| Author |
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Znut
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 6:22 pm: | 
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Does anybody have anything to say about Midland's 79-290 radio? How is the sideband stability? It doesn't have the same PLL circuit as the Emperor 5010/Alan 9001 does it? If so it might be neat! I hear it changes over REAL easy to have 6 bands, or just full 10 meter operation. I know it has dual finals and when "opened up" (not frequency) it is pretty potent.
Thanks folks!
Randy |
Highlander
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 8:18 pm: |
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I've been wondering if it is similar to the Alan, because Midland and Alan are the same company. It looks like a nice little unit! |
Znut
| | Posted on Thursday, February 07, 2002 - 12:46 pm: |
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So you are curious too, Highlander? I have no idea what all happens when you set the CPU to 240 channel or 10 meter mode. Does it still tune in 10k steps(except the five normally skipped) ending in 500 (i.e. 27.205) or zero, or can you select the tuning resolution? Does it have a provision to move 10k up, like a +10k switch after conversion? Is the audio any good? I figured someone here would already know. I'm looking into this some more. |
Znut
| | Posted on Thursday, February 07, 2002 - 7:01 pm: |
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O.K. folks. I know this will probably show up with my last post, but here goes. The Midland 79-290 has various reviews over the last 5 or 6 years. Overall, for the money, it is a sleeper!(from what I've read) It has channels, power, looks, and small size. Early reviews say sideband is warbly, likely from poor power regulation to the PLL or something. Later reviews say it sounds good on SSB. There is a version 1.1, I guess the latest. It is different in a few aspects. One is the mic. wiring - the new ones use cobra/uniden wiring! Another, I think, is the channel mod. You don't have to open the case anymore. The other main one I would like to read more about, SELECTIVITY! Early reviews say it is noisy, and the front-end is(was?) easily overloaded. I would imagine ver. 1.1 would be a response from the market, good marketing if so. One thing I noticed while surfing is the number of hams who use them on AM/SSB. It covers the WHOLE band in 10 meter mode, albeit in 10k increments(I think). The only way I'll know is if somebody who has a newer one can respond to my posts here or GET ONE AND SEE.
Overall, looks like this unit and the Titan are candidates because of "bargain" potential. The Titan has FM and more tuning flexibility. The Midland has size, theft deterrence, POWER, and the ability to switch modes to deter "charlie".
Randy
P.S. I hope the moderation crew is OK and things get posting again. |
Triplecguy
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2002 - 4:03 am: |
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Well gentlemen, I will let you all know very soon. I just ordered me up a 79-290 this evening and I should hopefully have it sometime next week. I am very excited and I anticipate very good things. I will definately check it out on SSB and look at the expanded channells and 10 meter coverage. There is only one thing I regret about about ordering it, and that's that Copper doesn't offer the Midland line. I shopped all over the internet and the best price was from ALF enterprises in Washington. I really would have preferred to do my business with Copper since I can trust them. I know that they can't carry everything, but Midland is a major product line. That is the ONLY reason I didn't spend my money with them, and now I feel guilty about going elsewhere. But I will buy all of my accesories there, so don't everybody hate me, OK?
73's form Big Dan |
Forummaster
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2002 - 9:09 am: |
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Tripleguy,
Don't feel guilty about buying elsewhere. All we can ask is that you give us a shot at your business. We can't earn it every time but we sure appreciate it when we do.
Thanks for keeping us in mind. Be sure to give us a report on your new radio. |
Znut
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2002 - 5:55 pm: |
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Triplecguy, I'm anxious to hear what you think when you get to play with your radio. You will probably need to order an astatic 575 M6, wired for cobra, from Copper electronics, very soon!(Right?) I hear the mic gain is weak. Finally Midland gave up, at least on one radio, on the unique mic wiring.
Randy |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2002 - 6:20 pm: |
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Back when I got into radio Copper sold midland radios.Did Copper change ownership 11 or 12 years ago,because service and product line improved 1000% from then. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2002 - 10:22 pm: |
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Come on you guys did I piss every one off or am I just dull and boring.I know both techs and the Master are busier than hell,but you other guys avoid me like the plague,what's up? |
Forummaster
| | Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2002 - 11:36 pm: |
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Bigbob,
No we didn't change ownership but we did purchase a new building at about that time which helped us to become better organized.
