Well Stryker has it's second radio to hit the airwaves, the 490HP. Stryker radios don't score "very" well with us, as we are not the type of shop to jump of every gimmick that comes around. We are not super impressed this time either, HOWEVER IT'S NOT ALL BAD (read on). Stryker radios are fairly snazzy when you take them as they are. For serious use, there's more smoke and mirrors than solid radios. Stryker likes to use fancy terms to hype their radios. We rec'd a Stryker 490hp prototype before they came out and it shipped to us DOA. While the avg consumer won't have that issue, getting a prototype to test that's DOA is a bummer for sure. After you really get past the hype what do you get in this radio??

The radio does come with a extended echo/reverb board for those who like to use echo/reverb to annoy the other guys! The back light face plate is bright for those who like to see the face at night but can be dimmed. 10kz, var talkback, and var rf power, well its got the features that all equal a nice radio. Front panel mic jacks are a bonus, as most all users have found out.

Dual roger beeps for a non-ssb radio? To annoy people?? Ant warning light for high SWR alerts. Even we have to admit a nice bunch of features for a radio this size. Whats under the hood? Well its a small amplifed radio, 100 watts pep- 125 pep on avg. However remember the pep watts are all for show.

You don't talk at pep. If you really want a radio talking to its max, average watts is where its at. The SuperWackPack takes care of that! So should you buy a Stryker 490, sometimes called the Stryker 490 HP? We'll leave that up to you. Nice features, quality could be a little better, not our 1st pick, but not the worst either.