Well Stryker's second radio to hit the airwaves, the Stryker 490HP. Stryker radios don't score "very" well with us when they first came out, as we are not the type of shop to jump on every gimmick that comes around. However these Stryker radios are pretty darn snazzy when you take them as they are. 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. However, rarely these days are we getting in nearly no problematic Stryker 490s. In fact little things like tightening down the board screws, extra heat sink space, and good filtering, makes this a winner.
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. Many opt for us to actually dim this display even more, since the lowest setting from the factory may not be low enough for you. 10kz, var talkback, and var rf power, well it's 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 amplified radio, 100 watts pep - 150 pep on avg SuperWackPacked. 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! The audio on this radio after the SuperWackPack is awesome. The way that they run the RX circuit is upgraded so they hear well. Upgrading to the SuperRx is a added bonus as it makes it hear really well. So should you buy a Stryker 490, sometimes called the Stryker 490 HP? We'll leave that up to you. Nice features, quality has gotten better. And this is one hot radio in this wattage range for the money. SuperWackPacked with Super Receive on this one is a great way to go!
