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write your own review of the CCrane Radio 2.
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KE6PID
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 11, 2009 15:05
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Impoved!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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The CC Radio 2 is a portable radio for casual listening in fringe reception areas, designed especially for AM broadcast. Once the radio is “out in the country” in a weak signal environment the radio begins to shine on the AM band. The CC Radio 2 also provides better than average FM reception along with NOAA Weather Broadcasts and now 2 Meter amateur radio band reception.
The CC Radio 2 brings some notable improvements to earlier CC radios, the display backlighting is much improved now with three brightness levels, the radio now incorporates 2 meter receive with squelch, as before the radio includes weather band and FM broadcast. Gone is television sound. The CC Radio 2 includes C.Cranes “Dual Ferrite” antenna system built in for AM reception; weak signal area reception is notably improved over the previous model provided. The radio now includes a signal strength indicator which the original did not.
AM reception is outstanding, however the AM section is easily overloaded in urban areas; under these conditions there are several intermix products and IF images throughout the AM tuning range – this is minimized or eliminated when the radio is in it’s intended fringe reception element. As in the original CC Radio the PLL tends to create a “ringing” in the speaker as the tuning dial is rotated in the presence of signals or when approaching the sidebands of a station. This is not really a defect but an engineering trade-off, slower PLL loop speeds take longer to lock, but provide improved phase noise and performance, and the CC radio appears to use a single loop speed PLL tuning arrangement. Many mid-class radios simply mute when the tuning dial is rotated, the CC radio does not. This in realty isn’t a problem, but you don’t get the feeling the receiver is “clean” as you would when using a Japanese PLL communications receiver. The receiver is rather selective, this too shows a tradeoff in engineering, wider bandwidths will provide higher fidelity but poor adjacent channel selectivity, if wide enough the carrier of the two stations can beat together cause a whistle in the audio. If the bandwidth is too narrow the audio will sound overly muffled, but on the plus side adjacent channel station will not be as much of a problem, so the object of the exercise is to hit a happy medium between selectivity and fidelity. This radio was designed with slightly higher than normal selectivity while still maintaining reasonable audio fidelity on voice.
FM reception is adequate with the built in whip antenna – there is no external antenna jack for FM, a clip lead seems to work to connect a roof top antenna. Once this is done stations 50 or 60 miles away come in clearly with no background noise. The FM section appears to be more prone to multipath than the earlier version when using the whip antenna in strong signal areas. In extreme signal urban areas the front end once again can be overdriven and third order intermodulation products begin to appear – sometimes completely blocking reception of the desired station. A quick fix for this is to retract or re-position the antenna to attenuate the signal. Once again this is showing the engineering bend of the radio for fringe reception operation. A selectable attenuator could have been added to the radio, but that would not be expected in a radio of this price point. Although the speaker is monaural, if headphones are connected the receiver provides stereo reception.
Weather reception is very good; it is channelized to the 10 NOAA assigned frequencies.
I am able to get 5 NOAA stations in my urban location – the older CC radio would only receive three of them. With the outside antenna connected at my rural get-away I was able to receive one NOAA station 70 miles away, this matched the performance of my Icom R-7100 receiver, and bettered any consumer NOAA Weather Radio I have tried. The radio includes a NOAA alert mode where the radio will remain silent until a weather event triggers the NOAA alert tone broadcast over the NOAA station – at which point the radio sounds an alert tone and becomes unsquelched.
Two meter receive is good. The radio features an adjustable squelch control and 5 2 meter frequencies can be push button memorized. A strong local signal tends to de- sense the receiver in the 2 Meter mode; I was not able to monitor the output of a repeater while transmitting locally a few feet from the radio. In all honesty this is to be expected. Because the radio has a large speaker and no high pass filter PL tones are clearly heard through the speaker. It is possible to attenuate them with the use of the bass control, but only a limited amount. Some people may not notice this; it may be a consistent annoyance to others.
The audio quality is somewhat improved over the original CC radio, but there is still some underlying “grunge” in the audio that’s not present on other non CC radios. Not to say this diminishes the value of the radio; it is certainly good enough for its intended purpose. This isn’t really a pan, but just an observation. I doubt most people would notice. The radio is equipped with bass and treble controls which are effective. Volume is sufficient for indoor listening but may fall somewhat short in an outdoor environment.
Once again, this is an engineering trade off – tons of thundering sound, or long battery life, the engineers who designed this radio chose to go with a more efficient audio section favoring longer battery life. If you expect the radio to take the place of high end Boom Box sound you will be disappointed.
Other thoughtful features include a sleep timer and an on/off timer with an output to control a recording device like a cassette recorder. This is a very nice feature for people who like to listen to programs that occur during parts of the day when you might not be able to listen. Think of it as a primitive version of TIVO for radio. The radio includes a “line level” output that provides a consistent level for a recorder or amplified high fidelity speakers. The CC Radio 2 also has a line level input to allow for connecting a device and playing through the internal speaker. Other random features include a wake to tone or radio mode, a snooze function, and integrated handle to tote the radio about and a built in AC supply. When connected to AC the display backlight will remain on continuously, so if you choose to use the radio by your bedside you’ll have the time and a nice nightlight.
Conclusions: The CC Radio 2 is a very good choice for somebody who want a good high quality radio. Performance on the one I bought is very good for a radio in this price class, with a few caveats-the radio has overload issues in high RF environments. It doesn’t cripple the radio in any way, but you may need to work around some of the overload issues. Once in it’s intended element this radio really shines.
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LRDHEAT
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 16, 2009 19:52
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nothing new
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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While quite sensitive, the "Twin coil ferrite", offers no improvement in sensitivity over earlier CCradio versions, or the SANGEAN PR-D5. More selective than earlier models, but not better than the SANGEAN PR-D5 at hearing stations +/- 10 KHz away from a local. In fact, above about 1100 KHz, locals can be heard over much of a 360 degree sweep 20 KHz away from the local. If you want the WX band and 2 M ham band in a bulkier package than the SANGEAN, but with otherwise identical reception as the SANGEAN, plan on spending $60 more for the privilege.
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