CHEAP WAY TO TEN METERS?
Late last year, a radio began to show up on the radar, and after watching a few YouTube videos, I thought I'd borrow one to check out: The Moonraker Titan, made for and sold by Moonraker, a U.K. electronics company.
Initial impressions:
The radio while overall small in size, nonetheless is nearly as wide as a President Washington or George, but not as deep. It has a large heat sink. As I go into some specs/options, you may find that this isn't the radio for you, however, for $140 U.S., this makes it a cheap bargain to get yourself on 10m.
Unlike a lot of radios, that have unused space, the Titan's PCB uses all the space within the case. There are no internal adjustments, and everything is done via the Function Menu.
Even though the radio comes in a plastic sleeve, there were a few scuffs on the top of the case, and one slight imperfection in the top case coating (Top left on radio). The radio comes with a Dynamic microphone which uses a 4-pin Cobra/Uniden type connector (there is no option in the menu to switch to another type mic). It isn't wired like a 4-pin Cobra, Uniden, or even the older Midland radios, so I call this the 4-pin "Titan" wiring (see diagram below).
Here's some other information -
Specifications
- Frequency range: 28.000 to 29.700 MHz
- Mode: AM/FM/USB/LSB/CW/PA
- Output Power: Adjustable Low ~200mW - High ~30W
- Step: 10Hz, 100Hz, 1KHz, 10KHz, 100KHz
- ASQ on/off
- ECHO on/off
- Hi-cut on/off
- Beep on/off
- Dual Watch
- Noise Blanker on/off
- ANL build-in
- Scan function
- Roger Beep
- LCR (Last Channel Recall)
- Mic gain adjustable
- TalkBack
- Scan list
- TOT
- Digital RFG adjustable
- A-RFG (Auto RFG)
The control knobs on the front panel feel a bit delicate, and at first, it's a little confusing to figure out how to get everything to work, but by taking the time to read the manual, and look into the various functions, it's not too bad. It's not really a radio I'd want to use while driving, but as a base or portable radio - no problem.
One other thing I'd like to mention about the displays: The color you see is the color you get. There are no other screen colors available.
CW
This radio can be switched to CW, and it has a jack in the back of the radio for a CW key. As well, I found an interesting feature in the Function Menu called CW FILTER. There are 3 selections, but they don't tell you what they are, you can pick 1, 2, or 3 and it seems to adjust the width of the signal you're listening to, which is pretty cool - I don't recall seeing a feature like this in most other 10m radios.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While this is an inexpensive radio, it offers a few bonus items, but there are distractions. The NB (Noise Blanker) has no adjustments and has a slightly watery/DSP-like sound to it when enabled. Usually on radios that offer that type of noise reduction, it's variable. I set mine to the lowest setting (usually "1"). This sounds more like a "3".
Power output and transmit audio were decent, and I love the display, but the cheap (frail) feeling I got from the knobs/controls, made me wonder how much abuse this could take when thrown in a backpack for SOTA or POTA.
Yes, the CW width adjustment is cool, but if you wanted to make use of a 10m repeater, there are no provisions for that to happen. Your 10m choices would be AM, FM, CW, or USB. The radio's heatsink will get warm, but I never felt it was going to get out of control, unlike another 10m radio like the President Washington, where I found that long QSOs did require the purchase of at least one fan kit.
The radio came as 10m only, and this can be modified for 12m and other frequencies, but it wasn't something I could find in the manual (perhaps I missed 'em?). Scroll past the videos for the verdict...
I've also included two YouTube videos from other channels (including the one I first saw the radio reviewed: Coastal Waves) to help your decision making a bit easier.
COASTAL WAVES CHANNEL
TECH MINDS CHANNEL
VERDICT: This radio seems to have as many pluses as it does minuses, but for a budget 10m - the price point is there. A better quality radio for a few bucks more, like the Radioddity QT40 may be more to your liking (even though it doesn't have a frequency readout on its face). 2.5 stars out of 5.
As usual, if anything happens worth mentioning regarding this radio, I'll put an update on this page!
UPDATE: 01-15-2025
I've had quite a bit more air time on this radio, so here's a quick update:
With numerous QSOs under my belt with the Titan, I've found the SSB audio to be adequate. The audio level can be set from 1 to 15, but it arrived at my doorstep already set to 15, so there is nowhere to go - but lower. AM/FM transmit audio isn't as good as it is on SSB and I often had requests from other stations to "Turn up my audio" in those modes.
The radio is small enough to run mobile, but where you mount it in your vehicle is important. The display isn't as easy to see when full sunlight hits it, whereas this display really looks great in low light situations.
As I mentioned in the review, the noise reduction is not adjustable (only ON or OFF), so during communications it's a "love it or hate it" option (FYI: just about everything I do is either LSB or USB - not AM/FM).
LOVE IT:
When it's first turned ON, the NR sounds like an audio wormhole that encompasses the incoming audio like a weird cocoon (heavy DSP envelope). At times, it quiets the receiver to the point I forget about the heavy handed sound of the NR circuit and forget the radio is even ON - until a station is heard. During noisy band conditions I really loved the DSP, and its ability to allow some stations to be heard, when they otherwise couldn't be, without the radios noise reduction. I did quite a bit of NR ON/OFF toggling to appreciate this feature.
HATE IT:
Once a station comes on frequency, the DSP is unfurled, allowing the signal to be heard, but during a conversation, the IN & OUT of it all can be so annoying that I often just turn it OFF.
Once again: If this was adjustable it would be great! But it's not adjustable. As well, if you normally use heavy DSP noise reduction, you'll probably not consider this a downside, but if you're like me - you won't (I use DSP/NR in other radios, but it's always set to the lowest level that allows the best NR I can get, with the least amount of audible NR artifacts).
One other thing to note - the SWR protection is set per mode! In other words, by going into the menu you can have SWR protection on AM,FM, LSB, USB, CW - only (by turning it OFF for the others), or pick and choose where you want it. I can't think of a reason why you'd want SWR protection on only one mode.
UPDATE: 01-17-2025
I've been concentrating most of my reception this morning, to the lower portion of the 10m band, in particular the CW mode, to note how well the CW width control works.
It would help if they actually gave you numbers on how wide each setting is, but there is nothing in the manual, and your selection merely shows an adjustable setting of 1, 2, or 3 (you'll find this under Menu selection 26).
As you might guess, setting no.1 seems to be full width and somewhat noisy. While listening to a station on 28.204 I heard a station in 4-Land on that setting, and while I could hear it, atmospheric noise made listening more punishment than pleasure.
Going back into the menu, and by turning the Band/Mode knob, I selected setting no.2, and there was an immediate change in what I heard - a narrow sounding CW signal, and no background noise. For many years I used a Yaesu FT-817ND with a 300hz filter, and from what I could remember, setting no.2 seemed to be in that general ballpark.
Knowing this, it would be logical to assume that the 3rd setting would be narrower, but when I turned to no.3 I lost the signal entirely, and the receiver sounded very wide. To see if the CW signal could still be found, I changed the frequency in small steps, both below and above 28.204, and couldn't hear the signal again until going back to the 2nd setting - So WTH? And, what did the 3rd selection do? I have no idea, and as I said, there's nothing documented on the actual width of each setting.
The whole time I've been typing this update, I've left the radio on .204 with the CW width setting on no.2, and it's been easy to copy with zero hash coming through, so I'm happy about that.
If you use your Titan on CW, I'd like to hear about your results! Just shoot me an email by clicking on my name below.
73,
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