| LNXAUTHOR |
Rating:      |
2020-10-01 | |
| excellent little SDR radio |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I have two of these radios, both purchased used; one is in almost NIB condition, stowed away on a shelf awaiting later deployment. The other was a buy off the evil Internet auction site, and I got burned on its condition: the right arrow button was non-functional upon arrival. However, thanks to the rig's software and functional layout, the left button can still serve to navigate through stored memories, albeit 'backwards,' and a tap and turn of the of the VFO allows me to tune in small or large steps.
I also had to replace the internal 18650 battery. There are no instructions in the radio's manual, nor any on-line that I could find anywhere. Fortunately it is an easy matter:
1. undo and remove circular BNC nuts
(i also removed the ground screw, but may not be needed)
2. remove top four black screws
3. remove two side black screws
4. remove two bottom black screws
5. remove three silver screws securing the PCB
6. tilt and slide the PCB out of the chassis; be careful with the speaker wire which is NOT secured with a plug!
7. while holding the PCB, pop out the battery
8. reassemble
The radio had a 2600mAh 3.7V Tenergy battery installed; at least Commradio was honest in the radio's product description, unlike Elecraft, who advertised Tenergy cells in their KX2 battery pack but burned me with cheap variants. The battery was getting old and only provided an hour or less of listening even after a full charge.
You'll need a button-top replacement. I found a Cree LED flashlight and four 2300mAh 18650s online for less than $20, so replacement was inexpensive. The battery fit fine in the holder. The Tenergy was 68.5mm, and the replacement was a millimeter shy, but a slight expansion on the button end of the holder provided a snug fit.
I also discovered that although the front headphone jack on my CR1A was touted as 3-pole stereo, it was not; only one channel came through on ear buds or phones (i know the rig does not have stereo audio out). A simple mono jack to stereo adapter plug from Radio Shack (remember that place?) fixed the problem for me.
I use a pair of folding 115cm telescopic BNC antennas on the radio for casual listening from my easy chair. This gets me all the local AM BCB, WFM BCB stations, three NOAA WX frequencies, and a local 2M repeater. This is inside a concrete block house with a concrete tile roof.
On the subject of poor FM reception: Is it crystal clear stereo? Nope. Is it perfectly adequate for music and talk? Yes. There is no filter adjustment for BCB FM. I am very pleased that this feature was included in the radio. Makes a big difference to me.
I like my CR1A. It has good sound from its relatively out-sized speaker, is easy to use single-handed, and has a good base with four wide rubber post-type legs. I named it 'Stumpy.'
I think this radio is a good buy if you can find one of these at a decent price. The battery is easily replaceable, and casual use only requires a pair of cheap BNC antennas. The radio has great reception on decent antennas, a nice selection of filtering for AM, SSB and CW, with a built-in CW decoder as a bonus feature! |
|
| N1KPR |
Rating:      |
2018-04-25 | |
| Excellent |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This little joy is basically an SDR with its own processor and controls, so no need for a computer and sound card. I waited for the "A" ver. so that I could have the I/Q output option, but that wasn't the deal maker...all I was after was a small, light good-performing wideband receiver. Anyhow, after playing with this thing for over a year, I decided to forget about its designed portability and build it up into something that would show its full potential. It now resides in a 1RU rack cabinet with all the added features that I wanted it to have. I have had this thing on the test bench and it certainly lives up to its claimed performance specs. But as we all know, it's the listening experience that determines our happiness...or lack of. To be totally unfair, I comapred it to some Watkins-Johnson, Racal and Harris receivers. Those receivers cost us tax-payers the equivalent of 30 or 40 CR1A radios. So when I say 'unfair', well, you get the idea. The CR1A can hold its own in the areas of MDS, dynamic range, noise floor, stability, sensitivity and selectivity. For half-a-kilobuck, it's worth every dollar. If you'd care to see my mods of the radio, please take a look here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6UQrpJH-0M
Thanks for reading this far, and good signals to all. |
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| KK6REN |
Rating:      |
2018-03-27 | |
| Hands down best general communication receiver ever built! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I purchased a CR1a soon after it was released for mainly an HF dedicated receiver in the shack. I have never been as impressed with the build quality of a receiver in my life! The company AeroComm who builds these primarily builds radios for military and commercial aircraft. The quality shows. The radio is so easy to use right out of the box there is no need for a manual.
The back of the unit has duel antenna jacks (BNC) for both VHF and UHF. I use an AOR LA400 on the HF side and and discone on VHF. This is one of the hottest receivers I have ever used at this price point (about $600.) The LA400 is another $500 so this is not a cheap unit, but you def get what you pay for. I am already on the hunt for a second unit.
Unfortunately, the CR1a was discontinued when CommRadio released the CTX-10 HF rig. Bummer! Why do all good things must come to an end? |
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| W2QL |
Rating:      |
2016-12-22 | |
| Big in Small Package |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Don't have much to add beyond what others have said.
