REVIEW:
CHEROKEE NIGHTRIDER 150
The Cherokee
Nightrider 150 came out in 1999, at a time when it was uncommon for a
manufacturer to come out with a new CB that had both AM and SSB (Midland did a
similar release with their 79-290). Unlike the Midland, this radio, for all
intents and purposes, on the surface looked like any other run-of-the-mill AM/SSB
mobile (i.e. – Cobra 148), however there are a few differences:
The
faceplate is illuminated allowing it to be easily seen at night, and the radio
itself has a feature that Cherokee called “Clear Drive” (CD). Clear Drive
circuitry was somewhat unique, although Cobra had released their Nightwatch
technology around the same time, and today (2020) it’s not uncommon to find
other manufacturers offering illuminated faceplates or control/knobs. The CD
circuit has its own separate PCB, called the Compander board, inside the radio
and offers benefits to both receive and transmit.
FEATURES:
· AM-SSB MODES
· 4-PIN COBRA/UNIDEN MIC JACK
· EXTERNAL SPEAKER JACK
· EXTERNAL PA JACK
· MIC GAIN
· CLARIFIER
· VOL/SQL
· S-RF METER W/SWR
· ANL/NB
· CB-PA/ CB ROGER BEEP
· CLEAR DRIVE TECHNOLOGY
· NIGHTWATCH ILLUMINATION
Once the cover is removed it’s
obvious there is something different about this radio. On the right side of the
chassis (with the front of the radio facing you), you’ll find the Compander board,
where the mojo for Cherokee’s Clear Drive
resides.
HOW CLEAR DRIVE WORKS:
1. It dampens very low, annoying signals
like white-noise, while boosting the stronger ones allowing you to hear what
you really want to hear. In practice it works fairly well, but not all-of the
time.
2. It boosts your transmit audio. This
actually has an audio compression circuit that raises the quieter audio while
lowering the peaks which gives the operator a louder / stronger sounding signal.
The PCB on
the left side of the chassis is the circuit that supplies the voltage driving
Cherokee’s Light Pipe technology, which
illuminates the front panel. When the radio BRT/DIM
switch is set to BRT the faceplate lights up very nicely whether it be daylight
or nighttime, and if switched to DIM
the Light Pipe drops to a very low level that gives the user the appearance it
is no longer illuminated, especially in bright daylight.
The
Nightrider line was fairly short lived and marketed for only a few years, so it’s
hard to say how well the Light Pipe illumination holds up over years of
constant usage (the radio I’m reviewing
in 2020 was NOS, possibly a display model).
Unlike many
radios sporting an 8719 PLL, this radio uses the Motorola MC145106 PLL chip - the
same chip used by other manufacturers (export rigs) because it’s so easy to
modify. Before you start licking your chops about this chip, I have to bust
that bubble because the Cherokee 150 PLL chip is encased in black epoxy that
cannot be removed without causing damage to the motherboard. I’ve read that it
was the only way Cherokee could get this radio through the FCC inspection, and it
sounds as likely as any other reason you could think of.
Figure 1POPULAR COMMUNICATIONS FEB 2000
HOW WELL DOES THE 150 WORK?
Like most
modern CB radio receivers, selectivity isn’t the greatest (but not the worst). The crystal filter is small, and if you were
comparing it to a filter in one of the older classic sideband radios it looks downright miniscule. However, compared
to today’s radios, it’s on par with the whole lot (the exception being the
President Grant II Premium).
I found the
channel selector to be smooth, not as clicky as the
one on the President Lincoln II, and not as sloppy as some others, so for me -
it seemed just “right”. The placement of the volume control perturbed
me because I’m accustomed to having it next to the mic jack, so I found myself
inadvertently knocking the clarifier out of whack every time I tried to adjust
the volume. If this were my daily driver rig I’m sure that my brain would come
around to Cherokee’s layout design, nonetheless it was annoying while having it
in my vehicle for this review.
