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Reviews For: Cherokee AH50

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

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Review Summary For : Cherokee AH50
Reviews: 4MSRP: $99.00 on closeout at AES
Description:
6 meter FM HT from the late 1990s
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0044.8
KC9SNB Rating: 2013-02-08
unique and lots of fun Time Owned: more than 12 months.
So how many 6 meter hand helds do you see out there? I don't mean those little three and four band wonders that add 6 meter, and maybe 220 as low powered and improperly matched afterthoughts - I mean really usable 6 meter hand helds. The Cherokee puts out a full 5 watts on FM, has a full selection of PL tones, and has an adjustable offset of .5 or 1 Mhz. It also has five memories (sadly, this is more than enough for my local repeaters), and a scan function. The radio can not work AM or SSB, and is limited to the standard .5 and 1 Mhz splits, but other than that, it is ideal for playing around on 6 meters. It is pretty easy for me to hit the two repeaters in my local area, and I sometimes work simplex through a mobile mount antenna on my car. In common with many other radios made by Maycom, the AH-50 can use a number of different battery packs designed for standard radios, and can also use a pretty neat little car adapter that allows hook up to a car's electrical system and to a standard mobile mount antenna. Once the adapter is installed in your car, you simply pull the battery pack off of your radio, and insert the car adapter. Antenna and electrical connections are both made through the unit. I have gotten great reports on this radio, with most people I talk to being surprised I am using a handheld. More memories would be nice, but other than that I can really find no fault. If you find one of these on ebay or some such place, and have any 6 meter activity in your area, I would seriously consider getting one. Mine is not for sale.
KF4SCI Rating: 2007-11-08
Similar to Standard, Excellent Quality & Price Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Several local hams decided to try the Cherokee AH50 6 meter ht out. I was able to negotiate a quantity discount from AES and purchased five or six of these radios for $99.00 each.
The first thing I noticed was the design was nearly identical to the Standard Brand ht. Even the battery packs are interchangeable. As a result we bought several more batteries as two of us had old Standard Dual-Band radios.
They also make a similar looking CB radio. The AH-27. These use AA batteries so this battery pack can also be used on the Standard ht.
One radio had a receive problem. It turned out to be the speaker only. Rather than deal with the delays and expense of a warranty return I called the factory to purchase a speaker.
Soon after talking to the man at the factory I had to laugh as he reminded me of the Maytag repairman. He was shocked I was ordering parts and wanted to know why.
I explained everything and he told me that things like this should never happen etc. and that if I would provide my shipping address and list of components he would send me anything I wanted at no charge.
He sent the speaker as requested but also included two complete service manuals and a note that if I needed anything else to please give him the chance to make things right! He sent everything overnight! I had it the next morning.
We never had another problem with any of the radios. They are well designed, rugged and reliable. Factory service was outstanding and they are very easy to work on in the rare chance you do have a problem.
All of us have been extremely pleased.
N2KEJ Rating: 2006-09-09
Near Perfect! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used the HT for several years now and love it.
I have worked 4 states on 52.525 with the stock rubberduck antenna. I have worked repeaters during openings as well!
Good receive sensitivity (better than my Icom T-8A).
TX audio has plenty of punch!
I only wish it had a DTMF keypad for the local repeater.
Too bad it was discontinued. I would like to see one of the big three produce something like this and a good mobile to boot. Something with a noise blanker on 6 would be great. Hey Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu are you reading this!!
NE0P Rating: 2004-07-13
A 6 meter HT! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought one of these back in 1999 when AES had a demo unit for under $95. Nice looking HT, and it uses some of the same battery packs as Standard or ADI, I can't remember which. 5 memories, PL built in, decent receive audio, and 1 call channel were some of the main features of this HT. I sold it when I got an Icom T8A, but ended up with another Cherokee HT in a trade last year. I used it mainly for crossband repeating into the local repeater with a Yaesu FT8900R. It was funny to hear the local machine coming out of a 6 meter HT.

I never got to use one of these during a good 6 meter band opening, but there are people on 6 FM, just not as many as on SSB. It should work fine for some 52.525 DXing, but a better antenna would probably help. This model had the repeater offset set at either 500khz or 1 mhz. There was a AH50SF which came out later which allowed for a programmable offset. If you have a local 6 meter repeater you should probably find out what offset it uses before looking into this HT.

I must say that this was one fine looking HT. It just looked like a quality product, and was alot of fun to use. If you have a 6 meter repeater in your area, or just want something on your belt to monitor 6 meter FM simplex with, go for it.