I use this radio daily w/ AOR LA400 at easy chair - catching MW broadcasts, checking out the HF bands, VHF and NOAA weather, aircraft....as others have said, the audio on FM bcb is not the best.
The other thing I've noticed is a distinct audio hum when hooked to power - it's faint when hooked to 12v but very distinct when using the usb port. I've tried ferrite ring filter, which didn't make a difference; I don't know if the noise is from the internal charging circuit or if I didn't use the proper filter on the power-in conductor.
Anyway, there's no hum when on battery power, and fortunately, the battery life is much longer than any of my listening sessions (I can usually go multiple sessions before it needs a charge) - a distinct advantage over my FT-817.
Another little quirk for me is the dual use of the push button for power up/down routine and the menu. I'm a bit absent minded and sometimes I push it wanting to access the menu but hold it just long enough to trip it into power down routine....
I gave this a "5" because quirks aside, to have this capability in this form factor (size and almost weightless) is enjoyable.
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|
| W9IV |
Rating:      |
2016-11-27 | |
| Nice Compact SDR |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I found this little receiver to be the perfect suitcase radio to take on trips. It works exceedingly well on HF and has surprised me using just a simple long-wire antenna. It has many features that make it so easy to use. I listen to mostly Ham HF and MW bands. It will work best with a good wire or tuned antenna. Whips for VHF/UHF are good. Highly portable and very capable with the right antennas. |
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| N9VEQ |
Rating:     |
2016-01-25 | |
| great feeling radio |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Was a 2 meter ham operator now listening to shortwave stations listed in www.primetimeshortwave.com Mostly use a Sangean 909x for Short Wave, FM and AM.
Sit CR1a (attached telescoping antenna) next to Sangean 909x (telescoping antenna), listen to Radio Havana Cuba 6000kHz
Feel both radios about same strength receivers. 909x does have GREAT soud |
|
| KD8OPI |
Rating:     |
2015-10-04 | |
| A good receiver, but it has some issues. |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
The CR-1A by Commradio is an interesting product. It is an all mode, self contained SDR receiver (no computer required) covering HF, broadcast AM, broadcast FM (more on this later), VHF and UHF.
I've owned this radio since May 2015 (5 months or so), I've used it with the following antennas: S9 31' vertical antenna with 32 ground radials, a Cushcraft Ma-5B mini beam, a Comet GP-9, an AOR LA-400 magnetic loop antenna, a Grundig AN-200 passive loop (cheapest am loop out there at $20), and a few simple BNC whips antennas.
I've compared this radio to the following:
Elecraft K-3, Yaesu 817-ND, Sony C1Pj ($50 clock radio), and a Sony S10MK2 pocket transistor radio ($12).
The CR-1A is a solidly build radio with a no-nonsense display and a menu driven interface that keeps the knob count at two. The menus are easy to navigate and mostly easy to access. It sits on 4 relatively tall rubber feet to give clearance to the down-firing speaker. Audio quality from the speaker is only fair, but you have options for an external speaker and a headset. The radio comes with two BNC antenna jacks for HF and VHF/UHF. The radio can be powered by an AC/DC wall wart (NOT INCLUDED) or a USB cable (INCLUDED). It has an internal Lithium 3.7 2600 mAh battery that comes installed.
I think the first question you need to ask yourself when you come across this radio, is why do need it? Are you a SW listener? Do yo monitor VHF/UHF ham bands, broadcast AM DX? Do you plan to use this in your shack or take it outside? I think these are key questions you need to consider.
Performance: This really need to be broken down to give the reader an accurate picture.
Sensitivity: This is extremely antenna dependent. The reader out there will see this and say "well of course, tell me something I don't know"; but for this radio I think this consideration is key. There is no internal antenna on the CR-1A, so any listening requires at least one bit of wire hooked up to a BNC jack. In my shack, hooked up to a bevy of large outdoor antennas on HF, the radio is a fine performer. The S9 31' antenna does a nice job as a receiving antenna, with its combined 1000 feet of ground radials and vertical element. Ditto the MA5-B. But this radio struggles when attached to smaller antennas for AM broadcast and HF. For example, attaching this radio to the AN-200 (its a cheap passive AM loop - but it ain't bad) it does no better and sometimes worse than my sony clock radio; and frankly compared to a $12 pocket AM/Fm transistor radio, the pocket AM/FM radio is a better performer at 1/50th the cost on AM/FM broadcast compared to the CR-1A with an AN-200 loop and an FM whip. Going up the antenna food chain, a $500 amplified loop like the AOR LA-400 you begin to see dividends. But, are you going to take $500 active AM loop to accompany your $600 SDR and still call that a portable radio? I don't think so. I've seen videos on youtube with long random wires strung up in trees attached to the Cr-1A that show this set-up works well, and I believe it.
