5
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Post by cbrown on Dec 30, 2015 10:15:42 GMT -5
Yep, same one I found. I'm pulling the trigger on it. |
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Post by BBB on Dec 30, 2015 17:00:42 GMT -5
The Anytone Smart radio is way smaller than the TRC479. It's freakishly small. There is a very similar radio, the Albrecht AE-6110. Mods for both radios should be identical. There is a guy across the pond who souped one up with a new channel selector in place of the original married mic cable and added an external 4 pin mic jack. He also added a fan and squeezed a few more watts out of it as seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcM2rEq9-GIHere is a very intensive test video of a stock unit with great insight on how a radio is supposed to perform on various test equipment. So go ahead and get your geek-on if you have the time: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRZ8_gCQ1T8Thank you "Simon the Wizard" for the photo of the locations for the AM/FM Power, AM Modulation and FM Deviation pots. These are very small and spin 360 degrees. I always mark the original adjustment position of pots with two dots using a fine point sharpie before I turn them You can see the pre-driver and the 13N10 final on the lower right corner. (The board in the Anytone is green compared to the red on the Albrecht 6110)  Here's the data sheet on the 13N10 MOSFET. Notice it doesn't say RF device, only a reference to use as an audio amplifier. I see also a reference to 65 watts max power dissipation. www.fairchildsemi.com/datasheets/FQ/FQP13N10.pdfNo one noticed the '70s Coke Can AM radio in my first photo  |
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Post by "Doc"Hammer on Dec 30, 2015 20:27:56 GMT -5
I've had mine about a month now.....Have used it in the truck till I got my regular rig installed...This radio screams! I converted mine and tuned it a bit,,3 watt dead key yeilds about 15-18 PEP...The reciever is pretty good too! Slick little rig.  |
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Post by MonkeyMan on Dec 30, 2015 20:39:17 GMT -5
Wish I had come across this before I bought the Pro520.  |
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Post by BBB on Jan 1, 2016 11:00:08 GMT -5
I've had mine about a month now.....Have used it in the truck till I got my regular rig installed...This radio screams! I converted mine and tuned it a bit,,3 watt dead key yeilds about 15-18 PEP...The reciever is pretty good too! Slick little rig. (OP1 & OP2 are just silk screen markings of the two solder bridge areas on the main board for those concerned) Doc, Did you just unsolder the bridge on OP2? That's what I did but there seems to be some interweb consensus that if you then solder bridge OP1, you get an 8 watt dead key or high power mode (allowable in some of the other countries) Mine had no tamper-resistant sticker. Did yours? |
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Post by BBB on Jan 1, 2016 12:19:45 GMT -5
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
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Post by Sandbagger on Jan 1, 2016 14:29:21 GMT -5
Clearly, this radio is being sold as a "CB" radio, but none of the advertised modes give it frequencies anywhere near the 10 meter band, or even allow manual selection of AM mode for channels above 40. I'm sure there are other modes that the radio can be modded to do. A completely unlocked mode that covers the whole band would be nice. But even absent that, that radio seems to perform well for its size. I'd love to see how well the auto squelch works and whether it's truly a noise gate type of squelch or just a fixed level carrier squelch (like the Uniden HR2510). |
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Post by doctor on Jan 1, 2016 17:48:17 GMT -5
TO bad it doesn't have the offset for 10 meter fm, it would be a inexpensive radio for 10 meter repeaters. DOCTOR/795 |
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
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Post by Sandbagger on Jan 2, 2016 20:01:28 GMT -5
TO bad it doesn't have the offset for 10 meter fm, it would be a inexpensive radio for 10 meter repeaters. DOCTOR/795 Well, if the radio were truly designed and intended for 10 meter ham use, it would probably have that feature, CTCSS, and a frequency readout rather than a channelized display. But this is a European designed CB radio, that importers are trying to get around import restrictions in the USA by claiming it's a "10 meter radio". |
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Post by BBB on Jan 3, 2016 10:57:28 GMT -5
Never really been much of a squelch user in the past, but lately I find myself multitasking in the shack with up to 4 transceivers running at times. I noticed the auto squelch on the Smart radio to work very well, more like a noise gate than the carrier style and no "thunk" when it switches in and out.
