Automotive Reviews

I bought this as a replacement for my fullsize cobra unit that was "borrowed" from my car without my knowledge. Overall I really like this unit. It is small, compact and can be easily moved from vehicle to vehicle. The best part about it is that you can either have it wired in the car or run it as a handheld. The only downside to the unit is the fairly small speaker, but if you turn down the radio there really is no problem. In terms of performance, I think this little radio works better than any I have had before. I am able to pick up the NOAA weather stations much clearer than I was before. Overall a great product for the price.

Nice radio. gee Luke did you want the thing deivered before you ordered it? I guess maybe you should have spent the extra 15.00 bucks. Amazon service is fast! This is a great product.

To me this radio works better than the small two way radios, thats why I bought it. Yes it's a little bigger than the 2 way radios, but what I really wanted was more clearly transmission and a longer range which is what I got.

The charging indicator light did not illuminate when plugged in . One unit worked properly for one hour, the other unit not at all. Did not want to trust this system as an emergency backup for medical equipment.

It is everything that it is advertised to be. It is a good feeling to have a small amount of reserve power available during power outages. It is versatile as a compressor and an inflater.

After reading some of the reviews on this item, I was a bit skeptical. I decided to take a chance, since the price was far better than anything similar out there. I bought this item primarily for power at outdoor events, to operate a sound system and run an electric fan. I am typically at these events for close to 8 hours at a time, and was expecting to totally exhaust the power supply. Surprise! I went through an entire day's event with still 75% power remaining! I have also found lots of uses for it while traveling, like running my daughter's portable DVD player and recharging her game-boy in the car. We will also have a reliable power source for our frequent storm related outages in the home. Overall, a fantastic bargain, with many, many uses!

This product is very expensive for what you get. A thick vinyl tarp, 55 feet of garden hose, and 2 stickers called tire guards.
I'm not sure exactly how this pad is made but it has to be the same material as a "Slip n Slide....Remember the long tarp you used to go sliding 90 miles an hour across the lawn on. This is the same thing. DO NOT walk on it with wet shoes or snow on your boots. It's so slippery that my car actually slides about 6 inches before coming to a stop after I pull in from a snowy day.

It does hold the water and sludge but not worth the money or injuries that could result.

I bought the carpad because I have a spot by my steps in the garage where the water was settling when snow and slush melted off my car. I live in Minnesota, so there's alot of it! When I got the carpad I installed it right away. The only problem I had was my own fault because I didn't let the hose warm up before installing it and it was still a little curly from being wound up, but it flattened out when we had a warm spell. I didn't put the hose piece on the end by the garage door because the drainage is good there and it's easier to drive over without it. It's also much easier to sweep it off when needed without the hose there. It's slippery if it's wet when you get out of the car, but not nearly as bad as having the whole floor wet I no longer have a big wet, slippery spot in front of my steps! The carpad keeps the water on it and not on the garage floor. I'm very glad I purchased it because it took care of my problem.

A CarPad is one of those things that once you own, you will not live without. They look great, and catch all the stuff that gets tracked in by your car. I spilled oil on it the other day, and simply wiped it up with paper towel. Try that on bare floor.
B/L I own three carpads and highly recommend them.

When they driver showed me the box in the back of the truck it was in pieces the housing was damaged the wheel braces bent and motor housing cracked. I had to refuse the delivery but still no replacement or credit from Amazon.

Item was delivered with cracked belt housing and damaged compressor pulleys. Campbell Hausfeld did a terrible job packaging this compressor. There is no foam or any other type of cushioning material to keep the round compressor tank from rolling over on its side during shipment. I cannot rate its performance because it was not in operational condition. I contacted Amazon for replacement but was told they are out-of-stock indefinitely. I then had to contact shipping company to have it taken back for full refund. Entire return process took over a month. This is my first bad buying experience from Amazon, but customer service was courteous and helpful.

I received this product in an inoperable condition and neither shipping company will return my calls. I still have not had any call backs and it has been several days.

Coast has an unfortunate habit of not including battery type in their product descriptions, perhaps because their products don't take standard AA, AAA, C or D cells. Based upon another description, this one apparently takes N cells. An earlier version that I bought took two C123 (camera) batteries.

The blue lights are beautiful, but not beautiful enough to justify the additional cost and trouble.

