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Reviews For: National NCX-5 Mark II

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : National NCX-5 Mark II
Reviews: 10MSRP: 549
Description:
80 thru 10 meter transceiver.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00104.5
KI3W Rating: 2022-03-20
It was my rig in Thule, Greenland in 1968 operating as OX5AY Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
What a super rig! I worked hundreds of countries with the NCX-5 and TH-3 tribander. In it’s time, this was top notch. ….. Scotty, KI3W
N8FVJ Rating: 2019-11-17
Very Quiet Receive Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I owned this transceiver in year 2000 and sold it a year later. I just bought another NCX-5 MKII. This transceiver has been completely gone with replacing all electrolytic capacitors, out of tolerance resistors and had been aligned.

I compared the receive to a Kenwood TS-950SD and have to say it seems as sensitive and more quiet vs the TS-950SD. I am sure the TS-950SD would receive weak signals better on the upper bands, but the dual RF amp in the National is very sensitive. Transceiver produces about 120 watts to 29mHz and 90 watts at 29 to 29.5mHz.

I never heard the Hallicrafters Cyclone 400 that is reported to have an 'eerie' quiet receiver, but this National must be as good. The mechanical digital frequency readout is accurate to 1kHz so you always know where you are at frequency wise.

If you are wanting an all tube vintage transceiver, this must be on your list. Only transceiver I know off that equals this National is a Drake TR-4CW RIT. The Drake RIT series is mentioned as the NCX-5 MKII also has RIT. The Drake will cost you about $700 more than the National NCX-5 MKII that averages around $300.
KE0ZU Rating: 2012-07-16
Great Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had two of these fine looking radios over the last ten years and as most others, wish I'd kept the first one. I've had all of National's tranceivers except the NCX 1000 and the NCX-5 was the best I've owned. I found a copy of the external VFO, and it made the first rig a real nice setup. The mechanical dial is a marvel, right up there with Nixie tubes :), and pretty darned accurate as well. Not much else to add to the comments of others, but it is a pleasure to use with the NCL-2000.
W9MT Rating: 2012-07-07
Wistfully remember mine from the mid-1970's... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It was my first "real" 80-10m xcvr prior to going to a Heathkit SB-102 in the late 70's, a Drake C-Line in the 80's and solid state in the 1990's and forward.

Loved the mechanical digital readout. You could achieve sub 500Hz accuracy over a 500KHz band segment by opening the vfo housing and forking the finned segments of one of the tuning cap's rotor segments. This would non-linearly vary the mechanical change of the tuned capacitance very slightly as you cranked the vfo. This mechanical position non-linear change nicely cancelled any of the electrical design's capacitive tuning non-linearities. It was the next best thing to a Collins PTO. You just needed to make sure you didn't twist any fin enough to short to the adjacent stator plate. (Receive and transmit would disappear until you fixed that, but it didn't kill anything permanently.)

The Mk-II replaced the Mk-I's 7360 balanced modulator tube with a solid state BM. It was a big improvement. You really don't see any Mk-I's turning up on the used market anymore.

Most NCX-5's had a heat problem which would build up and drop your power output on 15 and especially 10m down to only about 80W carrier. You had to be using the radio with a lot of transmit over a number of hours of operating to notice this, though.

My unit used the 6GJ5 sweep tubes in its PA. I'm not sure if the pinout is the same as the 6JB6, but I do like the fact that 6JE6's can be substituted for the 6JB6 variants. TungSol and GE branded 6GJ5's lasted the best. RCA's would go soft very quickly. They'd still test strongly good in a tube tester and work in the rare TV that used them as the horizontal sweep amplifier, but they were no longer any good for amateur RF amp usage.

Notice the external vfo in eHam's photo. It's a rare item. I never owned one. Nice examples sell for what the hen's teeth Heathkit SB-640's do nowadays. It would leech power from the octal plug on the back of the transceiver and a coaxial output would feed from the external vfo thru the grommet on the cabinet back and feed an RCA jack at the internal vfo.

One could never find the 100KHz crystal calibrator on the used market. I cannibalized a Heathkit HD-20 chassis, put it in a minibox and used an octal pin plug on the box to connect it to the NCX-5. Simply rectify and filter heater voltage and the HD-20's circuitry runs quite happily, giving you 100KHz markers all the way up through the top of 10m.

The blue cabinet color was also quite pleasing from a Feng Shui standpoint.

