Review on Enhanced Performance Lincoln II Plus 10/12 Meter Ham Radio by Charles Butler

This little setup from President works quite well. It has almost every feature you need and some (e.g. Echo) that you might not want to use. Aside from the small size, a big plus (for me) is the bright display. Easily readable even in the brightest sunlight (which is not the case with other transceivers such as the 980SSB). I think this is because it is a light background with dark numbers compared to 980ssb which is the opposite (light on dark). I had an earlier version of this radio (Lincoln II) and didn't notice much difference between them except that II is +12-10 meters and II is only 10m. Output power (35W PEP) is good and typical of the controls you would expect (brightener, mic gain, NB, etc.) are all there. . If there's one you don't like using (I'm not a big fan of "echo" or "roger sound") - don't use it (at least they are). The variable RF power control on the front panel is handy, and even the ASC squelch works pretty well. While I could talk ad nauseam about each feature, I would like to mention Clarifier. If you speak SSB, you know how the Clarifier control is supposed to work. US sideband CBs only have the ability to change the receive frequency. Previously, CBs like the 148 or Uniden XL could easily be changed in the circuit so your frequency was tracked on both transmit and receive. Today this is almost impossible with 980ssb or McKinley. Clarifier is disabled by default. From there you can pull up the menu and set it up to set up receive only, transmit only, or receive and transmit. This is easily possible since it is not a CB radio. My experience with this feature so far is only "good". Sometimes I set it to tx/rx and turn off the radio after use, the menu setting goes back to OFF next time I turn it on ----> but not every time (strange). I have an II+ that holds it and the other doesn't. It doesn't bother me, it's just annoying. What annoys me a bit is how the volume control works. If you turn on a traditional radio and slowly turn the volume knob, the speaker volume increases steadily, but it doesn't. The speaker tone goes from silence to what I would call "2", skipping the lowest setting. When you crank the volume up, there's a noticeable distance you have to set in order to hear anything. In the car it doesn't really matter but at home it's annoying because I like a quiet sound late at night so as not to disturb anyone in the house and I can't achieve that with II+ so I don't use it at home anymore , only mobile. I have two of these (bought from different sellers) and they both do the same thing so I'm pretty sure it's not a defective Parsee radio. As for production, this is Vietnam. You have to choose your poison these days and I will choose Vietnam over China any day. The President's focus on build quality is ever present and I believe their warranties are the best in the business. They almost always sell for around $249, but last year they were discounted by $20 due to Black Friday/Cyber Monday.