I don’t
usually use the squelch control, preferring to adjust the RF Gain, however I did
like the way this one worked; it was smooth and didn’t POP when a station strong enough to break squelch was received,
unlike other radios I’ve reviewed.
The noise
blanker worked pretty well. Not as good as a Uniden Grant XL or Cobra 148, but quite
a bit better than the one in the Midland
79-290.
CB/RB: It
took a few seconds for my brain to click,
but when it did I realized the switch acts as a toggle for the ROGER BEEP being
ON, or OFF. Beyond the typical functions assigned to the switches you’d
typically find on a deluxe AM/SSB mobile radio, it’s the last two: C.D./Off and Bright/Dim, that set it apart from other
radios.
Figure 2 THE SWITCHES ARE: NOISE-BLANKER / ANL, PA-CB-CB/ROGER BEEP, CLEAR DRIVE ON-OFF,
AND LIGHT-PIPE CIRCUIT DIM/BRIGHT
C.D. switch: As mentioned earlier, CD stands for “Clear Drive”, a novel approach that helps you receive the signal
you want to hear, while knocking down the white noise lurking in the
background. In practice I found Clear-Drive
to be effective about 50% of the time. It kept most low level noise low
while boosting the signal of the station I was talking to. The rest of the time
there was a slight distortion of audio on signals that were coming in very
strong. I played around with it more than I would have under normal circumstances
because I was very curious to hear the difference it made in reception.
The second
feature of this board is an audio compression circuit that works much like a Turner
+3 by boosting the lower levels of a person’s voice, while knocking
down the top-end so the transmission sounds much louder and consistent. This
wasn’t as noticeable on AM, but on sideband – Yeah Buddy, my stock microphone sounded like a real powerhouse.
Initially I had a Turner +3 hand microphone on the radio set mid-way but I
quickly surmised it was un-necessary and replaced it a standard Cobra coffin style mic. It sounded great.
Bright/Dim switch: Usually this switch makes the S-meter and channel display dim
so that it’s not distracting to anyone in the vehicle while driving at night,
but with the Cherokee, it has more to do about the “Night Pipe” circuitry, and how it affects what you see.
This works
pretty darn well! When the switch is on BRT
the whole faceplate is nice luminous blue. I really enjoyed this feature
whenever I was driving at night because it wasn’t as to be a distraction. When
set to DIM, the blue illumination
was decreased, so while driving during daylight hours it looked like any other
non-illuminated faceplate. If there’s doubt about it – Yes, I really like it (I don’t have any data about how well the
illumination holds up over years of everyday use, but I like it).
Figure 3CLARIFIER CONTROL LOCATION IS EASILY MISTAKEN FOR
VOLUME CONTROL (IF YOU’RE NOT CAREFUL)
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a legal CB radio that can’t be
modified for extra channels, which is fine with me because I prefer using a CB
for CB, and an HF radio for everything else. The single final doesn’t allow much
tweaking for additional watts, which (once again) is fine, because it’s a legal CB radio. The
illuminated faceplate is nice, and the speech compression part of the board
works really well, but I don’t think I’d grow any fonder about the way it altered
some signals. One modification I would do would be to change the bulb behind
the S-Rf
meter to a white LED as the yellow color sticks out like a sore thumb. The
Nightrider 150 (or the AM-only Nightrider 100) is a transceiver whose basic
features meet the level of performance of its competitor’s but doesn’t surpass
them, so unless you just like to try out new radios, there isn’t a gotta-have-it feature that would get you to
pull the trigger on purchasing one. This could have been the reason they weren’t
around long. As with all of my reviews, if I come across additional information
about the radio I will modify the review.
COMPLETE
POP COMM ARTICLE ON CHEROKEE NIGHTRIDGER #1
COMPLETE
POP COMM ARTICLE ON CHEROKEE NIGHTRIDGER #2
COMPLETE CBTRICKS
NIGHTRIDER 150 LINK
MIKE’S RADIO REPAIR
NIGHTRIDER 150 OVERVIEW
NOTPURFECT NIGHTRIDER 150
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WOODY
