| VA3VY |
Rating:  |
2009-07-24 | |
| Weak |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I'm assuming one is reading this review because one is interested in buying one. If your looking for a cheap com-link with other hams and you can get it for under $50, it's not a bad bet. Anything else - forget it.
I purchased one new out of the box 15 years ago.
I lived in the country and it wasn't bad but once you got near any population it was intermod hell, so bad in fact, I got rid of it.
Now, with the proliferation of on line auctions there are a lot of non hams selling ham items which are not properly tested.
If a ham is not selling it you probably shouldn't buy it. |
|
| KC9YZR |
Rating: |
2009-01-09 | |
| Fair Rig For The Price |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I had purchased two, one for in the car, one for in the house for use as a base station (mostly for Packet Radio if memory serves me correctly as I haven't used it for at least 10 years or more now.) The rigs worked fine except for a couple of things...1 thing was that I needed to fix the "pig-tail" antenna connection on the one in the car...The other thing was that you need to connect these rigs to power that's "On" all of the time, or the internal battery goes dead in a hurry. The one in the car went dead within 6 or so months...The one in the house went dead within about 9 months or so. The power of the rig in the car was connected to the "Accessory" circuit, so the power would go off and on with the key, so I sometimes would forget to turn the rig's power off, or I'd just decide to leave it on, plus the one in the house was connected to an Astron power supply, so if you turned the power supply off, then the power would be off for the rig, so the batteries would die, and these rigs won't operate without that battery, which wasn't just for the memories and the menu settings, the rigs won't work without a good battery, so I'd suggest that you connect the rigs to a circuit that's on all the time in the car, like the clock circuit, but I won't suggest what circuit to connect the rig to, but if you connect it to the "Accessory" circuit, then make sure you turn the power on the rig off and don't rely on just turning power off with the key, and if you use one in the house, I'd suggest to leave the power supply turned on or at least turn the rig's power off also and not just the power supply's power, but leaving the power supply's power on, and also connecting the rig in the car to an "always on" circuit may allow the rig's internal battery to last longer as it's very inconvenient to replace those batteries as I found out. By the way, I was so frustrated the last 5 years I was a Ham, from 1995 to 2000, because of the way other Hams were treating me, that I decided to file for license cancellation. I was a Ham from 1986 to 2000, with 1987 through 1990 as my "favorite" or "fun" years as far as being a ham goes. I'd rate these rigs higher if they would have had the antenna connector set up differently and if the battery replacement could be set up with a "door" or something so I wouldn't have needed to un-solder and solder a new one in. I also had purchased the HTX-242 later when it came out new, and the battery went out in it in only 4 to 5 months. |
|
| N8YQM |
Rating: |
2008-08-11 | |
| Not bad, but hope the successor was better |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Not a bad mobile rig, and good for Radio Shack for trying to cater to the amateur radio segment. The first one I had developed a howl from the speaker, and it was repaired. It still howled. The manager of the store knew I was a good customer, and went to bat for me to get it replaced. This one worked for a while, then it started to howl. Then it dawned on me that it didn't howl when it was sitting on the bottom panel, only when it was in the mobile bracket. Turns out the bottom panel the speaker was mounted on was resonant at the frequency it howled at. A foam block between the chassis and the speaker fixed that. My only other gripes are not being able to store non-amateur frequencies in memory (why??), and that I had to change some settings (enable MARS/CAP mode) to use a +600 kHz repeater offset on 147.27, because it wouldn't let me select the + offset. No idea why it would not let you transmit in-band without enabling the out-of-band mode. |
|
| W0CBF |
Rating: |
2008-02-27 | |
| Good for the $$$ |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought the HTX-212 off of eBay for $ 60.00 + shipping. I wanted just a plain radio to use in the truck and something that does not have a dozen menus and can be operated pretty much with one hand. I think this radio meets these needs with a bang. It will receive out of the band but you can not store the freqs in memory. The high power setting of 45 watts is great but the 10 watt low setting is ample around town. The radio does seem to have some intermod problems in certain parts of town but I have used other brands and had the same problem.
If the price is right don't hesitate to buy one.
