| N2DY |
Rating:      |
2010-09-01 | |
| Very Pleased |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had my JT220M for a about a year now and I am very pleased. We have a group that uses 220 on Long Island and everyone is using the Jetstream. All have good things to say about it.
I also have the comparable Alinco 220 rig and the Jetstream appears to be a Chinese attempt at a clone, but with 50 watts output. The heat sink is larger than the Alinco to accommodate the higher output. The Alinco is only 25 watts. The 3 db Jetstream advantage can be useful for long distance contacts. In some places the Jetstream is actually cheaper, despite the higher output.
Receive sensitivity appears to be excellent. The big blue display takes some getting used to. As others have noted, you cannot really dim it down very much and so it is a little distracting in the shack. The rig has an 8 pin mic jack that will accept Alinco or Kenwood mics. It is a bit more solid than using an RJ-45 type jack.
The price is right. With limited 220 mobile choices out there these days, the JT220M has a nice niche. One would think that Jetstream could develop similar rigs for other bands like 2M and 440 and be the low price leader. If you want to get into 220, the Jetstream is an excellent choice at a relatively low price. |
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| K4PKM |
Rating:      |
2010-08-31 | |
| Great Rig So Far |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Had mine for several months now with no problems, great audio reports, and good ease of use. Had a Kenwood previous to this but wanted something a little more modern, and less expensive than the Alinco with the additional power. Our local hams are trying to increase 220 usage, so we have started a weekly 220 net.
Folks give this radio a good report on the net, and I have been pleased so far. No idea about longevity, only time will tell. I think the unit is solid, well-made, and has some nice features, such as a mode to clean up signals of noise assuming you are not trying for DX. Helps clarity of good signals, not designed for weak signals - in other words it is NOT a passband filter - just a nice addition for when it is useful. A bonus, in other words.
Easy to program w/out software. If you really have 100 frequencies to program (you're luckier than me-no more than 20 ones around here!), even this amount would not be hard to program. If the software is buggy or hard (I cannot say it is or it isn't), forego it and just do it by hand. No biggie.
220 rocks - get on the band now!
73,
Robert AK3Q |
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| KB1GCK |
Rating:     |
2010-05-30 | |
| Toss-up with Alinco 235 |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Got mine at the spring 2010 Nearfest along with the 2/220/440 base antenna. Close you eyes and the receive is about the same as the Alinco 235. S meter is VERY stingy, don't panic and return the rig because of this. Once I got the correct antenna it worked fine, the one I got from Jetstream was a dual band marked as a tri-band. I replaced that with the Cushcraft ARX-220B Ringo for 220MHz ($99). Display is a bit bright even when turned down, housing is big and beefy with lots of heat sink, output measured a whopping 72 WATTS!! on a Diamond SX-400 meter with about a 1.3 SWR. Mic connector fits in a lot firmer than the Alinco 235 (I had one). So it's 72 watts output for $240 OR 25 watts for $300 with the Alinco made me lean towards the Jetstream (Like there are many 220 radios on the market - not) The guy I bought it from Radio Oasis (George) was VERY professional and offered to refund my dough without hesitation, I kept the dual band base antenna as a spare. |
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| NL7SX |
Rating:      |
2010-03-24 | |
| good radio, positive impovements in latest run |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| bought on 20MAR2010. Display brightness is not too bright. Microphone has better audio characteristics than an earlier mic. Output confirmed at over 50 watts at 14vdc. Slightly wider than DR135. |
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| W8STU |
Rating:      |
2010-03-11 | |
| GREAT RADIO AND PRICE |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I shopped around and found the best price from the K1CRA store. I called them to confirm the shipment and the Craig was very pleasant and told me the radio had shipped FEDEX and emailed the tracking number. I highly recommend K1CRA Store.
I received the radio two days later. I opened the box with excitement. I was pleasantly surprised it looked heavy duty. The heat sink was big enough to handle the 50 watt output. The controls are very similar to the Alinco 235.
I hooked up the radio as a base and was surprised on how EASY it was to program. I had the thing programed it about five minutes with just a glance or two at the manual. I would not waste your time with the program. If you were to program all 99 memories in the radio it probably only take ten to fifteen minutes tops.
