CRT Space V Review

[Buick Mackane]

I was recently on the lookout for a new mono band 2m FM radio..My preference was an older radio from the big 3 (Yaesu.Icom.Kenwood) I was keeping a close eye on eBay when a CRT Space V popped up for sale. I had originally dismissed the cheap Chinese anytone clone radios. But at £30 it was well within budget. So i bought it. As new. Boxed with the bracket. Instructions and even the mic holder complete with screws.

Its the smallest mobile radio I've ever seen. Roughly 4 inches Square. Power output is bang on Spec. 5-10-17 Watts. Had an on air check from a station 30 miles away running 5 watts and all was good. 199 Channels. And easy to program from the front panel buttons. Including repeater offsets and Sub tones etc. It can be programmed via a PC. But the only thing I've found so far that can't be done via the front panel is programming repeater names. So you don't really need to hook it to a PC.. RX Audio is nice and loud and clear enough. The display is bright and easy to read given its small size. Although some smaller characters can be a struggle..Its a menu driven radio apart from the Volume control..

Downsides ?

Sensitivity isn't as good as my Icom 706 mark 2 or my Key PMR radio. Specs say 12db SINAD 0.25uv (Update its on par with my 706)


The scan speed isn't the fastest. But not an issue with me.

The mic plugs into the PCB internally. But you could chop the cable where it leaves the radio and fit an RJ45 socket if you wanted too.

The signal meter comprises of 4 Horizontal bars stacked on top of each other. Which don't seem to equate to anything. So as a signal meter its pretty useless.

When changing frequency or Channels via the mic buttons there is the odd 'Stutter'' But its hardly problematic. And pretty common with cheap radios.

Ive read these radios can get hot. But i won't be running more than 10 watts. And I'm not one for long overs. Plus i have a few small fans if needed.

There is also a UHF version. And a low band version. The low band version is a bit rarer and costs more. The ''V'' version covers 136-174MHz.

So all in all first impressions are good. All i wanted was something cheap & cheerful to leave on in the background to monitor 2m And for that it suits the bill... Will it last ? Watch this space

[Antoni]

Don't go on published sensitivity figures. They are usually wildly pessimistic. I do think you missed a decimal point out with 25uV though. Usually radios do between 0.12uV for very sensitive (often but not always accompanied by being very easily overloaded) and abt 0.25uV or higher for some, particularly scanners.

If you specify poor figures no-one notices and you're not creating a noose for yourself.

[Buick Mackane]

Quick update. The Squelch is pretty weak. It has nine settings and only really removes background hiss. You can't Squelch out an S1 signal. So if you get any kind of QRM your pretty much buggered..

And another thing worth noting is even when the volume is on its lowest setting it's still quite loud..But considering the price i paid for it I'm pleased with it..

[Buick Mackane]

Don't go on published sensitivity figures. They are usually wildly pessimistic. I do think you missed a decimal point out with 25uV though. Usually radios do between 0.12uV for very sensitive (often but not always accompanied by being very easily overloaded) and abt 0.25uV or higher for some, particularly scanners.

If you specify poor figures no-one notices and you're not creating a noose for yourself.

Well after doing a few comparison tests with my 706 (pre-amp on) Its pretty much on par with it. So it has good ears..

[Antoni]

Trick with the volume control being vicious is to put a resistor in series with the feed wire to the pot. The outer pin which is not the ground wire.This works very with traditional log pots and less well with the digital control pots too (not encoders!).

If the pot is say 10k A (log), put 15k or more in series with it. You will lose some maximum gain. There's usually far too much anyway, in the sense that the speaker amp is fully driven way before you get near the top of travel. This is often so that the user can get a good loud signal from a transmission with weak modulation while listening in a noisy cab. Not the situation at all when at home.

The trick will make the pot more useable and move the desired position 'further up'. I do this with most of the radios I use.

Digital programmable attenuator systems need a bit more thought.

[NM1020]

I don't know about the Space V, but I can tell you about the Space U version, which I suspect will probably be the same, other than the VHF and UHF differences.

Yes, the volume doesn't go fully to zero audio on the 'U' either.

I don't think they're quite as sensitive as some other radios, but they're good enough and the received audio is clear.

They get red hot if you have long overs. This doesn't seem to bother them and I've never heard of one blowing up. I bought mine a few years ago over the counter at Knights brand new and it's never been a moments trouble. I've had mine so hot that the paint has started to flake off the heatsink in places. Latterly I've given it an easier time by fitting a cooling fan on top of it and blowing downwards and this has made a dramatic difference to its running temperature and it now runs virtually stone cold, even after a 5 minute over!

The only fault that I've heard of on more than one occasion has been the report of no receive audio. I have my own theory as to why this could be. Many jack plugs that you might want to plug into the rear ext. speaker/programming socket are slightly too fat on their plastic body and they push against the heatsink, so there's a tendency to force them in anyway. I think that this eventually breaks the socket connections away from the board inside the radio, causing no audio from the speaker, but that's just me guessing what possibly could be happening - I guess that when they were designed, a thin bodied jack plug was used in the initial prototyping. I grind down the bodies of these fatter jack plugs before attempting to insert them, thus not stressing the socket or its internal connections to the circuit board and I've had no problems.

The transmit audio is absolutely fantastic on the Space U...I can't say about the Space V as I've no personal experience with them. If you turn the mic volume up to maximum in the menu, you can hold the mic at arms length or down on your lap (possibly useful when driving if you do that sort of thing) and it'll still pick up your voice loud and clear as if you were talking close to the mic - it's like it has its own built in Ham-Master 4200 base mic!