I purchased this light for my son when camping with the BSA. On his first trip the rubber "On/Off" switch fell out and was lost. The nylon case faired no better and is now useless. He has taken many lights with him on camping trips. This is the only one that has failed so miserably. If you are looking for German Quality, look somewhere else.

I bought mine at a day after thanksgiving sale. Ya...I woke up and got in line for the 6am opening. Saw this item on sale (white led) and my cousin said it was a great deal. Bought it and loved it ever since. Gave my mini mag to my daughter to play with. Bought the camping version for my girlfriend since the recent heavy storms blacked out her neighborhood so she used mine that night. What a lifesaver. Also order 2 more turbo torches too.

We have a '99 VW Golf GTI, which regularly fails to start due to battery problems. (Apparently this is a regular problem with VWs - they are handing out solar panels to charge the battery when parked. I guess that makes the Golf a solar-gasoline hybrid car :0). Anyway, I bought a replacement jumpstarter because I misplaced my previous one. This Amico models simply fails to start the engine - too weak. I'll have to buy a different model.

I got this small jump starter just few days ago. It really gave us a great help when my car had a flat tire in the recent rainy night. It has the light and battery jumpstarter needed. Great product and tell friends

I have used this jump starter for a year. It performed very well for my car and out door activities for emergency power and lighting. Have recommended to my friends who traveled a lot to skiing resorts. Great price, great prducts

I used this product in Thailand & Singapore and I think it's worth it. It allows you to move around freely in crowded places without the akwardness of having to keep bringing up the walkie to your mouth. It's great if you have to walk in a quite place like a conference hall or hotel restaurant and don't want the whole room to look at you when you're buzzed. I don't think not having the VOX matters so much ... I wouldn't want my other party to hear every word I say if the mike is clipped to my collar and I happen to have a conversation with another person face-to-face.

I am glad I bought the earbud with PTT mic. I bought the thing two weeks ago and took it on vacation with me last week. The place it came in most handy was at this huge outlet mall in destin where I communicated with family members who were using the new motorola Talkabout 5100's. Obviously, this accessory allowed me to leave my Distance Radio secured to my belt with the Motorola brand pouch/holster I have, and I did not have to remove the radio to talk. This was a humongous advantage over having to keep removing the radio from my belt to speak, then re-attaching it only to find that the person's reply required me to speak again. Another way this thing is advantageous is that if you are in crowded stores with a lot of people (like I was) or in some other place with noise, you can hear transmissions that you recieve easily, and it is easy to respond immediately. If the radio is on your belt, there is always a chance that you may not take notice of your friend who is trying to transmit to you if you are in a noisy place and your attention is diverted. Also, when using this accessory, you do not attract the attention of other people, or disturb them, because the sound is just in the little speaker in your ear (which is comfortable and padded as far as I am concerned). And, you do not have to hold your radio up in front of other people while talking/transmitting. The question is this--what is more conspicuous, having your built-in radio loudspeaker going for all to hear and holding up a radio in front of your face to talk, or walking around in public with this wire and microphone assembly coming out of the neck of your shirt (or just hanging in front of your clothes) and running up to your ear. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look like a device for a hearing disablilty at all. One girl asked me if I was "listening to a game." Remember that I only used this accessory two diferent times. (The first was while riding a bike for one hour. I did not really get to use it then, but it did not fall out of my ear at all.) The second time I used it was at the outlet mall for two and a half hours--walking around. It never fell out there, either. I never used it while running to see if it would stay in.

I found this accesory for my talkabouts excelent. I use them for my motorcycle under my helmet, and keep in touch with my partners. Excelent, except for the price.

The sockets appear to be the same quality of my old "cheap" set, however the socket wrench and hand wrench are made incredibly cheaply...worse than I had ever seen before...but for the price, I can overlook the quality of the socket wrench.

If I want professional quality tools I will pay for it. If I want something simple and cheap to use when the rest of my tools are in storage, this is fine. I figure I'll use two sockets tops over a year for changing the oil and assembling the bunk bed - for under 5 bucks this does very nicely. Would not use for serious projects, but for the occasional use - its fine!

This product is so great, so with the price, its a great bargain and so usefull around the house and in my cars.

