President_HR-2600_review_1990.pdf

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1、Number14onyourFeedback card 73Review byMarc StemWAIR UnidenHR-2600 A beautyofamobile rig! Uniden Corp. of America 4700 Amon Carter Blvd. Ft. Worth TX 76155 (817) 858-3300 Price Class: $490 Table 1. UnidensChanges HR2600Change placed the 2510, and again, unless you left theAllcentered, you never real

2、ly knew where you were. There was also no indica- tion that the arr was engaged at all times. Several modifications were published toget around this problem, and Uniden responded. Theaddition of theRITON/OFFswitch. in place of the PA switch, is an excellent change. The frequency display remainsthe s

3、ame when the PHis engaged, but you must physically en- gage theAITcontrol before it is activated. Thinkabout what thisseeminglysmall change means. How many times do youthink the owner of anolderHR-2510 went to answer aco.onlyto findthattheAIThad left the receive 2 kHz off the transmit frequency? Sit

4、uations like this can be frustrating, espe- cially if youre notquickon thetune,so to speak. And, with 3 kHz bandwidth, it could become more than a little annoying on CW where most rigs use an 800 Hz or so offset. You could easily tune right through a CW sig- nal and you never really could zero beat

5、it easily. -Pubnc address: When the HR-2510 debuted, it had a public address capability. Iguess you can tell its heritage, as moslll-meter rigs have that function, too (why, I can only guess).On the HR-2600,the PA function has been eliminated in favor of a real nrr switch. Now, however, theRITis def

6、eat- able-youcan use theVFOto tune critically, and then use theAITto fine-tune after youve homed in. You can really zero beat signals now. However, the display still re- mains the same: theres no indica- tion01received frequency change. -Repeater splits: When the HR-2510 was in- troduced, it was lou

7、dly applaudedlor its stan- dard FM, but more than one writer/observer Channelized operation: When the HR-2510 debuted, it was immedi- ately apparent that it came from a world of channelized operation. Frankly, it waslittlemore than an 11meter rig with alewchanges. Granted,theywerenecessary cnanqes-c

8、err. FM, CW and the like-butbasically, the HR-2510 was still a converted CB rig. Because the heart of the circuitry was originally aCBradio, it is easy to see why the orientation of the HR-2510 is toward 10 kHz channel spacing. CB is limited to 40 chan- nels on11meters with an arbitrary 10 kHz spaci

9、ng. Thus, when you tune the HR-2510 with either the buttons of the up/down, standard mike or with the up/down keys on the front of the rig, you find it tunes through 50channels that are evenly spaced every 10kHz.TheVFOdial is the only control that will tune in any way other than 10 kHz steps. The la

10、ck ofcontinuous tuning with either the push-buttons on the front of the rig, or on the mike,made using the HR-2510 lessthan easy, especially for mobile operation. The HR-2600 fixes this problem by allowing continuous tun- ing with either the mike push-buttons or the up/down buttons on the front of t

11、he rig. Again, this feature was sought alter by HR-2510 users, as fixes for it were published soon after the older rig was introduced. Note, by the way,that Uniden still slices the 10 meter band into four band segments: 28.000-28.499,28.500-28.999,29.000- 24.999, and 29.500-29.699. Icantfathom the r

12、easoning behind this breakdown,except that the band segments do coincide with the Novice-Tech segment (28.000-28.499), inter- national SSB window (28.500-28.999), satel- lite links and AM (29.000-29.499), and the FM/repeater window (29.500-29.699). AIT can be disabled 10kHz channels gone: continuous

13、 tune RPTbutton added ClCSStones added Beep gone PA eliminated No transmit beep Repeater splits CTCSStones No PAfunction RilcontrOl/switch No channelized operation The Uniden HR-2600. 1.Transmit beep 2.Public address (PAlfunction 3. Conslant RIT 4.Channelized operalion; 10 kHz Channels 5. No repeate

14、r splits 6. No CTCSS lones HR-2510 su rcontrolswitch:WhentheHR2510 debuted it was equipped with acontinuously- tuned Receiver Incremental Tuning (Rtl)cir- cuit. The only problem was that unless you leftit centered all the time,youcouldnt really tell what the receive frequency was. There was also no

15、indication of just how far away from your operating frequency theAIThad 3273AmateurRadio _March, 1990 Major Changes Table 1 shows what has been added to or eliminated from the HR2510 to makethe HR-2600. Lets look at each change briefly. Transmit beep: When the HR-2510 was first introduced it initiat

