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Reviews For: Codan 2110 V

Category: Transmitters: non-amateur adaptable for ham use

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Review Summary For : Codan 2110 V
Reviews: 3MSRP: U$D 4000.00 - 6000.00
Description:
HF manpack radio Am/CW/SSB
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.codan.com.au.
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0035
W0PRH Rating: 2018-05-08
Best Modern Manpack available Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've used the 2110V for a bit over a year. It is the amateur version of the 2110M. It is light beauifully constructed and has excellent support. I also have a Barrett 2090, PRC-138, and PRC-515 and it is hands down the best.

Yes it costs more than consumer grade rigs. But you do very much get what you pay for so get one!
VK3RX Rating: 2011-04-09
Great radio. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Mine is the Standard version, and I have the GPS module. One of our land mobile (non-amateur) HF club networks here in Oz allows position data to be sent, then friends/relatives can log onto the club website and see where you have been when travelling. A useful feature, particularly when we have such large areas outside telephone coverage.

Great little radio, seems to tune just about anything, and great receive audio. Tx audio is good, but there is mylar waterproofing in the handset that can have a slight impact depending on your voice. I've made up a speaker/mike for mine and the audio is great. Details in an article here:

http://www.spirat.com.au/vk5zvs/pic51.htm
KB6NGS Rating: 2010-01-10
Excellent radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is a programmable radio, with lots of built in options. A factory “amateur” option allows free tuning in the ham bands, without having to program a channel. Outside the ham bands you can also scroll through the frequencies, but to transmit, you have to program a channel. The radio has 400 (or 600 for 2110 or Mil.) channels if you prefer channelized operation. You can set up to 100 channels on scan, with voice or selcall recognition (& squelch). It has built in selcall, and optional ALE, and GPS.

My review is for the “Voice only” radio. This radio is available in three versions: “Standard” – with data interface connector; “Military” – green, with data port, encryption, and frequency hopping; and “Voice only” (Although you can send data or code through the mic input).

The radio operates USB/LSB, and AM (according to the pinout diagram, there is a CW mode also, but I have not tried it). Power out is 5 or 25 watts, .25 to 30 Mhz, Rec, 1.6 to 30 Xmit.

The radio is powered from NiMH batteries or SLA’s, operating on user friendly 12 volts nominal. My 8ah NiMH battery gives me about 20-25 hours operation. I also field charge it with a 1 amp portable solar panel.

It is waterproof and submersible (3ft./1Hr.). No worries about rain or falling overboard (I don’t know if it will float). The manual recommends washing the radio in clean water if it gets sprayed with salt water…I can see trying that with my IC706!

It has built in DSP, and an antenna tuner that tunes just about anything I connect to it. The built in DSP makes a major difference in picking weak signals out of the noise. The built in speaker provides good volume, and can be switched off if you want to use only the handset.
Output is via 8mm stud (tuned) or BNC (50 Ohm). I occasionally “force feed” coax fed antennas by connecting the shield and center wire to the ground and antenna terminal, and have been able to get out fine, even with the coax losses. The radio does have built in protection to keep from damaging it, in case you make a mistake. I machined an adapter to go from 8mm to the standard 3/8X24 for portable & wire antennas (unless you use the Codan antennas).

My first QSO was from So. California to Oregon (~1200 miles) on 40M, with a simple wire strung up in my backyard to a tree. Operating and programming is relatively easy. I am one of those that pushes buttons first, and reads the manual when all else fails, and I was able to make good progress without the manual most of the time. Reading the manual does help.

As a minimum you need the radio, battery, handset, and charger with cables. The handset connectors are standard mil U228/9.

If you want to program the radio, I highly recommend that you purchase the programming software (expensive but worth it). The programming software runs on my windows PC, but has the same drawback as most, in that you initially have to type in each channel, one at a time. There is no way to import data from an Xcel or text file. Once entered, you can save and edit the data on your computer.

This is a tough and reliable manpack radio, and I have no regrets buying it. If I ever have to run out of my house in an emergency, this is the radio that will go with me. This is a radio as close to a PRC-138 as you can get with a new rig, except for the 30mhz upper limit.

See http://www.AT-communication.com or http://www.codan.com.au .