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For a long time when CB companies were mentioned in France many only thought of President. Now CRT are fast appealing to the 11m market with there flair for something new and different. Radios at great prices and radios that are what the market and the people want. One of these is the Qixiang produced CRT Superstar 9900 which is a 10m radio with high power output, compact amateur radio design, PC Programmable and comes with CTCSS straight from the box where others from the same maker such as the Team and the Anytone are optional extras. Let us have a look and see what the radio has to offer for us in todays market area:

Quality:

To look at the radio it is amateur radio style. Looking a lot like the Yaesu VHF/UHF series of mobile radios. The radio itself comes in formats of use. 1 being HF Band and 2 CB Band which can be programmed into the radio.

Functions And Controls:

|Modes: AM/FM/USB/LSB |

|Power : AM 30 Watts with modulation , FM 50 Watts, SSB 60 Watts |

|Output power adjustable on  AM/FM/SSB |

|CTCSS and DCS encoder/decoder (inclused original )38 CTCSS-104DCS |

|Frequency shift (REP function)SPLIT adjustable from 100Hz to 5 MHz |

|Steps 100 Hz, 1KHz, 10KHz, 100KHz and 1MHz |

|VFO in fréquency mode continu from 28.000 to 29.700 MHz (with step selected) |

|FIN (Fine Tune, RX only / TX only / Both). Adjustable with Clarifier, range ± 1.5 KHz. |

|6 Memories programmable |

|Automatic Squelch (AM/FM) ASQ |

|Power / Signal Strength / SWR indication |

|Numéric indication for SWR value  |

|Power supply DC displaying |

|Dual Watch |

|Scan mode |

|Roger beep |

|Adjustable echo |

|Public Address |

|Multi-colour display (7 colours) |

|Backlight key |

|Key lock |

|Hi Cut (on/off) |

|Noise Blanker (on/off) |

|Echo (on/off) |

|+10 KHz (on/off) |

|Roger beep (off, 1-5) |

|Microphone Gain (1-36) |

|NOG (monitor volume, 1-32) |

|TOT (Time Out Timer, Off / adjustable up to 600 seconds) |

|TSR (High SWR Protection, On/Off) |

|TDC (High Voltage Protection, On/Off) |

|SCM (Scan Mode, SQ/Time) |

|Programmable by computer (mini USB on back side) |

|Power cord with plug  |

|Reset. |

|Size : 157 large x 48 Height x 246 depth |

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Audio Levels:

When you turn on the radio you will notice that it is low level even when the volume is on at between 9-11. Some have tried to say this is an error but it is not. YES the volume is lower than on some radios but do not let this put you off. I was thinking it was low, but simple connect to an external speaker and to be fair it is not bad at all. The volume is loud enough when making contacts. Add the NB and ANL and the audio is pleasant to the ears, nice sounding and really nice to operate.

Memory Channels:

If you are like me then the memory channels will be used a lot. The radio comes with 6 memories and allows them to be programmed across the whole range of the radio. For myself. I have two on 27, two on 26 and 1 on 25 and one on 28 MHz and they are accessed easily and with little issues.

Echo & Menu:

CRT has listened to the people who had issues in the past with the echo and also how the menu were set up. The manual is well explaining and even people with fat fingers can access the menu, and set all they need from the radio. This will be one of the first radios that can actually be easily set up and the options are there to make life easy where on some others it is a hell of a job.

Audio Output:

Often with radios the standard mike is either nasty, has nasal audio or the first thing you do is replace it. The radio itself has 36 levels of mike gain so you can pretty much arrange the audio how you want it. I tested the radio with people on the air, in Poland, UK, Germany and Russia and with this tested Sadelta MB4, FD1818 and the original mike. Out of all contacts most people told me to leave the standard mike and not use anything else. Sure not really a dedicated test but end users of a contact telling me what they thought and this is indeed priceless on the air.

Power:

From the mobile situation this is where the CRT9900 comes into its own. I tested mine with a DAIWA power meter and the antenna was a Wilson 5000 located on a magnetic mount. I managed around 4w on low power on FM and on High power it was a little over 52watts. SSB on the whistle was 66 watts and on AM for example the power was 13.6w swinging to over 30w on the modulation. Yes the radio does get hot and the heatsink is really in need of a small fan either internal or external (many are doing this now) but allow a little time and the radio dissipates the heat and it is again fine.

ASQ:

The automatic squelch worked beautiful and allowed voices to come through with no issues encountered at all. The radio managed to pick out weaker signals on AM and allow through the voice and ANL was also first class.

PC Programming:

The PC programming of the radio was a breeze to use. Qixiang have changed there style now with the software and indeed it is less options friendly. Saying that I tried it on Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 and there was not any single issue at all. Worked a treat on all systems. The on the back USB on the radio caused me a little error now and then so in the end I used the internal port on the board with the 5555 data cable and this then worked 100% error free.

Summing Up:

CRT FRANCE has another winner on there hands. The quality of the radio, the sound from the receive and the transmit when taylored to how you want it really sounds well. Like with the CRT6900n this radio I use in the car mostly and always works well, always makes the contacts and this is the same with the CRT9900. The price is different on the various markets and it is indeed a fair price when you consider they have also added the CTCSS which I have seen online for as much as 20 euro. CRT I am told has some other new radios in the pipe and these I am sure will be like this one.

I have used recently the radio in the car. It works extremely well with low noise and makes out signals that are borderline at best. Reason for me is that the radio at my home (near airport and near shopping centre at Vecses) collects some noises and from the car it works well, it is less noisy and the reports have been excellent that people have told me. Antennas used at the moment are Wilson 5000, Sirio 5000 and also the Twin Shuttle and this selection covers me across the bands which I like to use.

And yes, this is a radio that remains in the shack and or the car and sure is a keeper rather than one that needs to be sold. Nicely made, great audio on the supplied mike and the best contact so far from the car has been California and this with standard power and mobile antenna so indeed all good.

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