Worst Transceiver

[G3RZP]

Jim,

Didn't 'Gotham' mean 'Got ham to spend his money?'

[N2EY]

Jim,

Didn't 'Gotham' mean 'Got ham to spend his money?'

Yes, it did!

73 de Jim, N2EY

[AD6KA]

Worst Transceiver:

Ramsey SX-20 10w 20m SSB/CW kit rig.
And yes, I was very experienced at kit building
at the time. I never would have bought the thing
but they were closing them out for half price
($199 vs $399).

But it DOES send "73" in CW when you
power it up!   It's BEST Feature.....

Ken  AD6KA

[N8YX]

RCI 29xx - any variant or derivative.

[W8GP]

How about the National NCX-3? A truly wonderful P.O.S. because I was on sideband and I loved it!

[KD8MJR]

My choice is a Modern 2M rig that is a very popular big seller due to it's low price.

The Yaesu FT-7900

The Ergonomics of this Baby must have been designed by the Rube Goldberg foundation.
Even with the Manual in hand it takes several reading each and everytime just to change any of the settings.  The Menu's are a Greek maze and the buttons are so cryptic it makes me scared to press anything during a QSO.  Once programmed it's a fine Radio, just make sure you never need to change anything without the Manual and plenty of available time.  I actually find my Wouxun UV3 HT to be easier to program and that says a lot.

[G3RZP]

I just HATE any menu driven equipment - ham radio or professional test equipment.

[N3QE]

I recall getting a Gotham vertical from my Elmer. No matter how much I jerked with it as a kid, It never came close to meeting those wonderful QST ads for it.

Check out W8JI's Gotham review here on E-ham. I fell out of my chair laughing (I also grew up with the Gotham ads!):

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4094

W8JI    Rating: 5/5    Sep 18, 2008 18:59    Send this review to a friend
Work the world with 10 watts     Time owned: more than 12 months
I bought a Gotham V-160 to use with my 6AQ5 transmitter. I only had one crystal on 1806 kHz. I mounted it on the side of my trailer and used a water spigot for the ground.

On my first CQ, ZS1REC answered. He gave me a booming report. When we signed there was a pileup of Europeans calling me.

I worked VQ9, 5B4, VU7, UA0's, and 4X4 within minutes. VU2PHD called and said I was the loudest USA he ever heard on 160.

Before the night was out I had worked all states, all continents, 35 zones, and 149 DXCC.

Thanks Gotham!

Tom W8JI

[G3RZP]

The sort of stuff that mere hacks like the brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson and Lewis Carol could NEVER have dreamed up!

[W2TXB]

What??? Nobody (yet) mentioned the Heathkit HW-202? After some upgrading suggested by another local ham, mine worked a lot better; Heath finally released the same mod as an additional kit at no charge. Connnect that radio to the HA-202 40-watt amp and hit repeaters across a 10-mHz. swath while transmitting on one ham frequency.