Overall, a nice nostalgic rig, but more modern stuff blows it away.
W7CPA Rating: 2010-02-14
This Old Dog Still Hunts Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I recently restored a 1967 vintage Nataional NCX-5 MKII and a NCL-2000. The receiver is suprising good when doing simple A-B weak signal comparisons with a FLEX-5000A, KWM2-A and TR-4CW RIT. I was quite suprised. The design had a few flaws but it has many positives features like styling and quasi accurate mechanical digital dial.

http://www.arizona-am.net/PHOENIX/W7CPA/index.html
K7UA Rating: 2009-01-15
First digital readout I ever saw Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Our county EOC had one of these in about 1970. I was the county ARES emergency coordinator. For a few years I got to use it during drills. It was incredible at the time to have a digital readout. As a struggling student I could have never afforded such a prize, but it sure was wonderful to use. It was a very fine rig during its time.
NY4O Rating: 2008-01-10
Great first rig! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I owned the NCX-5 in the mid-seventies (or as best I remember). It was my first rig as a novice, purchased used from one of the mail order Ham stores. I remember well the things pointed out by the previous reviewers as well as a few other items. First, the finals/matching network: I had no trouble with them. Due to misreading the HyGains poorly printed 18AVT instructions I connected the radials to the driven element. No problem (!) the NCX-5 loaded the ground rod and I made several contacts showing 599, as far away as Texas! My "Elmer" caught the error and the rig performance improved greatly.
Secondly: The rig had a tendency to "FM" the audio. I got several reports of bad audio. An on the air contact with expertise in "Nationals" told me that the wiper contacts on the main tuning capacitor were dirty. Contact cleaner and a contact file (extra fine sand paper) fixed the problem. I had to do this periodically while I had the rig.
Finally traded the rig about 1979 for a TenTec 544...what a difference! Still have the TenTec, wish I had the National too!
K7NG Rating: 2002-09-26
Nice rig for its' day Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had one of these in the 1975 - 1985 timeframe, with the NCXA supply/speaker unit. I carefully aligned mine when I got it since it had been sitting around for some time. (It was in like-new shape). I never had a gripe about its' performance or reliability - within its' limitations. It does require a fairly good match to the antenna or it may not tune up properly - and the sweep tube finals will get slagged if you ignore the proper tuning. I did the best I could with the VFO calibration, and without resetting via the optional crystal calibrator it's digital (mechanical wheels) readout would be within 2 KHz across any 500 KHz band segment. That's what originally intrigued me about the rig - the digital readout. It tickled me to be able to go to a sked freq and just zip over there with the dials clicking away...I eventually replaced the original 6JB6 sweep tube finals (same as Drake used in rigs of similar vintage) with 6LQ6/6JE6's which was no effort other than having to re-neutralize. Gave me a little more output if I wanted it (I didn't) and a BIG margin in plate dissipation which made operation into some of my more unwieldy antenna projects a little safer.
It was marginal on CW (no CW filters and klunky semi-VOX circuit controlling the TR changeover)but I made a heck of a lot of CW and SSB QSO's with it. I sold it to a ham I worked with, along with a Collins 75A4 I had and he may have it on the air to this day for all I know.
W4UDX Rating: 2001-04-01
Good for it's age Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Surprisingly good performance. Easy to repair if it fails. Also easy to re-align. Mechanical digital readout is very accurate. Receiver lacks features but SSB filter is adequate to compensate. Only odd thing I noticed: T/R relay stays energized during receive, and de-energizes during transmit. This causes the relay to get magnetized after some extended use and then it hangs and acts up. I had the matching external VFO and PS/Speaker. The external VFO was also right on the money accurate. I received lots of compliments on my transmit audio using a Turner +2 desk mike. Sometimes I miss this radio. It was alot of fun
JAMES_BENEDICT_EX_N8FVJ Rating: 2000-12-22
Excellent Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The National NCX-5 Mark II transceiver features 200 watts PEP SSB, 200 watts CW and 100 watts AM input on 80 thru 10 meters. The dial calibration resolution is 1 Khz with a mechanical digital readout. The tuning rate is 10 Khz per knob revolution and is identical on all bands. The receiver is a double conversion type with a xtal controlled HF oscillator on each band. The VFO is transistorized for high stability. The selectivity is obtained with an eight pole xtal lattice filter. The shape characteristic is 1.7 and at -60 db is only 4.76 Khz wide. The -6 db passband is 2.8 Khz for excellent SSB listening quality. The balanced modulator provides -50 db suppression, unwanted SSB suppression is -50 db and third order distortion products are -30 db down. The NCX-5 includes a 5 Khz RIT.
The NCX-5 is very selective and stable. The digital display is very accurate and frequencies are easy to find. The receiver does not drop off much in sensitivity on the 15 and 10 meter bands. The NCX-A AC input matching power supply is very rugged and heavy! I recommend this radio which is a 'cut above' the Tempo, Galaxy, Swan and others from the same era.