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Reviews For: COMMRADIO CR-1 COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVER

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : COMMRADIO CR-1 COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVER
Reviews: 26MSRP: $650
Description:
The CR-1 is a small, low-power, ruggedly constructed radio
receiver that is finding a niche in the world of SWL’s
(short wave listeners) and amateur radio enthusiasts alike.

The CR-1 is a NEW Software Defined Radio (SDR) from the
designers of miniature wideband signal intelligence
receivers, developed for special-operations units, and
rugged business-jet data-link transceivers.

The CR-1 SDR is independent of a host PC, using embedded
digital signal processing technology providing a degree of
portability and performance previously unavailable to the
radio enthusiast.

As one potential customer noted: “It’s an SDR with knobs,
keys, and a display!”
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.commradio.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00264.3
SM4MI Rating: 2013-08-29
5/5 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After upgrade of software will AGC work fine.
It is a nice little receiver. My feeling is that
the radio is about 150 USD to expensive.
W3OWL Rating: 2013-08-29
Needs Help Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After only five days, I returned my CR-1 for a refund. While cute, small, and seemingly built well, this unit doesn't really offer anything unique in the general coverage market. Since the manufacturer is offering free "upgrades" every few weeks to enhance performance, it still underperforms most anything on the market. The limited vhf/uhf coverage performs even worse than even the cheapest scanner. How many other $600 radios do you own which require continual "upgrades" in order to work properly?
VO1JA Rating: 2013-08-27
I like it! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is a good start, and the dropbox programming updates are excellent. There are, however, a few issues. The front panel buttons are too close together, and hopping back and forth in and out of the menu takes a bit of getting use to. Reception on MW is poor at best. Having said that, it is an excellent hf and vhf receiver, and it really is portable. The long wire antenna with the 1/8 plug is useless, and the case is subject to some hand capacitance. It is also subject to picking up noise from the laptop, or, to be more precise, the laptop battery charger.
The computer programming (it is, after all, a software defined radio) needs more improvement. And hopefully the updates will continue.
Except for the medium bands, it compares favorably with the Sony ICF 2010 on my desk, and weighs about one quarter the weight of the old Sony. I would recommend it as a portable radio, but, like others have already suggested, I too am looking forward to more improvements.
KA2WDV Rating: 2013-06-18
The 90 Minute Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is the 90 Minute Radio because it played for 90 minutes and DIED. It would not power on after that.In the 90 minutes that I had with it,I can give you guys a pretty good review. So here we go.
First, let me start off with the good and go from there. First, I was very impressed with the reception on the 40 and 20 meter band. It is very sensitive on these bands. The unit is very well constructed but comes with down falls. I found the tuning knob not the friendliest. It is, in my opinion, somewhat difficult to rotate. The reception on the short wave bands are pretty good.
However, there is no way to adjust the AGC so you live with what you get.I checked this unit out on UHF and it is terrible. As a reference, I had an old ICOM T7H tuned to the Thruway State Police, Very loud and clear. On the CR-1 nothing at all.
On VHF, I listened to a few of the local repeaters and found the reception to be very poor. I also checked this out on the 108-136 AM aircraft band. FORGET IT. No reception at all. I can hear the Boston Center on 121.35 on the ICOM.
I think one reviewer in here called these bands "BONUS" bands. What good is it to tune the frequencies if you can't receive anything. I am a big fan of nite time AM broadcast band reception. From Albany NY, I like to tune in to 1030 in Boston and 1010 Wins in NYC. I have a Sony SWF-7600 that is a true performer for this. On the CR-1, AM reception is weak at best and that is being very kind. I want to briefly tell you about the audio output as well as the audio quality itself. The audio output, I feel, is somewhat low and could have a little more audio output than it does. As far as the audio quality itself, I was not impressed at all. As it stands right now, I can not recommend this radio for you to buy. It will be a let down to anyone with true experience with radios.I really wanted to like this radio but I just can't accept all the problems it carries with it. If your going to shell out $ 500.00, this price tag commands some type of REAL performance. However, I was impressed enough with 40,20 meters that if the rest of the bands.....VHF/UHF/AM worked as well, I might have given these folks another chance. This radio hit the streets way to quickly in my opinion. If the bugs were all worked out this would be a great backpack/travel radio.I will say this, the customer service is very good and I am awaiting my prompt refund. Emails are answered in a very timely manner. I was told by DON that a failing TCXO was the culprit to the radio failure. The QC on these radios needs much in depth improvement. The radio really needs to go back to the drawing board.The serial # of my radio was 154. Don indicated to me that < than 20 units failed. Not to hard to figure out that this is a significant failure rate, unless my third grade math is off a little. So,my review is +1 for the customer service and +1 for the radio. Who knows, if they come out with the CR-2 with all the kinks worked out, I might just give them another try. I think this company is into aircraft transceivers as well. Can you imagine being on an ILS approach to runway 25r and your radio dies. Pretty scary.
SCOWL Rating: 2013-06-17
Excellent receiver with some limitations Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'll start with the good news. In practical use this receiver is as successful at pulling SSB signals out the noise as my JRC-525 is and with no fiddling around with passband and notch filter settings. Signals that took some adjustment with the JRC were instantly readable with the CR-1. In a few cases I've even been able to read some very weak SSB signals that were unreadable on the JRC-525. This completely exceeded my expectations. Strong SW broadcasts also sound excellent and ECSS works well for fading signals. This performance alone makes the CR-1 a high class receiver and in my opinion overshadows all of its problems which I will describe in detail.

