Customer Reviews

Cobra 150 GTL DX 4-Band 10-Meter Amateur Radio

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you're looking at buying this radio, more than likely you know what it really is. It's an "Export" radio disguised as a 10M radio. You can find this radio for around $100 if you shop around. You won't find a cheaper "Export" radio. It performs pretty well too, if you don't hack it to death. Mine does 30 watts right out of the box. Too many people play around with VR12 and then wonder why their audio keeps cutting in and out. Hooked up with a decent power mic, I've gotten excellent audio reports without clipping or tweaking anything. I give the radio 4 stars at its $100 price tag.

This radio like almost any channelized radio used in the HAM bands that do not have FM allocations or do not have special restrictions to channelized operations only is not sufficiently frequency agile for normal use.

The fancy effects included with this radio are NOT APPRECIATED in the Amateur Radio Service and will garner a large measure of disapproval and many cases of I can't hear you.

Further the FEE for unlicensed usage is a modest $7500 dollars a day and a very large likelyhood that obtaining a license in the future will be blocked.

If you want to be a Ham; find an Amateur Radio Club and/or an Amateur that will help you; get your license and start with any of the good used or new non-channelized HF equipment that is available.

NOTE: The one star is given grudginly. THIS IS A DO NOT USE ITEM!

This radio is not for hams. If you are a licensed amateur radio operator, you will find this transceiver unsatisfactory due to it's inability to tune to an exact frequency (it's limited to 10KHz resolution) and it's lack of important features such as a SSB mode. It possesses neither the ability to do frequency splits nor the CTSS tone codes needed to gain access to repeaters. In fact, this radio was never designed for use by hams. It's intended uses are either unlicensed operation on the 10 meter ham band, largely by truckers*, or to be modified to transmit at excessive power levels on the 11 meter Citizens Band, both of which are illegal in the United States.

Amazon should not even be offering this unit for sale in the United States--FCC regulations prohibit the sale of channelized radios for use within the amateur radio spectrum. Use of it here by an unlicensed operator could lead to some pretty hefty fines ($7,500 or more) and it is of limited utility to an amateur radio operator.


*Note: No disparagement of truck drivers is intended here--I hold a Class A CDL myself. However, I'm also a licensed amateur radio operator.

If you are just beginning in the Amateur radio field this is the radio to start with. With all the "bells and whistles" of the other big name radios this one pack a punch without the hefty price. Cobra has done a great job with this radio.