So am I saying that the radio is no better than a $12 Sony radio you can buy at Walmart? No; but if you want to use this radio in an outdoor setting with limited antenna options for AM/FM broadcast radio its not going to perform well for you. Attached to an appropriate HF antenna, a long random wire strung up in trees or some nice loop antennas for AM broadcast the CR-1A is a real performer that equals the performance of my Yaesu 817nd in terms of sensitivity. Less than that, you're better off with a much less expensive quality AM/FM radio for a portable solution on these bands.
Selectivity: I think this is where the radio shines the most. If you consider this radio as a HF, all mode receiver you will put into your shack, you get a bevy of digital filter setting that change per mode that seem to work extremely well. This is an important feature not to be overlooked. Why? There simply aren't that many general communication receivers built anymore at this price point that offer this. Really, the only one left you can buy new is the ICOM R-75, and it has all of ONE filter, you can add more at $150 per filter - but unless you're in love with your R-75 and want it decked out, its really stupid to pay $1000 for an R75 with 3 filters when you get more expanded digital filters with the CR-1A. So 5-stars on this aspect of the radio; even though they are non adjustable the filter widths are well chosen for broadcast, SSB, and CW/digital modes.
Audio performance:
This is not the same as judging the speaker, but I will remark on this. The internal speaker is fine. It fires down, not up, which is weird but not unheard-of. You can hook up a better speaker.
Noise: This is a concern of mine with this product. You cannot turn off the AGC. You can turn it down, but I have yet to see any effect on performance. The result is that there is a lot of noise that actually increases as the gain is automatically turned up in-between speech/signal. So, if you're listening to a broadcast, every time there is a pause or break in the conversation static noise increases dramatically. See this link to a youtube video that demonstrates this unintentionally in an otherwise very favorable comparison with the ICOM R-75 (thought he R-75 has NR on, more on this). Go to 1:17 into the video for a demo, later you can see the operator adjusting the filter width to to try and reduce this noise, he cant - because its not a problem with the filter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo1mONFpez8
It would be nice if there was a way to turn off the AGC and have a manual gain control. Could this happen in a firmware update? I don't know.
FM Broadcast: Frankly, its horrible. This radio sounds terrible on standard FM broadcast stations. SO bad, its unlistenable. Really, its that bad. In an emergency or if you don't have a $5 portable radio you could copy information from a broadcaster; and thats about it. I called Commradio about this issue, thinking I had a defective unit. It was politely explained to me, and I do mean politely, that the processor in this radio simply cant handle broadcast FM bandwidth. It is included as a feature, but the manufacturer has some regrets about including this as a selling point, it is more of an experimental feature. I was offered my money back if this was an issue for me, it's not as I have a million radios that I can listen to FM and it has no real bearing on my hobby. Still, someone who buys this radio thinking they are getting a solid FM broadcast listening platform needs to know that they are not. This is one area where unequivocally you are better off with a $10 Walmart radio.
Narrow FM: Its perfectly fine on VHF/UHF/NOAA. This is a real plus. Most comparable communications receivers do not offer this, so this is a bonus compared to a competitor such as the ICOM R-75. But there are some issues with how you listen to VHF/UHF I will cover in memory.
Memory: I think that in HF and AM, memory features are not important, as one can typically tune as quickly to a station as you can with accessing the memory features on this and most other radios. But, I think for VHF/UHF memory is very important, and I think the CR-1A does OK here. You can store 64 memories, but can only "scan" or step through 8 at a time. Its not bad, I wish you could step through more at a time though.
DSP/noise reduction: There is none. It is a fine SRD, but it lacks NR circuitry. Is this a drawback? Well, yes in the sense that there is no way to control the noise in the AGC otherwise aside from "squelch" which in HF is kind of a bad option. What I have found is that paring this radio with a DSP speaker does wonders - but costs $200 more.
Summary: The CR-1A is a quality product that offers excellent sensitivity and selectivity with either large, base antenna systems or long-wire antennas on AM and HF and standard whips on VHF/UHF excluding broadcast FM. As a dedicated base HF receiver, it does well and overall I think it makes more sense to buy the Cr-1A than an ICOM R-75 based upon its filter selections and for the most part ease of operation and size. As a "portable" it struggles to match the performance on AM broadcast with radios 1/10th its price without an elaborate antenna. FM broadcast reception is useless. It receives VHF/UHF well, with capable memory stepping. Finally, the lack of the ability to turn off the AGC and adjust your gain by hand makes this radio more noisy than it needs to be. The problem can be fixed using an external NR set up, but again adds expense.
Who should buy this radio: The serious hobbyist with a solid shack who wants a dedicated receiver on HF. My plan is to use this as a dedicated PSK reporter receiver. I did not go into it in detail, but with a good antenna system and computer hook-up this little guy does a bang-up job in digimodes.
