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Reviews For: CountyComm GP-5/SSB

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : CountyComm GP-5/SSB
Reviews: 29MSRP: 79.95
Description:
Portable SWL receiver w/SSB
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00293.9
KI4GHQ Rating: 2015-08-28
Small But Smart Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Have this little for 2 days It's sitting on my desk at work and I'm enjoying it. Will get a second some latter. I've read all on the net about this radio and it lives up to what is written about it. Just the size to carry in the GO Bag or on the Belt. Very easy to use the more you use it the better you get.
TRY IT YOU WILL LIKE IT.....
KE8WO Rating: 2015-08-13
Best Small SSB Receiver I've Had Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I agree with the other reviewers here ... so I won't duplicate their basic comments. Very fine performance overall. A couple of general comments:

1. Receiver very briefly mutes as you tune from one frequency to the next. Not a big deal, but you can't rapidly scan from one frequency to the next without a brief, split second pause .. else you'll skip right over a station.
2. Would be nice if there was a button to select tuning rates of something like 1 mhz, 100 khz, etc. to facilitate more rapid tuning around the bands. Some memories can be set up to help with this.
3. The buttons are small and closely spaced. Probably at the limit for most folks fingers! They take a firm push to activate.
4. AM/BCB will only pick up the stronger local stations unless you plug in the supplied external AM/BCB antenna.
5. Good sensitivity FM and SW off the short whip antenna but much improved SW with an external antenna plugged into the 3.5 mm. antenna connector on the top.
6. Very good SSB reception, stable with good audio. Holds it's own against more expensive receivers and a Kenwood TS440 transceiver.
7. The vertical form factor is great for hand-held usage. But top heavy for setting on a hard surface. Using some sort of stand is recommended.
8. The volume control is a continuous potentiometer and not a clicky, discrete step control as on other Degen / Tecsun radios. Allows a precise setting of the desired audio level.

Its a very good value at the current price of $80 if you are in the market for a very small radio with exceptional performance, including SSB capabilities.
KC0EKQ Rating: 2015-08-07
What a kick! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I love this crazy little radio!

As small as a TV remote, but almost as sensitive on its whip as my other portables on AM and FM (excluding the Panasonic 2xxx radios, because duh!)and its little MW ferrite antenna actually will peak and null signals.

Audio is there but not great -- nothing unpleasant or bad, just no low end to be had -- but through phones it's nice, especially on stereo FM.

SW is interesting because it does hear much that my other radios hear, give or take, but it performs better below about 15MHz, and is almost deaf at 25MHz and up, to all but the strongest local signals.

The SSB function is so fun, though. I mean, it DOES work and on moderate and steady signals it works very well, without much drifting, and in fact I haven't yet really had to chase a SSB signal down the river, so to speak. It's pretty stable.

It can overload in the presence of strong signals and if you are in such a location and use the supplied clip-on wire antenna, you will get ghosting and splash and all the usual treats of overloading, on all bands.

I had this notion about it just now -- if you ever used a Realistic DX150/160 with a decent antenna, think of this as a handheld version of that (SW performance-wise), only with almost no drift, solid SSB and clean stereo FM added.

That's not a bad deal.

But it is really stinkin' fun, and works VERY well, enough to surely make it worth the $80 price point.

K8RDG Rating: 2015-05-25
I'm Impressed Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Impressive little receiver. The GP-5/SSB receives SSB (MWARA freqs.) using the 18" whip antenna equally as well as my Sangean ATS-909 using the 44" whip antenna, as tested indoors. The external High Sensitivity AM antenna improves MW reception. Compact design makes it very convenient for travelling. Solid feel and functional design. Good audio through the small speaker. The ATS and ETM, however, take a little getting used to but are no obstacle to performance. Their web site and the related You Tube videos gave me confidence before I placed my order. For less than $100 ($74.95 from CountyComm), you can't go wrong.
WB4WTN Rating: 2015-04-06
Better Than I Expected Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I ordered this radio more out of curiosity than need. I've been pleasantly surprised at its performance.

My daytime benchmark for MW is WAAX Anniston, Alabama with a daytime signal strength at 5KW, just over 100 miles from my home QTH near Atlanta. With the supplied AM antenna plugged in I able to hear it. FM reception is also satisfactory. On Shortwave, using just the installed whip I get arm chair copy on Radio Havana on 5025KHz and 6000KHZ, Radio Nacional da Amazonas on 11780 and Radio Australia on 9580.

Reception on the hams bands is also good. Again, using the installed whip, I can copy most of the stations checking in on South Coast Amateur Radio Service on 7151KHz.

Bill WB4WTN
W4OP Rating: 2015-03-18
Great Little Receiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had this receiver for a month now. Primarily used bedside. For HF I plug in an external short dipole and it works very well. The manual does not explain that the external AM antenna input also works for HF. Minimum discernible signal on AM and HF is right around -125dBm. The form factor is wonderful- about like a TV remote control. I use 3 AA NiMH batteries and a plug in USB port charger.

A very well thought out firmware design. I could not be more pleased. The only thing I added was 4 very small stick on rubber feet to the back side of the receiver.

Highly recommended at $79 from Universal radio.

Dale W4OP
KK6DAC Rating: 2015-03-08
Great Little Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I picked up this little gem a couple of weeks ago and wow, it's very impressive. It has both a built-in whip and an external antenna input. I made a 2.5mm audio type plug to SO-239 pigtail for it so I could see how it performed hooked up to some of my HF antennas. This weekend I had it hooked up to my home built 40/80m NVIS antenna and was listening to the Jefferson Noon Net. The sound quality was great for such a little speaker and with the beat frequency oscillator, I was able to "tune" the signal so it was very clear. Even with the built-in whip, the reception was quite good, although obviously not as good as my NVIS antenna.

For $80 this thing is a bargain and I've actually ordered a second one, so I can keep one in my EDC bag for daily use and the other will live in my go bag.
K1RRR Rating: 2015-02-10
Great radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had this radio for 1 month and it works surprisingly well. Using the internal antenna in CT I can receive many stations on the 80-10m SSB bands. The BFO works well and will fine tune your ssb signal.SW and MW/FM work well also. If you want a small SSB portable, $79. that really works you cannot beat this radio for the price. It is very easy to store signals into memory and once you set up ranges for the ham bands it is very easy to go fast to various segments on each ham band. The quality and fell is excellent for a radio at this price.
W3OWL Rating: 2015-01-18
Didn't Work Well for Me Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I really wanted to like this thing, but it was virtually deaf on HF, no matter what kind of external antenna I tried. Strong amateur signals on my Icom rig were pretty much absent on the CountyComm. Even WWV, on all frequencies, could not be heard. MW/FM performance was fairly average. The radio has been returned to the retailer.