Ranger Communications RCI-5054DX Product Review page 4

0
Reference Level: 0 dB PEP
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
–10 –8 –6 –4 –2 0 2
Frequency Offset (kHz)
Figure 1—Spectral display of the
RCI-5054DX transmitter during two-tone
intermodulation distortion (IMD) testing.
The third-order product is approximately
22 dB below PEP output, and the fifth-
order is approximately 35 dB down. The
transmitter was being operated at 25 W
output at 50.2 MHz.
two rows just below the display window.
These white buttons are backlit and trans-
lucent, and function legends are printed
in black on the surface of each—a par-
ticularly nice design feature for nighttime
mobile operation. The majority of these
keys control just a single operation—an-
other mobiling plus.
Rear-panel jacks include an SO-239
1
antenna connector, three
phone jacks and a flat three-pin dc power
socket. The mating dc power cord is about
5½ feet long and fused, in the positive
lead only, at 7 A. The phone jacks serve
as connection points for a CW key, ex-
ternal speaker and public address speaker.
A dedicated headphone jack is not pro-
vided. A multi-finned heat sink is at-
tached to the rear apron. An internal
speaker is mounted in the bottom cover.
A mike hanger, an adjustable mobile
mounting bracket with four large knob-
style screws and a handful of associated
fastening hardware are supplied.
The 20-page Owner's Manual, though
brief, is more than adequate. The radio is
simple and intuitive to operate, and the
programming and operating instructions
in the manual text are clearly worded and
easy to follow. A pin-out diagram for the
6-pin microphone connector is included,
but—unfortunately—a schematic dia-
gram of the radio is not.
Basic Feature Basics
Memories
The '5054 comes up in the VFO mode
when the power is switched on. Pressing
the key activates memory mode
MEM
operation. Memory channel one is always
initially selected when entering the
memory mode. Each subsequent stroke
of the key then selects the next higher
channel. A press of the
MAN
will return the radio to the VFO mode.
The tuning knob, microphone control
4 6 8 10
Figure 2—CW keying waveform for the
RCI-5054DX showing the first two dits.
The equivalent keying speed is 60 WPM.
The upper trace is the actual key closure;
the lower trace is the RF envelope.
Horizontal divisions are 10 ms. The
transceiver was being operated at 10 W
output at 50.02 MHz. See text.
buttons and the front panel
tons cannot be used to step through the
memory channels, and the memories are
not tunable.
Splits
Split transmit/receive frequency capa-
bilities—for repeater, phone or CW op-
eration—are supported. Split offsets of up
/ -inch mono
to 4 MHz are possible. The memories do
8
not retain the mode, offset value or di-
rection of the split, though. If you decide
to use memory channels to store repeater
information, you'll have to select the FM
mode and activate split operation sepa-
rately. While the radio is in the split
mode, the transmit frequency appears in
the display when the transmitter is keyed.
Scanning
The transceiver includes a scan fea-
ture that will troll for activity on the pro-
grammed memory channels or within a
range of frequencies. The scan direction
can be set to ascending or descending.
The scan will stop on any signal that
breaks the squelch, and will remain there
until activity ceases for more than two
seconds. Facilities for locking specific
memory channels out of a memory scan
operation are not provided.
The upper and lower scan limits are
programmable. These two frequencies
also serve as the upper and lower limits
of the manually tunable range of the
VFO. Once you've changed these setting
from their default values, to restore the
full 4-MHz VFO tuning range, the upper
and lower 6-meter band edges (50 and
54 MHz) must be manually reentered.
This is a simple operation, though. This
feature is handy when you wish to con-
centrate your attention on a particular
(manual) key band sub-segment—the bottom 80 kHz
or so to listen for CW beacons, from
about 50.103-50.250 for SSB activity or
–60
Reference Level: - 60 dBc/Hz
–70
Vertical Scale: dBc/Hz
–80
–90
100
110
120
130
140
2 4 6
Frequency Sweep: 2 to 22 kHz from Carrier
Figure 3—Spectral display of the
RCI-5054DX transmitter output during
composite-noise testing at 50.02 MHz.
Power output is 10 W. The carrier, off the
left edge of the plot, is not shown. This
plot shows composite transmitted noise
2 to 22 kHz from the carrier.
∆ ∇
and but- within one of any of several different
ranges for searching for FM simplex op-
erations, for example. (See The ARRL
Repeater Directory or visit ARRLWeb for
the suggested ARRL 6-meter Band Plan).
Noise Blanker/Antenna Noise Limiter
The '5054DX features both a noise
blanker and a combination noise blanker/
antenna noise limiter. The noise blanker
is designed to work on repetitive impulse
noise (classic ignition interference). It
wasn't effective on the computer hash
that's generated by my late-model ve-
hicle. The noise blanker/antenna noise
limiter setting worked reasonably well on
my particular flavor of automotive elec-
trical interference, but—unfortunately—
only in the AM mode.
Public Address
The RCI-5054DX's mode switch in-
cludes a PA
nal speaker to the rear-panel
you can use the rig to make door prize
announcements at your club's next
hamfest, or to get the whole gang's at-
tention at the Field Day site ("Hey, ev-
erybody! I worked Western Samoa!"). An
undocumented alternative application is
to use it for evaluating the change in
sound quality when testing substitute
microphones—a feature that's typically
referred to as a "monitor" function.
SSB Operation
The transceiver can operate in either
the upper or lower SSB modes (6-meter
RTTY, anyone?). Separate RF power out-
put and mike gain controls are provided.
The bargraph meter doesn't include a
marker for the ALC set point. I received
good audio reports with the mike gain
control adjusted so that voice peaks hov-
ered at about two-thirds scale when the
RF power output setting was set to maxi-
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
position. Connect an exter-
jack, and
PA
March 2002 73