Good solid radio
Pros:
-Loud audio
-Excellent receive in AM and sideband
-Large accurate meter
-RF gain control
Cons:
-Size
-SWR warning light may light even though SWR is under 3:1
The Bottom Line:
Yes I would recommend this radio to anyone, it's a nice solid radio, better then some CBs you can get for alot more money.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
This is a review for the Galaxy DX-949 mobile/base AM/SSB CB radio, I was unable to find any reviews online for this radio, so I'm writing my own review. Having owned many CB radios in my time, this is best one by far in all areas except one. Overall, this is an excellent radio to own, the AM transmitted audio is above average for CB radios of any price, as did many "radio checks" over the air and other CBer's agreed that the AM is very nice, it's a loud radio even without opening it up and tuning it. On SSB, the audio is average, you should be careful when using SSB with this rig, it's very easy to overmodulate and your signal then sounds horrible. The receive is above average for both SSB and AM, the Galaxy Noise Filter improved reception of local stations but drowned out distant stations that were buried in the noise. The noise blanker and ANL, however, do help with noise problems, switching the ANL on completely removed ignition noise in the tests I conducted. This radio comes with both a RF gain and Clarifier controls, which are both a must for serious CB work...
Out of the box, the radio transmitted about 4 watts AM carrier, swinging to about 4.5 watts, in SSB it was about 13 watts PEP (checked with a Bird meter, the on-radio meter read the same, which was rather surprising.)
The '949, like nearly all Galaxy radios, is easy to modify, including that evil "extra channels" modification. Opening the bottom cover and turning some pots brings the AM power to 18 watts and the SSB to about 22. There are other mods you can perform that bring the radio even higher.
On the road, the radio shined on the congested channel 19 (I-95 and I-66 were the test areas) Loud audio, no problem "punching through" here...receive was almost too good, but that was fixed with the RF gain control...The radio also has a talkback and roger beep, which are somewhat useless unless you want to either hear yourself talk or like annoying people.
All in all, excellent radio for the money, same board as export radios, same audio, very nice radio overall.
