SIX SHOOTER PREVIEW: RANGER'S RCI-5054DX-100

THE SAN DIEGO SIX-SHOOTERS REVIEW THE

ALL NEW

RANGER COMMUNICATIONS

R C I - 5 0 5 4 D X - 1 0 0

100-WATT SIX-METER

ALL-MODE TRANCEIVER
SN T1Y00797
(prototype unit)




Yup! You read that right! One hundred watts on SSB, fifty watts on FM, AM, and CW. A nice improvement on what has already been shown to be a good entry-level six-meter radio. The original 5054DX has been on the market since July of 2001, and has proven to be a reasonably good success for Ranger Communications. And the solar cycle is not dead yet. There is still a lot of good skip and DX yet to be had on six.
The San Diego Six Shooters were given the unique opportunity by Ranger Communications to test and evaluate a prototype of the new 5054. Here is what we discovered:


QUICK OVERVIEW
A good review on the original RCI-5054 DX was recently published in the March 2002 issue of QST Magazine. And the new rig looks and functions much like the last one. Place the old and new rigs side by side, and you could not tell the difference between them by looking at the front of them, except for the -100 in the model number. The small heat sink on the back of the low-power version is gone on the new rig. There is also a different DC power connector on the back apron. The biggest change is the heat sink mounted on the bottom cover where the 100-watt fan-cooled PA is installed. I am told that this heat sink is not as large as the heat sink you find on the RCI high-power ten-meter mobile radios.


THE QUICK LEARN
Because the QST review of the original radio is so thorough, and because, except for its output power, the new radio functions just like the original, I will not bother to cover most of the territory already covered in the ARRL product review except for a few major points:
First thing you notice when you take the radio out of the box is that this is a BIG radio, physically. Its size reminds me of some of the 11-meter radios I have used in the past. You would probably have trouble installing it in a small or mid-sized car (no problem installing it in my 1969 Ford Ranger!) I did use it as a base radio for a bit, and it is a nice change compared with most newer rigs with their busy front panels..
Second, if you hate these fancy-shmancey menu-operated rigs, you will LOVE this radio. It operates just like the radios of old. Very simple! The operating manual is small in size and only 22 pages thick. About a ten-minute learn! For comparison, the English HALF of the manual for my brand-new Kenwood TH-F6A handie is four times as large with 58 pages of mumbo-jumbo to learn!
Third, the rig still has no sub-audible tone capability. Repeater operation will probably not be possible without a tone board installed. Ranger still does not offer a tone board option for the radio, but a Com-Spec or similar tone unit can be installed if desired. The radio has lots of room inside to accommodate most tone units and wiring in an SS-32, for example, is not a difficult task. There is a location on the main board to connect such a unit, and plenty of room on the rear apron to make a hole for a connector, if desired. Information is readily available from various sources on the Internet on how to install a tone unit.

OOOPS!
After taking the radio out of the box, I did an inspection of it and all of the accessories that came with it. I was a little surprised to discover that the antenna receptacle had a problem. The gold-plated center contact and insulator was recessed. This required me to open the radio and push the contact back into place. I then screwed on a 90-degree angle adaptor so that I could connect and disconnect coax without worrying about it becoming recessed again. A small amount of super glue probably would have solved the trouble, but I do not own the radio, and I did not want to make any permanent repairs to it. I did call Ranger and let them know, and they said that they would contact the factory in Taiwan and watch for the problem. I found no other obvious physical defects with the radio for the rest of the review period, which lasted about eight weeks.