73's
Chuck
WØCBF |
|
| N7HTN |
Rating: |
2007-11-12 | |
| No fancy stuff, But....! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
12 years ago this was my first new 2 meter rig, liked it because it was a plain jane easy to use rig .
now it's been in service 24/7 for the last 3 years on our packet net with not a bit of trouble ever!! |
|
| K5TVT |
Rating: |
2007-07-19 | |
| Does what it should |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The HTX-212 does not have the bells and whistles of other rigs. It should not.
I want to tell you that my HTX-212 was my first mobile rig, and after about 10 years in mobile service, in two different vehicles... in extremely hot conditions (Texas) it still performs admirably in my QTH as my primary VHF rig.
This workhorse does, as others have mentioned, bench test at higher than the rated 45W. Mine tested at 56 watts. Reaching distant repeaters has never been a problem here.
I can't rate the ruggedness of the connectors, as others have. This rig was in one place in my vehicle for about a decade, with no problems. Today, it is my primary VHF rig to a discone about 15' up.
It works wonderfully.
This little guy doesn't need attention or tweaking. It has performed above and beyond the call of duty and has taken abuse for nearly 15 years, and still runs flawlessly. I did do a test tonight... running high power for about 15 minutes straight. The large heat sink was warm-to-hot to the touch, but it continued to push more than 50W fifteen minutes into the test. |
|
| K0SEP |
Rating: |
2007-05-17 | |
| Works OK but missing features |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I've had this radio for about 2 years without any problems. The cheap construction has been noted and is accurate. My biggest complaint is that this radio won't allow normal repeater offsets below 145.3 or above 147.5. It's simplex or nothing. My radio has medium sensitivity, not as good as a Kenwood or Yaesu. Bargan radio at a bargan price - no longer supported by anyone! |
|
| AI4WM |
Rating: |
2007-05-16 | |
| Nice Radio for the money, |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought my HTX-212 used from a friend just to have a spare mobile unit. This ended up in my vehicle since it fit nicely in an unused space. On air audio quality reports have always been good and the RF output is a bit more than the rated 45W. This is a nice easy to use basic 2 meter rig. It scans and has 2 VFOs. It tunes NOAA freqs., but it does not have alert tones. It's cheaply constructed in some areas, like the pigtail for the SO239, cheap feel to the audio gain control, low illumination for day time, and cheap RJ45 on the mic. The jackass that decided to put RJ45s on mics. should have them all....
I'll let you finish. The other bad feature is the mic connector is on the right so if you mount the radio in the center of your dash like I did, it is on the wrong side of the rig and the cord eventually frays at the RJ45 so it must get replaced. Most all rigs use the stupid ill-conceived mis application for an RJ 45 on the mic. so this radio is not alone. Have not experienced heat problems (even here in FL in the summer) on long QSOs.
Radio Shack no longer supports this rig. Then what else don't they support or sell anymore?
|
|
| KB5LPA |
Rating: |
2007-03-14 | |
| Works Well |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought this rig off E-Bay because I wanted a small, variable power 2 meter radio. It was sold as NIB which upon receipt I found to be accurate. I like the size, 10/45 watt output, and ease of operation of this radio. It suits my needs for a basic 2 meter transceiver.
I do not particularly care for the modular microphone plug but it is still not a serious problem. Volume from speaker is ok. Backlights are ok even on dim setting. I have operated this radio while using manual to get a feel for operations and the manual and card explain what each setting/button does so it is easy to make it work. Good reports from receiving stations and an unwarranted comment was that the Radio Shack transceiver sounded as good as a Kenwood. I cannot prove that but it was nice to hear the radio was working properly. The HTX 212 is a pretty basic rig but it works just fine.
73 |
|
| MRMATT |
Rating: |
2006-09-30 | |
| no mic |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have a HTX212 that is missing a mic. I have looked every where and cant find on. Radioshack dose not care and will not help me. i just think that its BS to sell a radio but will not help some out who has the radio. If you are going to buy a radio make sure it comes with a mic. If any one has one then email me at mrmattatccd@yahoo.com |
|