16、ed a telltale annoying transmit beep whenever the beep bulton was pushed. Iguess it was Unidenawayo/trying to indicate anover signal for phone ops. This feature has been replaced on the 2600 by the repeater offset function. W e have an amazing hobby. Every new contact is as ex- citing as the first,

17、no matter how long ago that was. Take 10 meters, for instance. Just the other day 10 was open asIcruised along a road near my house. As I tuned around on my 10-meter rig I heard Cyprus, Malta, and Ireland. Not beingoneto let an opportunity go, I called each station, and what do you know! They came b

18、ack to me: Cyprus on the first call, Ireland on the first call, and Malta on the third. The amazing thing is that it was all done with 25 watts fromUnidens modest power level transceiver, the HR-2600, into a base-loaded, mag-mounted mo- bile antenna (Wilsons 1000). The HR-2600 looks the same as itsp

19、redecessor,theHR-2510. About the only way you can tell them apart is the HR2510 label on the older model and theRPTsetting on the front panel of the HR-2600. Thats it. What are the improvements on the 2510? Read on to find out! Table 2. HR-2600Specifications -CTCSS Tones: When the HR-2510 was intro-

20、 duceditlackedCTeSStones, a leature many repeater operators have implemented. Given the crowded stateof10 meter repeater pairsandthefactthatat thisstageof the sunspot cycle communications is world- wide, repeater operators have opted to use CTCSS tones to help keep their repeaters quiet. A 10 meter

21、repeater near my home uses CTeSS,and implementing this option opened up a new worldofoperating for me. And it was 3473AmaleurRadio -March,1990 also noted the lack01 repeater offsets . To operate on repeaters, if they werenttone accessed to begin with, meant that you had to transmit on the input freq

22、uency, thentum the VFOdiat until you were on the repeaters receive frequency.Oryoucould set the SPAN control-thecontrol which tells the HR25101 2600 series the tuning rate (100 Hz, 1 kHzor 10kHz-andthen hit the up button on the mike or front panel 10 times. Either way, it was awkward.TheHR2600 fixes

23、 that with built-in repeater splits.Usingtheformer beep button location, Uniden has implement ed standard100kHzsplits forrepeater work, making the HR-2600 a pleasure touseon repeaters. Marc Stem N1BLHis afrequent contributor to 73 Magazine.Contact him at555Worcester Rd.,Framingham MA 01701. Document

24、ation Thedocumentationhasdrasticallyim- proved. The manufacturer is actually begin- ning to understand that our market is dilferent from the general consumer market, and they haveincluded schematics. True, they are small, and in somecases you need a magnifi er to trace a line or signal, but its a st

25、art. Another feature has remained the same but is still welcome; the large, finned heat sink.II looks like it could handle more than 25walls, but Im happy with the output. When 10s ccen. thetsall you need. Im also pleased withuntcenerealization that thePresidentseries (the other name forthe 25101260

26、0) was too easily modified by the freebanders that operate on 10.5 me- ters, andbyotheroperators whowanted to operateon11.5 meters, wheretheseries could also tune. To cope with the problem, Uniden has potted up the areasyou needto adjust, and hasputwarning signs all over the interior. Theresalso a w

27、arning in the manual that makes it clearthatUniden willtumover the name of any person modifying the Presi- dent tooperate outside its authorized band. The warning, a large insert in thedocumenta- tion, easily falls out on the table as you un- pack, and its a color youcantmiss. Two features that have

28、 remained the same, which I really dontcare for, are the accessory plug and the power jack. Uniden uses a 9-pin MOlexntstyte connector forsuch functions as CW, external speaker, and internal speaker. The method of hookup is about as kludgey as anything Ive ever experienced. For exam- ple, imagine ho

29、oking up your CW key with a Molex-styleconnector withtwowires just sort ofdrooping into the connector. Aesthetics aside(it looks tacky), it doesnt make sense. Whythe manufacturer didntinclude minia- ture jacks for the CW key and external speak. er (or phones; it really doesnt matter) is be- yond me.