RECEIVE OPERATION
The display was very easy to read from almost any angle, in any light. And the large digits make it easy to read the selected frequency, even from a distance. In darkness, the display and the fourteen function keys directly below the display are illuminated very well with four selectable levels of brightness, including an off position.
Using the VFO took a little getting used to, as this is the only rig I have ever had that uses a cursor system to select the operating frequency. Once I did get used to it, though, QSY is a snap. Programming the memories was a lot easier than on most other rigs, too. My only complaint is that you cannot use the up-down buttons on the microphone or the selector knob to change memory channels. You have to use the memory button on the radio. In mobile operation, this is a bit of a handicap. For base use, no big deal, really!
I found the receiver to be very hot (QST measured the receiver sensitivity at .16 uV on SSB)! When the skip was in, anything that my Yeasu FT-847 could hear (DSP off for a fair comparison), the Ranger could hear as well. This went for all modes that the rig operates on. The ANL (Automatic Noise Limiter) was effective only on AM. And while it is effective at removing a lot of noise, such as static hash, we found that on a very quiet frequency, the ANL raised the noise floor noticeably. If you operate AM, turn the ANL off if you do not really need it. The Noise Blanker (NB) function worked very well on SSB and CW at removing virtually all impulse and static noises. In general, for a rig with no DSP, the unit has little trouble dealing with most noise problems.
I found the RX audio quality to be very good only if you use an external speaker. The tiny (about 1.25 inches) speaker on the bottom of the rig has a boxy, and restricted sound to it. This is because they had to shrink the speaker to accommodate the PA on the bottom cover. I found the unit drives most 8-ohm external speakers well, but it drives a 4-ohm speaker better. In a noisy mobile environment (such as my old Ranger), this can make a big difference. In general, I found that the receiver had excellent receive audio in all modes.
The squelch worked very nice as well. It has good hysterisis on SSB, and on other modes, it functions very good without too much chop on weak signals.
I should note that there is no special receive filter for CW. The SSB filter is used for this mode, which does not seem to be a really big loss since I have yet to hear the CW sub-band so jam-packed that you could not select one signal from another by ear.

ON THE AIR
The transmitter gets great reviews from all those who I have talked to. The SSB audio reports are generally excellent, even with the stock microphone. The FM audio with the stock mike is reported as at least good. I wired an old Turner high-impedance dynamic studio microphone to the unit, and the audio reports went from good to excellent! These reports were consistent whether the person I was talking to was local or on the other side of the country (three contacts on 50.3). I have even had several local QSO's on AM, and the audio reports are always good to excellent.
In mobile operation, the unit showed a problem that many rigs have: SSB frequency shift (FM-ing) when the vehicle engine had not been run for a bit. It was not a major thing, but it was noticeable by other operators. Best advice: Leave the engine running as much as possible when operating the radio at full output on SSB or CW.
I checked the unit out on my Yeasu monitor scope. The FM was clean with no AM on the signal. The SSB looked clean with no visible clipping or other distortion. And the AM, while not having a perfectly symmetrical modulation envelope (slightly more negative than positive), there was no visible distortion or clipping.
There is one function on the radio that the QST article did not mention (maybe for their own reasons). There is a button on the front of the radio labeled R.BEEP. It stands for Roger Beep. When this function is activated, a very brief beep tone is appended to the transmit audio when the transmitter is unkeyed, and is a function you will only find on Ranger radios. Ranger has taken a bit of heat from some purists for having this function on their ham rigs. This is because they see this as a throwback to a practice by many 11-meter operators who put disdainfully irritating beeps, burps, squawks, and other noises on their transmitters. My personal opinion is simply this: Most of the time, I would not use it. However, under very weak signal conditions, these end-of-transmission signals can be helpful in letting the person that you are talking to know that you are awaiting their reply. I have used this function only under those conditions, as have some Six-Shooter club members who have the original 5054DX. To date, no complaints have been received, but continuous use would probably irritate some hams. (Heck, NASA uses them! Maybe we should call them NASA beeps).
As noted earlier, the PA has fan-forced cooling. The fan on the test unit is integrated into the heat sink under a plastic air deflector. It keeps the sink very low profile (under half an inch thick). When the fan operates, it draws outside air into the chassis through holes in the rear apron, around the PA board, and exhausts it out the bottom, horizontally, through the fins. This is the only way Ranger can get away with as small a heat sink as they do. It is extremely important to make sure you do not obstruct any airflow when mounting or installing the unit. When using the radio as a base, it would be a good idea to use some kind of spacers under the radio. Even some one-inch rubber or plastic feet could be stuck to the bottom of the unit. The fan is thermostatically controlled, and operated with almost no noise. It is important to note that the fan will run until the PA has cooled sufficiently, even if the radio is switched off!
Speaking of heat, the heat sink only got moderately warm during full-power SSB operation. It definitely warmed up when operated at full power in AM or FM for long-winded QSO's. Not waffle iron hot, but much warmer than on SSB, and the fan ran quite a bit of the time.
There is another feature that you won't find on most other ham rigs: A P.A. function. This is another throwback to Ranger's C.B. radio roots. One could certainly find uses for this feature. It does not play the radio's receiver. On the rig I tested, when I activated the feature, there was very noticeable amplifier hiss out of the speaker I had connected to it. Press the mike button, and you will get about three watts of audio from whatever speaker you have connected.


