RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker

Comments about RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker:

I bought the speaker to use with my mobile rig in the car. Road noise was just too much on the freeway for the unamped speaker I was using before. The speaker was great at first, but over time the sound quality has degraded (sounds like excessive drive clipping, even at the lowest output setting on my FT-8800) to being almost unintelligible.

Comments about RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker:

I wish I would have been able to hear what it sounds like. I got it from a retail location, dead right out of the box. RadioShack giving me a hard time about returning it.

Comments about RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker:

I bought this for my handheld scanner to use in the car. I saw it got other 5 star reviews, and I definitely agree with them! I had it professionally installed but it only took 15-20 minutes since it has all of the hardware you need. The sound is loud and clear and it's compact enough fit on the lower dash of my truck. Excellent features such as automatic turnoff to save power. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Comments about RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker:

I have had 2 of these...after a short time both failed to even work as regular speakers (with amplification). Both times I have ripped out the amp circuit and converted them to a regular speaker. I will never buy one again.
FYI I am a ham radio operator.

Comments about RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker:

Sounds great but the price keep going up that's the only problem I have with radioshack the price one time was [$] witch was a better price

Comments about RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker:

A handy way to direct the sound toward the user. Many ham sets have top mounted speakers which is ok but not as good as aiming at the user.

Comments about RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker:

AT[$] the Radio Shack's Amplified Communications Speaker Model #21-130 is small yet sounds much larger than its size. Its output power is specified at 8 watts @ 10% THD. (curve of distortion versus power output at 1 kHz) After opening up the enclosure - the 2.5 inch diameter speaker has 5 watts written on it. The amplifier printed circuit board consists of an input isolation transformer, two transistors that look like a preamp, a LM358, and a very large heat sink attached to a big long IC. The leads on the inside on the enclosure are very short and the transformer fights RFI. The speaker/Amp frequency response is specified at 350Hz-5kHz. That's all you need.From the outside of the plastic enclosure there is a strong metal U-shaped mounting bracket and two thumb screws that attach it to the speaker box. Unlike other speaker boxes that I have seen, on this one the thumb screws feed metal nuts buried into the plastic on the inside of the box. It is going to be difficult to strip what's holding the thumb screws out. There is a 1/8 inch mono jack on the rear of the speaker box that will take the included 4 ft mono audio cable providing input to the amp. On the front - there is a red LED to let you know that it has 12.8 VDC nominal at 1.5A. Also included are two ¾ inch long self-tapping screws and metal speed nuts for mounting the U-shaped mount onto the plastic of your car.So there are only two sets of wires to connect. (1) positive and ground set for power, and (2) the 4 ft patch able that attaches the speaker box to whatever radio you want to attach via 1/8 inch plugs. The positive lead of the power leads has an in-line fuse. The fuse is ¾ inches long glass-type rated at 2A @250V. The fuse holder is a twist-lock type about 1 ft distance from the speaker box. The power leads are 4 ft long red and black.In operational tests with an Elecraft K2, I was not able to over drive the Speaker/Amp. However, the sound was very loud. I'll never run the thing at max! The K2 has never had enough audio for me until now. The Speaker/Amp is on the expensive side, but it provides a cost-effective way to achieve big rig audio in a small size. I listened to SSB, Digital modes, and CW. All modes sounded great. The way this little sound system is constructed - there is nothing to go wrong or start emitting sounds other than what's coming out of your radio. Four screws hold it all together. AF5U