Galaxy DX 48T

[Scipio Kid]

Howdy all,
Got a fellow wanting to sell me his 5 year old Galaxy 48T (haven't met him, we're texting back and forth). I looked it up and it's a 10 meter radio. I asked if it's a CB and he says yes, and he says it has sideband. I found the Galaxy info which clearly states it does not. But it has am and fm and all kinds of settings I'm not used to and apparently a lot of power.

Any feedback on this radio would sure be appreciated. He wants a hundred for it. Is it worth the bucks?

Thanks,
Scipio

[sonoma]

you will find that so many people that really do not know what they have as far as radios. so many think that if it has upper and lower bands of channels that it is side band. they just do not know as much about radios as they try to make you think.

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[MDYoungblood]

The only way it would be worth a hundred bucks to me is if I needed the amp section to replace a bad one in a 2995DX, other than that I would pass on it.

3's

Greg

[Scipio Kid]

Well, he let me take it to try out so I've got it but, like Sonoma said, there are a lot of folks who don't understand much about radios even though they love the hobby or at least the talking on them. Heck, I still hear kids say "Breaker 1-9" on channel 38. In fact, I spotted a Motorola Radius 200 for sale as a CB the other day. I texted the guy that it wasn't a CB and he texted back and thanked me saying "you're absolutely right, I checked it out and it's not a CB, It's a two way radio". Now if that didn't make you chuckle, well then you're just a little dumber than I am and that's really an insult.

This guy ran a pilot truck service and was tired of people walking on him on the road so he went to a custom CB shop and asked for a powerful radio no one could interfere with. They set him up with this, installed it in his rig and charged him 700 bucks for the whole thing. It has a #8 power cable (10 times the size of the #16 on a typical Cobra ... bigger than what I have on my 2 hp air compressor) with a 40 amp inline fuse. I can't really test it for a few days but I'll admit to being one who (again, as Sonoma said) "do not know what they have". It has a selector with A,B,C,D,E,F,G & H settings. On "E" it's all 40 CB channels and it would appear it also has 40 channels on all the other settings too. It also has FM and AM and the NB/ANL switch can be set to +10KHz. I figure these are all different frequencies or something but really don't know what they do. On AM it seems to work like a regular CB radio. I listened in on some of the other settings, but wasn't picking up anything. I also noticed the meter light dims when transmitting, even on minimum power, 4 watt swings to 20 or so. The Startlite and channel indicator lights all remain bright when transmitting so I'm thinking this might be a normal feature rather than a power draw. I'v only got a 30 watt power supply so can't do much else yet.

I'll be out of town for a week or so and won't have a chance to really test it, especially the high power features, until later but any input on what these options do would be helpful.

Thanks,
Scipio

[sonoma]

here in Oklahoma about the only am chatter you will hear is on lower 19, which is 26.735 . the truck drivers use this freq a lot in my area. for a AM only radio the lower channels are about the most used in my area. SSB rigs talk the most on higher than the normal cb freqs. we use 27.565 a lot when skip is running. some will get on 27.415. thats about it .
have a good trip Kid.
Sonoma

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[Scipio Kid]

Well, been out of town all week and haven't tried the thing out yet. Not even today (have the day off), yard work instead, got to keep the wife happy. Anyway, looked at the ads and found a DX 959 for 40 bucks, it was in another town but my son lives a mile away so he ran over and got it. Now I have two Galaxies to test out. If the 959 pans out, not sure I'll keep the 48T but if it works good ... probably will. Can't even check out the 959 until the next family get together. My boy can't check it out because he's not into CB's. I talked him into putting one in his new truck but we haven't got around to doing it yet. I've heard a lot of good about this unit (the 959). It's got lots and lots of features. Not sure you need 'em all for normal usage though. But the sideband is appealing. Much rather have that in the 48T than extra channels (I'll probably never use).


Anyway, thoughts, experiences, gripes or comments on either of these Galaxies would be welcome.

Thanks,
Scipio

[Scipio Kid]

Well, the 959 turned out to be a great radio. All the functions work and it gives and gets very well. The 48T never seemed right though, seemed like it was shorting out when transmitting. But with the bragging the guy did (about how much power it put out), I wondered if I just needed a better (bigger) power supply. It'd get fuzzy (the audio) and the meter light would dim and get worse the higher I turned up the power. I told the guy I didn't want it but he left it here for several weeks and I sort of forgot about it. I was going to test it in my truck, right off the High amp diesel batteries to make sure it just wasn't a low power situation, but never got around to it.

I have 4 different power supplies. 2 are rated at about 3 amps and one is home-made with a huge transformer so I figured it'd handle anything. But, I was testing a linear amp the other day and the breakers on the smaller units would trip when it hit about 30 watts. I tried it out on the big supply and it seemed O.K. but since I was testing, I had a volt meter in the circuit and noticed the voltage dropping way down, even at only 4 watts and clear down to 9.5 volts at 40 watts. The fuse didn't blow but the voltage was junk and the linear sounded terrible. I thought, well maybe that's why the 48T never seemed right. Then, I remembered the 4th power supply. It was in a box of stuff I thought was junk I bought for a few bucks a while back. I pulled it out to see what it was and it was a "Radio Shack, Switching Power Supply" rated at 15 amps. I dusted it off and it looked nearly new so I hooked it up and pulled out the 48T and fired it all up. Holy cow!, that 48T took off with no power drop and no fuzziness and no dimming of the meter light. Then I looked at my power meter and saw I was pegging the needle. I thought I had it on the 10 watt scale or something but no, I was pegging it on the 100 watt scale. It's tipping 120 - 130 watts! and dead keying at 80. After more testing, I have to say, this thing is phenomenal! No wonder it has heat sinks on the back and the bottom of the case, a little bulky if you're putting it in a Kia but man, it puts out some watts. I'm glad the guy hasn't come for it and he's not getting it back when he does. Wish I'd tried it out in my truck to begin with. And that Radio Shack power supply ... it really does the job as well. I think I got it for 5 bucks. The 48T's going in the truck today (if I get the time). it'll be nice to see what it'll really do.

Playing with it some more ... I didn't have the power mic turned up. Now it's swinging to 150. This is nuts! Now I can see why Greg said he liked the amp section.

[Dakota5814]

I bought a 48t about a month ago guy said it worked great when he had it i got it all hooked up people could hear me awesome but when they talk back to me i hear three words than it cuts out i key the mic a bunch of times and it comeseems back what can I check for loose connection for Mic guessing somethings loose I don't know much about radios and there are no cb places up here in South dakota

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