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Reviews For: Galaxy GT-550 HF Transceiver

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

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Review Summary For : Galaxy GT-550 HF Transceiver
Reviews: 8MSRP: 475.00
Description:
80/40/20/15/10 meter ssb/cw transceiver runs 550 w pep input on ssb and selectable 360/250 w input cw.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0084.8
AD4U Rating: 2021-01-01
After Repair By Afforable Radio Repair (Mike) It Is Working FB Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
For personal reasons I wanted a Galaxy GT-550. After buying several that did not work, I finally sent the best of the bunch to Mike at Affordable Radio Repair. When the radio arrived back home it was amazing. Mike repaired it back to better than new condition. Over the past several weeks I have used the Galaxy for many hours. It is stable. It will "hear" a -130 dB signal from my HP 8640B signal generator. Power out is at least 250 watts. On the air reports are excellent audio. Most hams cannot believe I am using a 50 year old rig.
KM6XZ Rating: 2013-09-20
Modern, compact powerhouse of 1970 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I traded my paychecks for a whole summer for an employee discount from my job as Lafayette Radio repairing marine and CB radios as a 19 year old. I had a Viking Valiant and SX-28A for several years but dreamed of a compact system I could use while going to university.The line was carried by my employer so worked out a big discount for the entire Galaxy GT-550 all accessories, including the VFO, calibrator, phone patch, matching SWR/Wattmeter, speaker, power supply etc. It was stylish, small and boy did it work well. Easy to tune, and had a hot receiver. I was repairing rigs for others who had a chance to measure and play with many models and few received as well and none at the time had as much power. Compared to today, the receiver was probably not as good as memory had it but compared to S-Line, the various brands out at the time, it was very hot. I worked DXCC during the year(never QSL's that much, just wanted to rag-chew with hams around the world) with a tribander at 65 feet.
If I could find one in very good original condition I would get it again today.
It was reliable, at the time the final tubes were easy to get and were cheaper than the lower powered 6146B. I never had to repair it, but did tweak the alignment about once a year. I used that for 10 years without a hitch and when I sold it to get a KWM-2 with station control and 30L-1, which I really like for construction and feel but it never could beat the performance of the GT-550. Now I live in another country and have only what I could smuggle in a suitcase so have a Elecraft K2 with all mods. The K2 receiver is better, quieter with better adjacent channel rejection and more flexible filters but it is also a 25 year nearer design.
I4AWX Rating: 2012-02-04
Great old glory Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my GT550 with its external VFO RV550 back in 1969 when I was living in California, took it back to Italy in a suitacase, and it still works beautifully after some 43 years. I never had any problems with it throughout all these years.
It has just kept on working flawlessly, with the only need for some re-tuning from time to time.
Its overall performance, compared to other transceivers of those years, is probably among the best.
NA3CW Rating: 2010-12-13
Great rig, crummy xtals Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had a GT550 many moons ago. Good receiver, big output if you had some good tubes in it. And you could make them sound good, too. Just one flaw: virtually every Galaxy 5 and GT550 I got on my bench, and I had many on my bench, had bum 9 MHz carrier crystals which generate upper and lower sideband. You just couldn't tweak them in. But, if you replaced them, Voila!, alignment heaven. You could null the carrier right down, make both sidebands identical, the works. If you get one of these beasts, and it sounds tinny, look to the crystals.
I0GXK Rating: 2010-11-24
power glow Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It was my first HF transceiver, between 1976 and 1978. Probably, it had few knobs and buttons for my first years of hamming and I betrayed it with a much state of the art FT101E. Only after about 30 years, I've got one again, through e-Bay, and now I'm still looking for spare time to relign it... Sooner or later I'll be back on the air, with plenty of power and a delicate glow under the cover!
WB3ERE Rating: 2006-06-20
30 years and going. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Got my first GT-550 at Dayton, 1976 I believe, it was a basket case, in a cardboard box. I restored it and used it till it was destroyed in a fire in 1884. Missed it's great receive so much that I found another and still use it to this date. I also have a Yaesu FT-767GX and an ICOM 706MkII but that Galaxy hears stations that the newer ones can't. Plus I love the soft glow of the tubes, especiall on a cool winter evening.
K9LJB Rating: 2006-02-24
Used one /MM in 1970 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I had one of these great radios installed on a 56 foot sailboat that I crossed the Atlantic from Gibraltar to Barbados on in 1970. It was a very solid and reliable radio with enough punch to get through and run phone patches, even if the conditions were poor on 20 and 15. The compact size was important given that space is at a premium under those conditions. I used it with a HyGain triband vertical mounted on the mizzen mast with the stays as radials. There's a picture of a much younger me at the microphone at http://whitaker.tripod.com/k9ljb/K9LJB_MM.HTM
W8OB Rating: 2003-09-28
oldie but great Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
picked one of these up off of ebay for a song it came with the power supply vox board and calibrator board. great receiver on this one picks out the weak ones right along with the newer rigs. Lots of transmit power if needed. very little drift after a few minutes of warm up time, tuning smooth but in 5 khz readouts, takes only a few seconds to tune tx up. downside is uses hard to find .206 switchcraft type 3 con jack for mike input and cw filter is hard to find if anyone has one out there for sale let me know. If you can grab one of these in working condition do it you wont be sorry