The receiver is so small that it looks like a joke compared to other receivers. It's the size of two or three paperback books and might be lighter even with its internal battery. This is a radio you can easily throw into a backpack or suitcase with one caveat -- the receiver is turned on by pressing the left knob so you need to twist a wire behind it to keep it turned off while travelling (it's shipped this way). The internal rechargeable battery lasts a very long time. If you don't want to charge it through the USB port, you'll need to use a DC adapter which is not included (it accepts a wide range of voltages).

The size however has drawbacks. The tuning knob is small and doesn't move easily. The indentation for your finger is small even for my girlish hands. Tuning is much more effort than the weighted knobs of larger receivers. There is a mode that will automatically speed the tuning if the knob has been turning for an adjustable number of milliseconds but I found this annoying so I turned it off. Perhaps others will find it useful.

The buttons are a bit too close to the tuning knob which makes two-button mode changes difficult with your right hand (shouldn't the MODE button just cycle through the modes?). The buttons are soft squishy rubber and sometimes click without actually doing anything. The small receiver size also makes the speaker sound slightly weak so don't expect the deep bass of larger receivers. Audio through headphones is excellent.

Although firmware updates have improved the AGC greatly, it's still not ideal. Very strong signals will momentarily overload it (strong CW will sound like crunches) and it doesn't recover quickly so tuning past a strong signal may make you miss a weaker signal. There is no AGC fast/slow setting and there's no RF gain control so you're stuck with how it behaves. On the other hand it makes background noise quieter -- actual radio signals jump out of the noise unlike my JRC-525 where everything is about the same volume.

The HI-Z antenna input (which uses a 1/8" plug) is worthless. Not only does it cause local AM stations to blast through in weird frequencies (like 18-19 MHz) but I can also hear them causing lesser amounts of interference all through the shortwave bands. Even WWV appears loud and strong in places it shouldn't be through this input. The solution is to forget the HI-Z input and connect your antenna (regardless of type) to the BNC connector. This eliminates all interference. There is no clip or screw connector for an antenna lead in so you may need to buy or build a cable.

The least significant problem (I'm covering everything) is the S meter. It appears to freeze while tuning so you have to wait a second before getting an accurate reading. If precise S readings are important, you may not like that above S-10 the meter only increases in S-10 increments.

VHF reception is limited. Tuning with the present firmware creates grinding and popping sounds which are not only irritating to hear but also deafens the AGC. It's acceptable if you know what frequency you want to monitor but it's impossible to bandscan VHF.

Mine and other units were shipped with a defective TCXO which threw the frequency display off 60-120 cycles. They were all quickly and successfully repaired at no cost (including shipping) but this does bring CommRadio's Q.C. into question since this was a trivial thing to check. Newer receivers have not had this problem.
CORBINTECHBOY Rating: 2013-05-10
Good for what it is Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned may radios in my time in the HF hobby. Right now I have this rig and the Icom R75 and have done many comparisons.

The CR-1 is a pleasure to use with a well thought out layout. The buttons have good feedback and the menu layout is easy to learn and understand. Very well laid out.

The unit is compact. Much smaller then what I had imagined when I purchased the unit and it tiny compared to the R75. The case is build rugged (metal) and feels really sturdy (above average). The tuning and volume knobs are also metal and feel good to use. Tuning is easily done and spinning the knob is a joy, not on the same caliber as the R75 but good for what it is.

Sound is very good for such a small unit. Stations are easy to understand and catching that DX station is easy. Maybe a little more tonal qualities might be nice but this is not a hifi unit and is fine to my aging ears.

This little gem will hear everything my R75 will. This is great as the R75 is a real workhorse. The R75 does have more tricks up the sleeve when the going gets tough. But as any seasoned HF listener will tell you, tricks come with experience and any decent radio can be tamed and overcome (ECSS for example). The battery for field use is a nice added bonus.

I really like this little radio. I hope more comes of it as it is upgraded all the time. There are some things that I believe (and I think my thoughts are shared) that would make this radio a must have. As is however I think the radio is worth the price and at this price point I don't think there is any other radio I would recommend for someone looking for a new rig. Very happy with my purchase though at times I wish for more and regret my purchase. Bit ying and yang but all and all a very good buy.