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Reviews For: Standard C-5900 DA

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Standard C-5900 DA
Reviews: 6MSRP: $850.00 approx
Description:
Tri band 6 meter 2 meter and 70 cm-440
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0064.8
G8VDP Rating: 2020-09-01
The Dogs danglies of radios Time Owned: more than 12 months.
A dream radio. Incredible and way in front of the others being made at time of manufacture. In fact all Standard Radio products were well ahead of their time. It still holds up today against modern radios. I just love mine and not a bit of trouble ever. Cross band repeater function is easy to set up and works a treat. If you get the chance to own one. Don't hesistate.
N2PLI Rating: 2009-12-13
The best dual band radio ever made Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is the best performing radio ever produced it is immune to intermod much better then the radios of today.Its a shame they went out of business If standard was around today I wonder what high tech radio they would have
KC8ADU Rating: 2007-03-01
the best 2m/70cm/6m fm mobile i have owned Time Owned: more than 12 months.
this is the best performing fm mobile i have ever owned.
bad thing is they are no longer availible and folks dont give them up till they finally die.
since that is how i acquired several of mine i can tell you the sore spots.
1.
cracked 2m pa module.
repairable if you can solder and have proper equipment.most common failure.
2.
hot running display lamps overheat the lcd.
easy to replace with 3mm white led's.also easy if you can solder and understand basic electronics.
3.
after heavy use all the surface mount electrolytic caps dry out and fail high esr.
i replace them all including the ones in the faceplate with smd tantalums.
should then outlive the owner.
requires a steady hand and good soldering skills.
i have repared dozens of these rigs and these are the most common cause of failure in these now old units.
i may as time permits write a more detailed "care and feeding" article.
AC6IN Rating: 2006-03-03
Stunning Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Amazing, I just picked one of these up about six months ago. It is crazy how much better the receive and transmit audio is over all my other radios. It is much better then my Kenwood 741,732,733 and other Icom radio's.

Standard please take the rights back from Yaesu and start making kick ass radios again. To bad Standard went away, the quality of these radios just smokes the current radios offered from the big 3.
N1KDO Rating: 2004-11-24
greatest ever! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ok, ok. I know the reviews on eHam might as well be rated in binary (0=lousy 1=great) but this Standard C5900 is the best mobile radio I have owned.

I have had Icoms and Yaesus, and they pale in comparison. The best feature of the C5900 is the nearly bombproof front end. I can drive to the top of the local radio mountain, and my friend's $uper expen$ive Motorola mobile radios squawk and beep, but the C5900 seems immune from front end overload. No intermod.

The radio can operate on any of 50/144/440 MHz, with 800 MHz receive, and it can do 144/144 and 440/440 (both left and right on 2M or 70cm simultaneously), which is super convenient.

The "hyper memories" work like the radio buttons on your car radio; there are 7 hyper memories with their own direct access button. The hyper memories remember the settings of both sides of the radio, so you can put your favorite pairs of repeaters on any of the hyper memories and access them with a single button press. Yaesu's new FT8900 can do this too, but with only 5 hyper memories. A very cool feature.

There are a few weird Japanese things about this radio, like the left-handed microphone and the "roger beep" function. But all and all, I will not part with this radio until it becomes unrepairable. It is now installed in its third car, and going strong, despite the entire cup of Starbucks finest spilled into the mike and other mishaps.

Sadly, Standard is pretty much gone, and Yaesu now owns the name. Their stuff was like the finest hifi gear, and that is no surprise, because a careful read of their manuals will reveal that Standard was, in fact, Marantz Japan.

I have been looking for another one. Do you want to sell me yours?
N2UID Rating: 2004-08-29
A loaded 3 band radio for under $900.00 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
When I purchased the radio I was surprised at all of the features this radio had. 3 bands,extended receive but with very little to no intermod. I was also suprised on how sensitive the receiver was in the amateur band limits. This radio will clearly hear stations that all my other radios do not hear clearly. Audio on transmit and receive is also crisp, clear and well balanced. The radio has plenty of memory channels and a memory chip could be purchased to add more channels or freq's.The left display shared 6 and 2 meter memories, the right 440 on up. 3 power settings,3
10 and 45 on 6&2. 440 was 3, 10& 35.
The only drawback the radio had was heat dissipation. When long ragchews happened the radio would get almost untouchable from heat buildup. When the fan came on it was loud but not
obnoxious. Still the radio has not burned out any power transistors. A year later I bought a second C-5900 and it is still working also. If you see the new Yaesu FT 8800 and FT 8900 you will see a
resemblance to the C 5900. The name vertex STANDARD says it all. I hope they are as good and rugged as their ancestor the 5900.
de N2UID