Who should not buy this radio: The person who wants an easy, portable, HF/SW/Am/FM receiver. There are better options that re much less expensive. Its memory set up makes this radio an inefficient scanner of VHF/UHF repeaters
Final thoughts: I think a licensed operator should think carefully before purchasing this product and realize what their getting. If you want a dedicated receiver or are interested in this technology as a hobbyist, go for it if you have the means. But, to be 100% frank, I found the performance of this radio on HF no better than that of my Yaesu FT-817nd; the only exception being better selectivity on CW with the filters. The Yaesu FT-817nd is otherwise just as capable on receive, and with a $120 filter dose well on CW and digital modes. The 817 is superior for monitoring VHF/UHF repeaters which it can scan or you can scan manually more easily than on the CR-1A. Properly set up (i.e. AGC on, but the gain turned down a bit manually), the 817 does not have the noise problems that the CR-1A has. The 817 also has proper FM broadcast reception; and it has a transmitter (duh) so you can actually get in there and participate. Finally, the FT-817 costs only $20 more than the CR-1A; so if you only were going to buy ONE PORTABLE radio for general coverage HF receive, FM/VHF/UHF receive, you may want to think hard between the $599 CR-1A and the $619 Yaesu FT-817.
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| KB2RSK |
Rating:      |
2015-01-10 | |
| Great Receiver |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I just received my CR1-A
I am using an OCF 80 thru 6 meter dipole for HF receive and a Dis cone antenna for the VHF and UHF.
So far my reviews are the receive has a very low noise floor level, which is comfortable for listening to those hard to tune in SW stations and DX radio Operators.
I am happy with the design and performance and the suggesting of updated firmware in the future.
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|
| WN6F |
Rating:     |
2014-11-02 | |
| Small size - great performance |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I'm using the CR1a with firmware 9913.
I got it mostly for portable use, and was surprised at the performance considering how little power it draws.
Using a 12v supply, I measured 300ma when running and charging the internal li-ion battery, and when that is fully charged, only 75ma in use. WOW!
I like being able to run and charge from the 5V usb input too, as well as the 6-18v input. Solar power is incredibly easy especially with the 5v usb input - I just use a folding Anker 14w panel that has a built-in 5v regulator, although I could probably get away with the 8-watt panel. Although charging from the 6-18v input is faster, the 5v usb is a bit more convenient from the typical folding solar panel with built-in regulator.
For long term use, yes I could use a small sealed agm, but instead chose to use a lightweight Shorai LFX12 lifepo4 powersports battery. Got about 38 hours out of it before reaching 12.8v, which is not wise to discharge much further below. I drag a small Fluke multimeter with me to keep an eye on the voltage. Maybe in the future, battery voltage could be measured and displayed by the rig itself.
Small size, plenty of ways to low-power it, good performance with the ability for future updates, not dependent upon a computer, etc all made this a worthy tool for the shack and field.
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|
| N5ACM |
Rating:      |
2014-08-28 | |
| Impressive, Easy to Operate, SDR Receiver |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Picked up a demo CR-1 from HRO and couldn't be happier.
The unit was in excellent condition. I updated DSP and Firmware to latest version without a hitch. The radio has excellent RX on HF Ham bands in all modes while using a good antenna. MW sensitivity seems to be outstanding, I am able to pick up weak stations that give my other rigs some trouble amazingly well.
It also seems to do fine on VHF air band, NOAA and other VHF line of sight signals just fine using a Comet BNC-W100RX whip antenna.
The best attributes besides core RX performance are the small footprint and extremely intuitive operation. I removed the large feet and replaced them with a set of stick on bumpers from the hardware store. There seems to be no degradation in volume using the 1/4 inch feet vs the stock 1 inch versions. The menus and minimal controls work beautifully together. It is a simple and elegant interface, and I don't find the controls difficult to access at all.
The radio was purchased as a travel receiver to tune through Ham/SWL bands and access known VHF frequencies. It is not a scanner, but will step through frequencies within a band. Up to the user to touch the tuning knob to tune back to the active frequency. The stepping rate can be specified to the user's preferences. It is also extremely straightforward to store favorite frequencies, and the radio will step through those as well.
All things considered, it is an easy to operate, small travel or desktop radio. By far the handiest platform I own and perfect to take on trips when you just want to listen. I find it has become the "go to" RX for quick listening. No need to fire up power supplies, tune or configure antenna feeds, connect laptops or fight the corresponding tangle of cabling for SDR operation. It is so easy to just turn this little guy on with a whip or long wire and enjoy the simplicity.
It takes the clutter and complexity out of the equation, while simultanously performing well.
As always, a good, well located antenna will dictate performance, but when using the CR-1, I find myself wishing all radios were as easy to deal with. |
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