We stopped selling Midland radios because of low demand. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Monday, February 11, 2002 - 9:42 pm: |
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I myself can't see why anybody would want one anyhow,except for no dough.All my friends threw them in the trash to upgrade to 148gtl,Cobra 2000s and president Grants,they couldn't give them away!(the midlands that is) |
707
| | Posted on Monday, February 11, 2002 - 11:05 pm: |
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the Midland 78-999 and 78-574 were competitive, performance wise, to any radio in their day and today. They both used the same Cybernet TRF dual board as the GE Superbase. The 78-999 was fully featured, solid steel construction, dual antenna switch, dual metering, easily capable of 25w out, basically a steel and chrome version of the Superbase, without the useless clock, while the 78-574 had basic bare-bones SSB radio controls. I've owned both of those models and Cobra models including 140, 148 & 2000. The Midlands kicked the &*&$ outta the Cobra receivers. I still have a GE Superbase, just for that board along with the speech compression. It's not as pretty as a Cobra 2000, but it will dig the signals outta the depths and is LOUD. I am still looking for a another clean 78-999. Granted, Midland came out with some crap along the way, just like everyone else, but Long Live Cybernet. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2002 - 5:57 pm: |
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All the midlands I ever seen were am only and purty lack-luster,but that was early in my career.I never got to handle any of the better units. |
USA194
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2002 - 9:05 pm: |
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How could you possibly go wrong with a radio endorsed by C.W. McCall? ;-)
I cut my "trickin" teeth on PLL02A Midland 13-882 and 77-882 radios and their Truetone clones. I once had quite a fleet of them laying around. Those little dudes would talk after you clipped the mod limiter. Splatter? Heck Yes! The best mod was to use the "Delta Tune" control for selecting lowers, regular and uppers, then jumper the ANL/NB on and use that switch to give you even more tuning range. Of course...all of these radios were only used into a dummy load for experimental purposes only. |
Triplecguy
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 - 8:08 pm: |
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Well gentlemen, my 79-290 showed up today as I was leaving the house to go to work. I only messed with it for a few minutes, but it seems pretty cool. It definately does not do the 240 channels or the 10 meter conversion without the internal mod. I hopefully will have that done next week and then I let you all know how it does.
Big Dan |
707
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 - 9:00 pm: |
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did you try this:
Press and hold "DW" and "9" then turn radio on. Select bands by using the "19" button. To set for 28Mhz to 29.7 Mhz press and hold "LCR" and "MIC" then turn radio on. To switch back to 40 channel mode repeat process |
Triplecguy
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 - 10:35 pm: |
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707, yeah I tried that first thing. Nothing happened. On the old version that was the trick. I guess this is the new version, like 1.1 or something. From what I've heard, there was some audio quality issues with version 1, and I bet when they fixed it they changed the mod. But, on my radio, there is a big bright red sticker that warns altering the electronics inside the cover in any way voids all warranties. I'm sure they put that on there to discourage "tinkering". But the mod that everybody sent me last week said I only have to make a solder bridge across 2 pads to allow for all the extended channels. Then after that is done, the way that you explained is the way to switch between bands. Believe me, I am so excited about this that I am going to write a big ol' honkin review on it next week and tell everyone exactly how it does. Thanks for the help, hopefully we'll get this thing figured out soon, so that anybody that buys one in the future will know exactly whats needed. Talk at ya soon
Big Dan |
doc holiday
| | Posted on Thursday, November 07, 2002 - 3:45 pm: |
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were is the limiter on the midland 79-290,no numbers,on the board need a schematic or basic area too look,please e-mail me at k2jma1@yahoo.com and yes this is a great radio,even for us amatures.hi hi,doc holiday |
F.Y.I.
| | Posted on Monday, January 27, 2003 - 12:40 pm: |
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Leave the AM carrier power (VR3) set low- say 4-5 watts. The O'scope proves this! As tempting as it is to jack up the power, you will rob needed regulated current for the modulation circuit if you opt for a dead key of 8-10 watts AM. Yes the radio will output as high as 10watts AM but with little modulation, no forward swing, and distortion a plenty! You can remove Q33 to defeat the power limiter but take caution on the results when tuning!! It can end up sounding harsh and lousy, depending. VR8 adj. the SSB. VR7 is for the TX meter level, and VR1 sets the RX meter. Incidentally, the l.e.d. meter is practically useless with its two-segment increments. Midland needs to break down the response to individual segments for better resolution. Remove the screws holding all devices mounted on the rear panel heatsink and apply heat transfer compound. Helps to keep the components run cooler and forces the heatsink to do its job. The proof is when the sink is quite warm, yet the components aren't! The biggest improvement for this radio is to give the horrible stock mic. to your CB enemy and then plug in a good brand name power mic. The modulation mod that has you swapping out a chip resistor for a lower value one should be AVOIDED!! A good mic and adj. of the AMC pot will do nicely and still provide clean sounding audio. Don't get clip happy and start hacking this chassis. A lab grade sig/gen revealed the receiver was somewhat detuned. Retuning made a noticable improvement. |
davemadeworldwide
| | Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 5:46 pm: |
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Hi all the 79-290 does have some problems on side band after u do the modes and thats all i know.I have a new rci2970 and it does better then the 79-290 and in my shak i have a kenwood 570s.
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