I followed instruction manual when pluged into AC outlet to charge I got a green light on battery condition indicator and no red light for charging. 75 hours of charging and same condition. Nothing works. Power switch was on for charging. Manual not clear on this. I dont think Im taking a charge. What is fuse hole on back for ? Is that for a spare fuse ? Please help.

pro.
it work great, multi functions. plus 3 loutlet to use for whatever.

con.
its bigger than i thought. i mean this thing is huge if you plan to get this for a sedan car, i myself plan to get this and hide it under my seat or something but it wouldn't fit. only recommend if you have a big truck or SUV, it would be great for boat and other thing.

for the guys below (Larry J. Ogden) that give 1 star complain it won't charge, you need to read the direction correctly, Manual clearly stated all switches need to be at off posistion when plug in the 110AC to charge the battery you only can tell if the battery is full or not by turn on the power switch, if top green light up mean full.

I got this jumpstarter gift from my friend. It works excellent in my old Chevy truck. I used to transport the goods around the country side and in the cold season. It really helps. It also has the lighting and air compressor for emergency application. I really like this compact device and can not leave home without it. Now, I am considering buying the smaller version of jump starter for my compact car

For those of you who are looking at this thinking it is a CB radio, it is NOT. Though this may look like a CB radio, it is actually a radio designed to transmit in the amateur radio frequency spectrum. Transmitting on this radio without the proper license issued by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) will subject you to charges by the FCC, which can include siezure of all radio equipment, as well as monetary fines in the thousands of dollars.

There are very few licensed operators who use this type of equipment. It is mainly used by "freebanders" and truckers looking to get away from the confines of regular CB. Besides those drivers who illegally operate these radios, many trucking companies are now getting fined by the FCC for allowing this equipment to be used in their trucks, and are therefore restricting these radios from being installed by the drivers. As the FCC continues it's efforts to crack down on the illegal use of these radios, you have to stop and ask yourself if it's worth the risk to operate one of these radios without the proper licensing.

If you are truly interested in becoming a properly licensed amateur radio operator who can legally trasmit on one of these radios then there are plenty of online and offline resources to help you out. However, as far as amateur radio equipment is concerned, this type and brand of radio is pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel, as lacks most of the useful features found on decent amateur radio equipment.

Just bought this radio. It has had a lot of good reports.
I like the way the radio transmits. It will do 30 watts out of box AM, and 100 watts SSB. It did not have MosFEt Finals like the ad claims. It has Mosfet pre Drivers, but the actual finals are sc2290 Transistors, Bi Polar type like all the 10 meter radios and 2 pill linears use.
I thought that was a disappointment, because that is about the only reason I purchased this radio.
I wanted to try out MosFet Finals, as a cleaner alterative to transistors. If you are going to buy one of these Cobra Rigs to get into the MosFet world, Beware this radio is a mixture of both worlds.
I have been told by others that it is a very excellent sounding radio on SSB but without talkback enabled, you cannot monitor your audio or echo effects. In fact I have never seen a radio with echo without talkback, very strange. To modify this radio for 11 meters would be a hard and risky business and not legal in the USA. It would also be a nightmare because the components are all surface mounted, and tiny.
The radio peaked to about 120 watts AM but the MosFet pre-drivers don't drive the SC2290's the way the conventional SC2166 or similar do, as there is a higher dead key, and less forward swing. If you try to take the dead carrier lower than 10 watts the SWR will go crazy on you, as if the PRE DRIVER MOSFETS fall out of range or something. The smallest dead key possible before SWR funk is 20 watts. Way to high for a lot of amps.
Low power equals about 20 to 85 bird watts. High power about 40 to 125 bird.
Now the really bad part. The receiver has rotten channel rejection, and if someone within the city limits runs a lot of power, the radio becomes almost un-usable. It is a BLEED BOX, but that seems to be a trait of Cobra, Uniden.
This Radio may look great and sound great on transmit but without good ears a radio is worthless.
The receive is no where near the quality of a RANGER or RCI 10 meter rig, but for $204.00 what can you expect. There is a mod out the to add standard components to the SMT board, (nightmare)to reduce the channel rejection, but once again that evolves micro board level repair. It's a big hassle, and you might end up wasting your radio! (NIGHTMARE)
Why won't Cobra spend a couple of more bucks and make these radios receive better? Any way it's a beautiful radio, in the country it might be really great, but in the city it is a little to noisy for my taste.