30、 There are just too many little pieces of wire hanging off a single, plasticconnector. Itreally isntconvenient to use, especially when you consider that it locks into place and you have 1 0 literally pry it apart 1 0 change back to the standardconfiguration which fea- tures the internal speaker jump

31、ered to work. The powerconnector seems like a least-cost option, and wouldbeimproved by a better. more secure connector. Still, the last lwo points are minor, especial- ly if you intend to use the HR-2600 mainly for mobile phone use. In this role it shinesbright- ly.I like it and it has joined my st

32、able of mobile rigs.F.IJ One feature I like is theSPANcontrol. With a flickofthe push-button, you can change the tuning rate from10 kHz to 1 kHz-1oo Hz. This rate takes effect on theVFO.You can easilyasyup 5 by pushing theSPANbutton so that the small line that appears is under the100kHz place on the

33、 frequency readout. After that it just takesnveclicksofthe up button. easy to do! Ijustfol- lowed the clearly writ- ten instructions in the manual andflipped a couple of DIP switches. Suddenly, where Iused tobelimited to listening passivelytothere- peater,lcould access it and useit.The CTCSS tones m

34、adea BIG im- provement. Essentially, the rest of the 25 watt rig has remained unchanged. It is still a multimode rig that puts out 25 watts onCWand25walls PEP on SSB. When you run AM or FM, theout- put is 10 walls nominal. The Good, the Bad, andthe Ugly IIyou look closely at thespecs(Table2), youll

35、see that the HR- 2600 is a very capable rig.Theworst caseof sensitivityis 0.5IJV, whichiswithinthe realmofother rigsof thistypeand, in fact, within the realm of just about everyrigon the market.With0.25IJV sensitivity on CW and SSB, the HR-2600 is just about as sensitive asanyrigI own, al- thoughlig

36、uresin the 0.15rangeare also common intheHF world. Still, were talking aboutorders of mag- nitude inprice and selectivity. Thats right, selectivity. The more sensitive arig gets,the more selective it has to become, and the HR-2600 cant seem to cope with sev erar signals in the tuning passband. It tr

37、ies to hear allofthem at once and it begins to ring a little. However, when I put my Autek audio fillerinfrontofthe speaker, the problem clearedupand I was easily able to pick out signals. Overall, Iwasquitepleasedwiththe HR2600. I received audio reports that were uniformlygood,andsignal reports tha

38、tposi- tively astounded me (worst case 5 and 4, which isnt bad fora 25 walt rig and a wildly swaying 6O-inchWhip). As Inoted,the addition ofthe repeater splits, CTCSS, and a switch to disable the RIT, were also godsends. They addedgreatlytomyenjoyment of the HR-2600. I still haventfigured out the ex

39、act function of the MIKEGAINcontrol because it narrows the audio bandpass and attenuates outgoing audio. Instead ofMIKEGAIN,I think it should read MIKEAEN.Uniden would be well-ad- vised to think about adding a highllow power switch, or a speech processor switch, in its place. l000mAnominal AM0.5uVno

40、minal CW/USBlLSB025uVnominal ImageRejection Ralio65 dBnominal 500rnAnominal AWFM3ampsnominal,USBIlSB 5ampsnominal 1mVnominallor50%AMmodulation 8 VOC.10rnA CW,25waIlS USBILSB25wallsPEP AMIFM10wattsnominal -SOdBnominal.allmodes -55dBnominal,USBIlSB - 45eenominal,USBlLSB AMIFM3ampsnominal USBlL5B0.8amp

41、s(nomodutation) CW5amps(keydoWn) BandA28.0000-28.4999MHz BandB28.5000-28.9999MHz BandC29,00Cl0-29,4999MHz Band0295000-29.6999MHz :!:300HzNominal (25C.5m,nulesafterpowoeron) 5000Dynamic:,PIT,UPbYnons 80.5Wansmu. CWoUSB.LSB.AM.FM BacklitLCD Freq,Band.RepealerMode,Meter, MeIerMode.TX.VFOSpan 1.32Wx10.3

42、5-0 x2.44H 4pounds.3ounces MICrophoneInput CWKeyVoltagelCurrent PowerConsIJmption lmu,mummodulalion) Size Weight SpuriousHarmonieEmissions CarrierSuppression UnwantedSidebandSuppression PowerConSlJmption Microphone Speaker OperallngModes Display DisplayItems FrequencyStability Receiver sensitivitylor 10dB SIN RF PowerConsumption SquelchedPowerConsumplion. MaimumAudio Tranamitter OutputPower Gener. FrequencyRange