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| Reviews Summary for Ranger RCI-5054DX-100 |
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Reviews: 6
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Average rating: 3.7/5
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MSRP: $349
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Description: Ranger brings you the RCI-5054DX-100. This DX model is patterned after the popular 10 & 12 meter RCI-2970DX. It features a microprocessor control, and is rated at 100W PEP SSB and 50W AM/FM/CW.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://www.rangerusa.com
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write your own review of the Ranger RCI-5054DX-100.
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KE0VH
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 14, 2011 12:43
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Really great radio!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I am very pleased with my Ranger RCI-5054 DX-100. It worked virtually everything I could hear during this years VHF contest and just general operating. I have a 3 element homebrew beam at KE0VH, and the radio's only downer that I have seen is there is no filtering of strong adjacent signals. The step tuning works well, just slightly cumbersome but is relatively easy to get used to. I am really impressed with the company and ordered directly from Ranger-USA. The packaging was great and the radio was ready to power up and go. I am planning on taking the radio up a 14000 foot peak here in Colorado and operating lower power (fully adjustable) on a battery next summer. The rig I obtained came with a white on blue display, which really looks great! You can see a picture of my Ranger in my shack on the left hand side rack at www.qsl.net/ke0vh.
I highly recommend this radio in its current version to anyone interested in a 100 stand alone rig for mobile OR base with a 20 amp power supply.
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N5PLV
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Rating: 1/5
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Feb 2, 2009 07:58
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Modified CB
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought mine used and its had its share of problems after the warranty date expired. The backlighting goes out due to a faulty inverter. The backlighting design is poor overall. There is no support from Ranger as far as ordering parts. I heard that the parts division was sold to a third party. Good luck finding some!
The construction of this radio is horrible. Inside it looks like CB radio technology from the 1970's. I put it on an IFR service monitor and checked it out. It meets specs as far as receive sensitivity and RF power output, but boy you should see the signal on the spectrum analyzer! Really dirty transmitter! The warranty seal was NOT broken when I bought it, so nobody has been inside to cause this. It doesn’t have a CTCSS board. I think it holds a whole 10 whopping memories! Do yourself a favor if you're considering one of these. Just add $50 to the new price and find a used Icom 706 original and get all 100 watts on all the HF+6m bands including 10 watts on 2m. This is nothing but a modified export CB radio made to cover 6m. Even includes a Roger beep!
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KC0LOE
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 10, 2008 12:16
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Good 6-meter Budget Radio.
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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After listening to a lot of the local operators talk about 6-meters, I thought I would give it a whirl. After researching for a couple of months ,and reading reviews on many different 6-meter radios. I chose the ranger due to the cost and experience of a couple of local guys that use em.
At first glance, the radio looked like a export CB radio to me. I was thinking that it wasn't going to work worth a hoot After hooking it up, I made several contacts that said the audio was good and the signal was nice and strong.
There are only two things that I think Ranger could do to make the radio better. First of all, they can dump the roger beep since there is really no need for it. The second thing would be to include a tone board. One is available from Ranger, but you have to manually change the tones on the board via dip-switches.
Other than that It is a good performer for the cost.
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N2BR
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 17, 2006 07:49
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RCI 5054DX-100
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I got my Ranger in April 2006 and was suprise at the receive it has,Have work many contacts with a 6 meter loop antenna at 15 feet high.Great little radio.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RCI5054DX/
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KB7QWZ
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 9, 2006 09:42
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excellent
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I first got my Ranger in January 2005. For the first six months the backlight went out three times. Twice I sent it in and the third time they just sent me the strip which is time consuming but relatively easy to install. It just plugs into a module. Then it went out again and they sent me another. They said they had a whole batch of bad ones from a supplier but this one should be fine. It wasn't so they called the radio back and gave me a new radio. Then the new radio failed so they called it back and replaced the strip and the module it plugs into. Since that time I have not had another problem with it and it scans all the memories in it daily. The company was real great in their followup. I have the internal CTCSS module since we have a repeater nearby with a tone and since I only use it for a base there is no need to change tones, but if it is necessary, it is very simple to do once you remove the bottom case and have the binary code reference. If it were mobile an outside module would be better since it may be necessary to change tones for different repeaters. The only reason I downgraded my evaluation is that when the tone is on it is on for everything, and if you forget to turn off the split for the repeater on simplex or SSB you will not make contact. I have also made many contacts mostly over the western half of the country and Canada because of my location. I have the OA50 for SSB and a Ringo vertical for FM on an antenna switch. Every contact gives me a 5/9 report and can't believe it is a Ranger.
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KE5GBY
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 9, 2006 08:12
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Great Performer
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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First I have to say that this one super performing 6 meter all mode tranceiver with plenty of power.
I paid a little less than the MSRP for a brand new model.
My first impression was that it would make a great base rig, which I had planned on using it for. This is my first rig that I have bought brand new.
I have it hooked up to a PAR OA-50 Omni Loop antenna at 30 feet and have made many, many cross country contacts inluding Canada and Mexico.
I also use it for local 6m nets and ragchewing and am ALWAYS getting great signal reports and amazement at my simple 6m setup.
This 100 watt version has a cooling fan mounted underneath the radio which is a great feature. It has blue backlit LED(keep reading)display with big easy to see numbers.
I also really like the front panel adjustable RF power out knob.
It has a Clarifier knob which acts the same as RIT. Also a very easy to use menu also.
So why did I give it a 4 out of 5? Well, about 2 days after receiving the radio the blue LED panel light went out. Came back on, went out again. It still does this.
I contacted Ranger about this issue and they were already aware of this problem and told me that I must have received an early model since the later models had this problem fixed.
They offered to check it out if I sent it in with about a 2 week turn-a-round time. I was a little upset as I was sold a radio with a known problem.
I asked if they could just send me a new model but they declined. I had just setup my 6m station and explained that I did not want to go through the hassle of having to pack it back up and ship it off and be without a 6m rig for that long.
I felt that they should have taken back all of M&P Audio's (where I bought it) stock of these radios and replaced them with the newer models that supposedly do not have this problem. (By the way, M&P never replied to any of my emails).
So I just said the heck with it and kept it even though it has this intermediate problem.
I also wish it had a factory installed tone board, but I guess you can't have everything. I only use it on SSB at this time but will soon get a vertical antenna as there is one 6m FM repeater in my area.
So to sum it up, I think this is definitely a great stand alone 6m all mode rig with a good price (Compare it to Alinco's FM only 25 watt tranceiver).
Before you buy, make sure you get a later model so you hopefully won't have the backlight problem.
-73
-Bill
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