COBRA 200 GTL DX w/Nightwatch

Type: 10 meter radio

Frequency range: 28 to 29.7 MHz from factory - 26.0650 to 29.6950 after conversion

RF power: 4 watts low power - 30 watts high power (deadkey)

Transistors: Dual 40-watt SC2290 finals

Control frequency switch: 10 kHz - does not work after frequency coversion for expanded coverage.

Bands: 4

AM/FM: Yes

SSB: Yes, 100+ watts

Channels: 320 (80 per switch setting)

Variable power : Yes - high/low button, high (max range) and low (conserves power)

Antenna warning indicator: Yes

SWR calibration: Yes

NightWatch panel illumination: Yes

Echo control: Yes

Analog meter: Yes

Mic gain: Yes

Frequency counter: Yes, 6-digit

Jacks: 4-pin front mic

Warranty: 1 year parts and labor

In the box: 200 GTL DX radio, microphone, user's manual

RECEIVE -

The radio has an excellent receiver - but it does pick up some background static. The AM stations sound clear far off or close up.

You will get bleedover with this radio - I'd say it's worst within 6 channels.

SSB receive is very clear - the radio stays on frequency for receive very well - no drift whatsoever from turn on to turn off.

TRANSMIT

On low power the AM deadkey on my stock radio was 3 watts swinging to around 12-15 watts. The SSB output was about 12-14 watts.

On high power the AM deadkey on my stock radio was 30 watts swinging to 70 watts. The SSB output was about 110-120 watts.

I didn't test FM or CW.

AM REPORTS- It gives a very steady signal and very clear steady modulation. On high power you definitely get a boost in modulation on both AM and SSB.

Everyone says the radio sounds great and has a very unique sound to it.

SSB REPORTS - Everyone said that the modulation is clear, clean and LOUD. My signal has been hitting everyone well.

THE RADIO LIKES AND DISLIKES -

* I love the NIGHTWATCH

* The echo is really clear and has no distortion problems at all. BUT with no adjustments for speed all you can adjust is the level of echo.

* There is NO talkback - stupidest thing I've every seen. Why have adj echo or roger beep when you can't hear it to adjust it.

* Knobs are pretty solid - Some of them have a tiny amount of "play" and the plastic of them feels a little cheesy but you get over it pretty quick.

* The front facing microphone is kind of in the way, BUT it's nice for up front installs since the radio is already pretty big.

* The fine/coarse controls are excellent. The clarifier is unlocked from the factory and moves on TX and RX.

* Six digit freq counter works great and mine is spot on freq from the factory.

* The push buttons are small and a little cheezy - I wonder how they will hold up over time....buttons on radios like my Omega worked great, but on some older radios I know at some point they pop out or become loose, only time will tell.

* Output from the radio is great on AM and SSB. NO it is not as high as a 2970 ...BUT this radio is $200 less than most of those. It's advertised as a 30 watt RF radio. If you have it tuned and get 80-100 watts AM I'd say its a fair deal. 60-70 watts stock is still plenty to get you heard.

* The stock speaker is okay..not great..but it works good enough for me. I tried it with my external speakers but haven't found a good match yet.

* The heatsink is big and heavy, but I think this radio could still use a fan. After 30 mins of solid use on SSB the heatsink is almost too hot to touch.

* The rotary channel knob is a little picky. Somtimes when you turn it, it won't go to the next channel, sometimes it may skip a channel. Not really a huge problem, 80% of the time it won't miss, but every couple of times you may skip over a channel.

* I don't like that I can't cycle through the 40 channels and end up back at channel 1 - because it's 80 channels per bank you have to go up/down or all the way through all 80 to get back to the beginning.

* BLEEDOVER

As a buyer you do have to be aware of some of the problems - ones acknowledged by Cobra

- Overload possiblity with strong signals
- Possible Warble or popping noise due in modulation (I didn't run into this at all)
- Channel rejection decreases with the NB/ANL on.
- Choppy Squelch control
- Possible that freq display needs adj, not accurate from factory.


SUMMARY - for the $225-250 Price range I think it's an excellent deal. It's never going to outdo a radio + amplifier but if you don't want to run an external amp the radio will do enough to get you heard and is perfect for SSB Dxing!