[Or How to Setup a Stryker 955 or 655]
Disclaimer: In the following article, some may find the language as offensive and crude. There is no other word in the English such as the word fuk. It, at any time, can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, exclamation, or anything you see fit. And I won’t apologize for its use.
This article has nothing to do with the title. But hey, I got your attention. I am going to focus on the STRYKER 955 and 655 and will try to cover answers to the questions I have been getting the past few months. So for the time being, and only this short time being, when your see BOOBS think Stryker. If you extend this association outside of this article, get help and it goes way beyond anything I can provide.
If you have been operating a Cobra 29 and went to a Stryker 655 or 955, congratulations, but there are some things you have to be made aware of or you will lose your mind, or I will.
How to turn it on:
I’m not breaking balls here for I have gotten so many calls that the new radio just purchased won’t turn on. I of course when down the fuse route, then the onboard fuse and I had a customer investigate that he has voltage to the plug, but the radio is not going on. Wait for it, FUK.
Please look at the following:
The top left inner and outer knobs labeled here as #11 and #10 are NOT how you turn it on. The smaller inner knob (#11) is to turn on your talk-back and control the volume. The outer knob (#10) is for the power output. Based on how I set up a Stryker, keep the power knob all the way to the left, low, and you will be loud, proud, and obnoxious! Fukin aye! To turn on the radio, use the volume switch (#3) just right of the mic plug. The talk-back knob (#11 small inner) turns on and controls the volume of monitoring how you sound and assists you in setting up nice sounding echo (#6 and #7) and not sounding like that asshole that nobody can understand.
So now you’re sitting in your playpen (driver’s seat), you don’t have your cheaters on, or your progressives are making you break your neck to see what is going on with your new radio, maybe, just maybe, you want to think about mounting the radio on the dash. And driver’s, I am making fun of myself here, and that’s what makes me so insightful! Turn on the radio and in the big beautiful channel and frequency display you want to see “ 27.1850, RX, 19. When you change the channel, all weird shit happens, what-the-fuk!
Let’s start from start. Set your radio up like this, take a picture, and you will have something to refer back to.
955
Starting at the top.
Mon/PWR: inner off, outer all the way down. (10, 11).
AM (#12).
Second Row:
Band/VFO: centered. (#1). If you are not on 27.1850, channel 19, flip the switch to band, turn the channel knob until it says “Band 4”, then put the switch back to center. If you switch it to VFO, watch what it does to the frequency counter, you can change the frequency but put it back to 27.1850 and turn it back to center.
DIM/HIC: (#13). DIM is obviously to dim the lights. Turn it on and use the channel knob to raise or lower the light output. HIC is a high cut filter for your receive, personal preference here.
ANL/NB (#14). Automatic Noise Limiter and Noise Blanker. Switch it back and forth and see what makes it the quietest receive for your truck.
RB/PRG: Center. (#15). Roger Beep and Program. If you leave it on RB and change the channel you will be switching between different roger beeps. PRG is something that you will never use unless you become a ham radio operator.
TSQ/ECH: (#16). TSQ is again something you will never use unless you are a ham. It means tone squelch control and is a subaudible tone that opens up a repeater. ECH turns on your echo.
Bottom Row:
Mic plug: I ain’t telling you shit.
VOL/SQ: (#2, 3). Inner knob is ON. SQ, set your squelch where you like it.
MIC/RF: (#4,5). MIC inner knob is your mic gain. Here I am going to present something different then what you might be used to. Mic gain all the way up and be loud, proud and obnoxious (LPO). When you are travelling nose to tail and the guy in front of you says “hey asshole, something is wrong with your radio and I can’t understand a thing you’re saying”, take your mic gain down to around 11` o’clock. You will reduce the audio power you are putting out and all will be understood. When you have some distance, LPO.
RF will control the strength of the signal coming into the radio. Some like to play with the RF and SQ and try to quiet the receive but you might miss an incoming signal. If you are parked side by side and the truck next to you feels it necessary to talk on the radio, TURN YOUR RADIO OFF! If there is a slight distance between you, and he’s pounding the shit out of your radio, take the RF and turn it all the way down. If some douche bag is running heat and he does this, it will blow the front end of your radio out! This isn’t some old radio folklore like running 18’ of coax. Your radio is capable of receiving signals in the microvolt range and that douche bag is now putting 70 times that into your radio. I recommend taking a shit on his seat for being that douche bag.
VOL/DEL : (#6, 7). This is your echo control. Recall switch #10, MON and switch #16? Turn on MON to where you can hear yourself when you transmit, switch #16 to ECH to turn on the echo. Now take the inner and outer knobs (VOL, DEL) and put them both around 9:30-10 o’clock and listen to how you sound. Everyone’s voice characteristics drives the echo differently so play with it until it ENHANCES your audio. Remember the old adage “ all things in moderation”? Well here it definitely applies. Do it on 19 and you will get your balls busted and get some stupid recommendations.
FIN/COA : (#8, 9). This is your fine and course clarifier mostly used when you are modulating in the side band mode (USB, LSB). It can change the frequency you are listening to and transmitting on, not needed on AM or FM. Frequency. If I have to tell you, you’re just a knob.
655
MON/PWR (10, 11). Inner is talk back control; outer is power output. If I tuned your radio, run the power all the way down.
ABCDEF (12), Band switch. Normal is “D”. If someone says go to the low side, just switch it to “C”.
AM/FM/PA (1). AM
DIM/HIC (13) same as above for the 955.
ANL/NB (14). same as above for the 955.
RB/PRG (15). same as above for the 955.
10K/VFO (16). WTF is the 10k switch for? Well, some think it will give them a “secret” channel, yeah, no. Back in the day they put skips in between a few channels, called the alpha channels, 3, 7, 11, 15, 19. Hit the 10k switch on any of those channels and you will be in between those 2 channels. Usually it’s just annoying as fuk, like someone talking sideband on 19, you’re just being a turd, and splashing the neighboring channels
VOX/COA (8,9). VOX is something you won’t use, keep it turned all the way down, left. When set up, it will allow transmission when you speak, don’t bother you’re in a noisy environment. COA is a course clarifier adjustment. Make sure when you change channels the last two digits are 50, like 27.1850, channel19.
FUNC/COLOR/SCAN– definitely get into these menus, especially the FUNC and learn what your radio can do. The manual is well written and can explain in detail what you can do.
Most of all have fun and enjoy one of the hottest selling radios today.
Mark
This article can not be copied or reproduced without my expressed permission.