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Jan 3, 2016 14:22:36 GMT -5
Never really been much of a squelch user in the past, but lately I find myself multitasking in the shack with up to 4 transceivers running at times. I noticed the auto squelch on the Smart radio to work very well, more like a noise gate than the carrier style and no "thunk" when it switches in and out. Something like that would almost make me want to pick up one. I place far more emphasis on quality receive performance than in transmit power. |
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Post by "Doc"Hammer on Jan 3, 2016 18:42:46 GMT -5
I've had mine about a month now.....Have used it in the truck till I got my regular rig installed...This radio screams! I converted mine and tuned it a bit,,3 watt dead key yeilds about 15-18 PEP...The reciever is pretty good too! Slick little rig. (OP1 & OP2 are just silk screen markings of the two solder bridge areas on the main board for those concerned) Doc, Did you just unsolder the bridge on OP2? That's what I did but there seems to be some interweb consensus that if you then solder bridge OP1, you get an 8 watt dead key or high power mode (allowable in some of the other countries) Mine had no tamper-resistant sticker. Did yours? When I got the radio, (I got it from another individual rather than Amazon...but it was new in the box.) it was locked in 10 meter mode- 28.005-28.655 or thereabouts. He had purchased it thinking it was a CB. He obviously didn't know how to convert it..I was somewhat familiar with the model having read up on it after seeing a similer rig. I got it pretty cheap because of his ignorance of the features..(shame on me).. If I remember right, I soldered the bridge on Op2 to get 11 meters...but my rig does multi-band, but not multi-standard...ie: Each "band" is 40 channels, denoted by a 2 letter designation when you turn on the radio..Mine has no HI setting, at least no that I've discovered..I think its one of the early production rigs. I can turn it up to 6 or 7 watts dead key, but it swings better and talks better at 3 or 4 watts...its a powerful little devil and can easily hit 15 to 18 watts peak and the audio has a great punch too....to be honest, i got it talking great, buttoned it up and have been using it without any further experiments...No tamper resistant sticker on mine...I do like the thing though, it works great in my truck...thinking of leaving it in there for awhile...I do like the squelch feature."Set it and forget it"..especially in the truck.. |
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Post by doctor on Jan 4, 2016 18:53:06 GMT -5
I saw where a chap had wired a switch in his so he could operate either 10 or 11 meters, plenty of stuff you can do with this radio....UNCLE HO has a good one this time.
DOCTOR/795
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Jan 4, 2016 19:49:09 GMT -5
I saw where a chap had wired a switch in his so he could operate either 10 or 11 meters, plenty of stuff you can do with this radio....UNCLE HO has a good one this time. DOCTOR/795 It's nice when you can modify radios to do what you need. The FCC takes a dim view of this of course, but that fact never stopped anyone before.....  |
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Post by "Doc"Hammer on Jan 9, 2016 21:04:27 GMT -5
Hey Sparky, One thing I noticed here in the last few days with the outside temps in the 0-10 above range...the display on the radio doesn't like cold temps below 20 degrees....the right digit fades or disappears until the radio gets warm or the cab temp of the truck rises...radio functionally seems unaffected, but the display fades...just a little quirk I've discovered...
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Jan 11, 2016 7:32:42 GMT -5
Hey Sparky, One thing I noticed here in the last few days with the outside temps in the 0-10 above range...the display on the radio doesn't like cold temps below 20 degrees....the right digit fades or disappears until the radio gets warm or the cab temp of the truck rises...radio functionally seems unaffected, but the display fades...just a little quirk I've discovered... I had a similar problem with my HR-2510 in very cold temperatures. I think that's a common issue with LCD screens. |
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Post by grapeape on Feb 4, 2016 0:19:40 GMT -5
This is a badass lil rig. I have the 2 meter brother for "murs". This would go perfect in my '23 T-Bucket. I have an vintage SBE Brute 23 that was going in. Looks like Im saving my pennies once again.
One thing nice about the SBE channel selector though... The numbers on the spin dial dont fade in cold weather lol
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It goes on 11 meters with just a removal of a solder bridge. A few small adjustments of the AM power & AM modulation pots woke up this little radio that could. It utilizes a Fairchild FPQ13N10 as the final (capable of 65w on the data sheet; more like 30 watts in the real world) I set mine up to key at 4.5 watts and swings to 18w. It's all cast aluminum finned casing does get warm. Construction quality and functionality are on par with the other QiXiang factory commercial grade radios.