After I had it programed and talked to a local ham on his repeater 224.960. The local told me the transmit audio was crisp and clear. We then went to simplex and I got the same great reviews on the audio. I have not used it on high power for a long period of time so I do not know if will heat up after a long QSO, but I did use it on 25 watts for a long period and the heat sink was only warm to the touch.
The cool blue display and orange colored function buttons are neat looking. The display is large and would be easy to read in a vehicle.
For the money and the easy of operation and having the ability to have 50 watts on command I think this radio would be a great radio for the beginner or the old ham who wants more power. I would highly recommend this radio. |
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| VA3DDN |
Rating:     |
2009-12-20 | |
| So far so good, but bad programming software |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have had the radio for only a week now, but I like it. Overall, no problems except with the "free" programming software offered by the supplier.
I could not get the software to functiona t all, only getting an error message every time.
Although I had great response from Jetstream USA, they were no help in solving my problem.
I finally found accidentally, that by unplugging the mic from the 8 pin jack, the software will then work, and reads from and writes to the radio. (and that was using an Alinco cable as used for DR-235)
It also worked fine with a serial to usb cable, and worked fine on several computers.
There should be some mention of this in the manual.
The software recognizes my radio as type JT220MBTA, for information
I have to comment that the functionality of the software is really bad, it's almost useless in my opinion.
Its actually easier to just program the radio manually.
Here are some of the deficiencies I noted:
- the program doesn't remember the last location where the frequency list file is saved
- the program doesn't automatically adjust freq for the offset, so you have to calculate/enter manually, even though it asks for offset
- there is no means to insert or otherwise move rows in the freq. list
- there is no means to move rows, or cut/paste
- there is no help file
(FYI, I have found the program software from CBT Inc. for the Alinco DR-235 to be excellent.) |
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| K6ATZ |
Rating:   |
2009-11-14 | |
| Good value? Depends on your expectations. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Jetstream apparently sources the JT220M from the same ODM/OEM in China that supplies Alinco with their DR235 and also makes the QX1588 for the domestic PRC market. I can imagine at least two perspectives on this:
* this low-quality poorly manufactured product is an *insult* to hams everywhere, or...
* at $250 for a powerful 50 watt FM transceiver with a nice loud speaker this is a good value that gets you on 220 MHz and keeps the band active when few easy alternatives are available.
On any given day, I might be of both minds when it comes to this little heatsink.
In the first production run of these radios sold in the US, the buttons under the display did not light up. Mine is from the next batch, and on this one the buttons light up but the volume control will not turn all the way down. A Jetstream rep acted as if both of those issues were intentional and aren’t a problem at all. "Just turn the squelch up" he said, apparently not aware that other ham radios do not work like this and generally not understanding how we operate.
In contrast to what KA2FBL reports here, the Jetstream guy I spoke to was rude and combative despite my best efforts to be polite and helpful, and at one point he was either lying or else completely ignorant about his product. He said they’ve sold "over 500 of these radios and not heard even one complaint" about the front panel, the programming software or anything else, unaware of evidence to the contrary right here on this eHam page.
Ha! The programming software is in fact a sloppy, buggy, hilarious mess. At various stages in establishing a connection it will call the radio a DR235 or a QX1588, if you can get it to connect at all. It won’t even recognize most USB-to-serial converters. I tried two Icom adapters that are identical to Alinco’s and one generic adapter but this software didn’t even see them. The only adapter that worked even halfway was the RT Systems RT-03 - I highly recommend the RT-03 - but after connecting to the radio the software crashed anyway. I suppose I could dig up an old PC with a hardware serial port and install Windows on it, but the software would probably crash again. It's not like there are a lot of repeaters on 220, so fine I entered them by hand.
Both the software and the manual are in extremely poor English by the way – reminds me of manuals from Japan over 30 years ago – but I think they were having problems with more than just translation. In a couple of spots in the manual, it seems as if the writer had never even used the radio.