CONCLUSION
For a radio in the entry-level price range, I found the RCI-5054DX-100 to be a great piece of gear. You won't find all of the bells and whistles like on the stuff costing a grand or more, but it does not mean the rig is a slouch. It will put you on the air for rag chews, some skip and DX chasing, and nets. I used it as a base for a few weeks, then installed it in my truck and shook it up a bit. It never failed to operate, and never showed any serious quirks or problems. The only disappointment was my inability to use any of the available repeaters.
Would I have liked having it permanently bolted into my old truck? You bet (after installing a tone board, of course)! It would also make a good portable or emergency rig for those temporary emergency ops, as well as a great rig for RTTY and some data use (QST notes that the TX-RX turnaround time is no good for AMTOR ops, however).
Rumor has the price for this unit pegged at about .00USD, with release slated for May or June of 2002.
We thank Ranger Communications for letting the San Diego Six-Shooters Amateur Radio Club try out this nice rig.

73 DE, Stacy, KC6STT.


NOTE: At the time of this review, this radio has not yet been type-accepted by the F.C.C. It was sent to the lab for certification the last week of March, 2002.











Published Specifications

General

Frequency Range (RX and TX) 50.000 to 54.000 MHz
Tuning steps 100 Hz, 1 KHz, 10 KHZ, 100 KHz, 1 MHz
Operating modes USB, LSB CW, AM, FM
Frequency control PLL synthesizer
Frequency tolerance 0.005%
Frequency stability 0.001%
Operating temperature range -10 to +50 C
Antenna connector Type M (UHF)
Antenna load impedance 50 Ohms
Supplied microphone Plug-in (6-pin) low-Z Dynamic
Meter function RX signal, TX output, SWR (Relative)
Operating voltage 13.8 VDC
Dimensions 7 (W) X 10(L) X 2 3/8(H)
Weight 4 lb. 3 oz.




Transmitter

RF power output 100W PEP SSB, 50W RMS CW, AM, FM
Modulation 16F3, A3E, J3E, A1A
Spurious emissions -50dB
Carrier suppression -50dB
Full power TX current* Approx. 14 Amps

Receiver

Sensitivity AM/CW: 0.5 uV for 10 dB SINAD
FM: 0.25 uV for 10 dB SINAD
SSB: 0.15 uV for 10 dB SINAD
Image rejection ratio -65 dB
AGC figure of merit SSB/CW/AM: 80 dB at 50 mV for a
10 DB change in audio output
Audio output 2.5 watts
Idle current (Squelched, no signal)* 1.1 amps

*These specs measured by S.D. Six-Shooter Gary, N6LRV. There were no published
values. Photos by S.D. Six-Shooter Joe, N6SIX.



Can Ranger Top Ranger?


It seems each generation of the Ranger transceivers offers improvements designed around customer feedback thus, making our Amateur Radio communications even better. The new RCI 5054DX-100 is no exception. The 5054 appears to share the same design platform as its older 10 and 12 meter brothers but offers 6 meter all mode communications with the same no-nonsense controls. In these days of exceptional propagation, thanks in part to the 11-year solar cycle, 6 meters is enjoying fantastic DX openings in single side band AND FM too! RCI introduced the 5054 in mid 2001 to offer an economically priced way for hams to enjoy 6 meters in a proven design. This year RCI hopes to offer this 100-watt PEP version to help you reach out and touch someone even easier. During my afternoon visit with Stacy and the 5054DX-100 I found it easy to operate having no prior experience with RCI radios. In our basic bench tests I was please to discover the test radio was very stable in frequency in all modes and across the entire band according to my TCXO frequency counter. I also found the radio transmitted the advertised RF power levels and the DC current draw on my power supply was not unusual for a 100 watt transceiver;

AM 11.8 amps avg. @ 13.9Vdc
FM 11.8 amps avg. @ 13.9Vdc
SSB 13.5 amps avg. @ 13.9Vdc mid band with mic level at 50%.

It should be noted also that the 100ms inrush current never peaked about the 13.5 amps DC during numerous transmissions.

The radio is off to RCI for final inspections and approvals; pending these we hope to see the 5054DX-100 on the store shelves very soon. Increasing the 5054's RF power is a welcome change sometimes making the difference in whether or not I could hear Stacy at all on our many simplex QSO's with the radio. I find the 5054DX-100 lives up the RCI traditions offering cloud-punching power and simple operation in their proven transceiver design. It will likely be as wildly popular as the 5054-DX has been and continues to be. See you on 6,

73, Gary, N6LRV.

The New RCI-5054dx-100 has the same look and feel as the RCI-5054DX

Looking at the rear of the unit...Hey, where did the heatsink go???

There's the heatsink...notice the smaller speaker. An external speaker is a must for mobile operation!