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| Reviews Summary for Standard C558A |
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Reviews: 8
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Average rating: 5.0/5
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MSRP: $Discontinued 150-175 typical use
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Description: Twin Band VHF/UHF Transceiver
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More info: http://
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N5GAR
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Rating: 5/5
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May 10, 2009 01:54
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Best hand held I've ever owned
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This is the best hand held I've ever owned. The sound quality on receive is excellent. Sensitivity is excellent. It's too bad these are no longer available new on the US market.
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VK7ZJA
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 14, 2006 15:45
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Excellent HT, wish I never sold it
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I must echo comments of all the others here.
The rig is very sensitive and selective - including out of band RX on the two way bands.
All features are fairly easy to use, and the audio quality is great.
The only problem I had with it was that the front panel imprinting for the buttons wore off after some use. But that shouldn't be basis for complaint - I gave it lots of use!
Marantz really made a nice rig here, excellent design & performance, excellent documentation & service manual; a pity they're not still making items for the amateur market as I'd definitely be a repeat customer.
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KG0WX
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 10, 2006 12:36
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Battleship HT
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I just picked up mine from a recent hamfest for $125. Included was a dead nicd pack, a dry cell case, 12v adapter, speaker/mic, manual and the original box with a AES catalog cutout showing 1997 prices and options. Nice!
I live near Boeing and they put out a lot of RF but even hooked up to a GP-6 @ 40', I get ZERO intermod. Such is one of the hallmarks of a quality reciever.
I rebuilt the nicd pack with 2500 maH NiMh cells and have 2 caveats if your are thinking of attempting this:
1) The side to side clearances in the pack are tight so you either have to buy cells with tabs or be very good at making low rise solder joints. I had to grind down the blobs with a Dremel tool to make things fit.
2) The OEM charger only puts out 80 ma so with my new pack I was looking at 50 hours to charge it up! I cut the wall wart off the cable and wired in a 160 ma wall wart so my new charge rate equals a 25 hour recharge time. Note when doing this that the stock cable/plug is IMHO inverted as far as polarity goes - the sheild on the cable and the outside of the plug is POSITIVE.
On to the radio itself - like other posters, I feel this radio is about the best choice for you if your not looking for super broadband recieve or other bells and whistles. This rig does 95% of what you would call for. Add to that the extreme rugged construction and you end up with commercial toughness blended with amateur radio features.
This rig DOES do AM recieve but in a funky way - you have to enter a menu and switch the rig out of FM mode and into AM mode. Modern rigs do this automatically based on bandplans but not the C558A. A minor annoyance.
Stock the rig comes with 40 memories, a VFO for each band and 1 call channel per band. There is a micro ram chip in the battery bay that can be swapped out for a 200 memory unit (CMU161 - good luck finding it).
Some of the features I like: A small (UHF size) stock antenna that compares well with a 1/4 wave whip. Also, a real antenna connector - BNC, dual volume/squelch controls, buttons with a light touch, a dedicated power button and a metal handstrap loop. I also took mine apart (easy) to enscribe my call in the rig and adjust the VHF S-meter which was a little "stingy". No alignment file needed - the pots are tiny but well labled (SMV for VHF and SMU for UHF).
Things I did'nt like - The display is rather smallish and the buttons were clearly designed for aisian fingers however there is a good amount of room between the buttons so it's not too bad. I'll get used to it, I'm sure.
Overall, a good rig.
Ken KG0WX
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KB9VGR
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 18, 2006 16:57
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2 thumbs up
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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i loved my Standard C558A until i lost it / it dissapeared last summer i wish i could find it it was the best ht ive had sofar
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AC6IN
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 9, 2005 16:52
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GREAT ht's
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Standard set the standard in ht quality. To bad they stopped making radios, They made by far the highest quality ht's.
If you can find any of the standard ht's buy them you will NOT regret it.
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N2ETJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 10, 2005 10:06
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Miss Mine
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Sold mine to get the THF6-A, a very nice tri-band ht but have to admitt that the Standard had a much better receive with NO intermod.... the new owner loves it .... cant win them all...
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N2RFY
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 14, 2005 15:56
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Outstanding HT
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Too bad Standard is not making these any longer. I bought mine brand new when they first came out, and I still love this little twin bander. It's still the only dual band HT I need to own. Built rugged and tough, and very well laid out attractive designed rig. Performance is outstanding, and very easy to use once you learn the functions. Separate volume and squelch for each band, like two radios in one case. If you can find one, I highly recommend this radio.
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WB7BFD
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 19, 2004 22:38
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Feel the Quality
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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There's a reason these sold for top dollar in their day...build quality that's outstanding, near-military field quality, plus receiver sensitivity and IM rejection that's extremely reliable. The only thing I don't like about Standard is that you have to take a day off to figure out the basic operations that you'll want to use all the time...but I can live with that, given the terrific construction quality, receive sensitivity, dual-receive and cross-band capability, and wonderful audio. I have two Standard HT's (with 1000 and 1650 mAh batteries, they'll go all day, though I admit they define the term "brick"), plus a 5608A dual-band base mobile, and they're absolutely the most reliable radios I have. Too bad Standard (Marantz) bowed out of this market...no current manufacturer gives you the same value today.
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