I saw a review of the Alinco DR235 calling this a "Flinstones" radio, but hey as long as it works well and does what you need then the limited features should not be a big concern at this price. I know nothing about Alinco quality. All I can tell you is that this Jetstream branded radio is cheeeep, from the barely tinned power cord ends to the shorting wires inside my microphone connector.
Yes, the mike shorted out on me and turned the radio off intermittently. The mike plug assembly's collar was not screwed on tightly, quickly came loose, and the wires inside started shorting before I noticed that a screw had fallen out. Upon inspection I found that someone had stripped the wires too far up before soldering to the mike pins. I fixed this by twisting the wires down and screwing that collar super tight, and as long as I was trying to get the volume control fixed I sent the mike along with the radio to Jetstream (with the retailer's support) rather than breaking out the soldering gun.
On this topic also the Jestream guy’s response was hilarious, denying that there was anything wrong with the mike, refusing to open the connector and basically seeming not to understand what I was even saying. It sounded like he’d never soldered anything in his life. Anyway just to get rid of me he grudingly sent me a new mike. You won’t sound too good on this clamshell either but again at this price as long as it works I'll be fine with that.
I should point out that in contrast to my experience with Jetsream, Craig the K1CRA Radio Store man was very helpful and agreed with me that the volume control issue is certainly not an expected "feature", to say nothing of the shorting wires and buggy software I reported, so he helped me get approval to send it to Jetstream for service which as you can see didn’t accomplish much. This product is just poorly manufactured and Jetstream is stuck with selling it however it arrives from their OEM. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of working in places like Shenzhen, the reason so many "Made in China" products arrive working well is that the US, European and Japanese brands send engineers to work with the factory at key stages. If you just place an order, this is what you get. Still, for the price, if it works, and if you don’t expect too much, you’ve got 50 watts on 220 MHz on a budget. Good luck with that.
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|
| K3XT |
Rating:      |
2009-10-10 | |
| Good Upgrade |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| The Jetstream JT220M is an upgrade of the old Kenwood TM331A. My Kenwood died again so I bought the Jetstream. To my pleasant surprise it fit into the same mobile bracket, power cord, and even the Kenwood microphone worked. So in 14 years I finally get 50 watts out on 220 Mhz, 100 memories, at half the price of the Kenwood. I agree with most of what has been reviewed except for the transmit audio quality. I would rate it as poor speaking directly into mic. A lot of puffing/popping noise with audio. Speaking across the mic opening reduced that issue. Plugging in the Kenwood mic improved tx audio even more. A lot of audio output from the built-in speaker. Some quirkiness in the tx offset and memory scanning functions. If you are in the simplex portion of the band and tune into the repeater section the negative offset function turns on as expected. Tune back into simplex section and tx offset does not turn off. All other functions worked as advertised. Fit and finish is good with an easy to read manual. |
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| KA2FBL |
Rating:      |
2009-08-24 | |
| Wonderful Radio and great company service! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I brought the 220 home, downloaded the software, hooked up the radio and BINGO… Nothing! Roger at Jetstream explained that most likely it was the USB adapter. OK, I bought another… and another… and again another! After my desktop I tried my laptop with the same results. I did get the radio to program, but I had to use a mothballed 5+ year old computer with a serial port on the motherboard. Jetstream was extremely helpful, and Roger even offered to exchange the radio at one point.
The overall look of the radio is utilitarian, and it is a very rugged build. Metal screw in mic connector and solid light up mic (same type as the Alinco 220), along with a huge heatsink and 50 watt output make a nice addition. Large display, knobs and buttons too. The only radio button to light up was the power, but it’s not too bad considering the overall radio price. The speaker audio was loud with a good sound to it, and I received nothing but great comments from everyone I spoke to on the output audio. The radio will hold up to what I feel would be very rough service. When the computer did not work I easily programmed the radio by hand.
In closing, it’s well worth the investment in a great band that signals seem to travel far. The radio is solid with a great sound, and best of all was the service I received from Jetstream. Can’t ask for much more…. Except a good USB adapter. Just a word of caution. The radio is great and I see the prices starting to slowly climb. Shop around.
73,
MIKE - KA2FBL
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