While these days most Freebanders use amateur radio transceivers modified to incorporate 27MHz, many of us have kept in touch with the Citizens Band side of things by maintaining a classic CB rig and microphone which demand their own special place in the radio shack.

When I first moved into communicating on 11m many years ago, I used a Galaxy transciever partnered up with a few desk mics which I purchased from Syncro Australia when it was still based in West Oz. The subject of this review is ONE of those same mics — an 'Echo Master Plus Classic' by Sadelta — which I've also used with Kenwood rigs such as a TS-120S, TS-520, TS-830 and TS-2000.

Frankly, if you’re looking for a mic that could strut its stuff on the catwalks of Paris, or hold its own in the centre pages of your fave men’s magazine, then THIS is your lady. As the pictures show, the Echo Master Plus Classic is predominantly black with a large red Talk-Lock button on the front decking. Above that are two signal needle metres which assist with achieving desired settings in echo and modulation and give the mic a sophisticated look to match its sexiness.

When using this Sadelta base mic, I received nothing but back slaps from everyone I spoke to — apart from when I got a bit excited with the echo function and transformed my TX into ‘cave speak’ that is. After a getting sick and tired of the denigration from locals though, I switched off the roger beep at the rear of the chassis and slid the echo to zero as well. This meant that other ops could concentrate on the true audio quality of the mic and enjoy it for what it is — a quality sound — without listening to the gimmicks as well (which I honestly don’t mind when stirring up the mud ducks on 35 LSB lol).

Like I said before, I’ve used this microphone with a number of rigs. All wired up straightforwardly and had their own settings adjusted to suit the mic, but once done… SENSATIONAL! On another band, the same mic sounded deep but with the TX DSP settings in my Kenwood TS-2000 set to High, I could compensate that fully and after that the mic sounded better than the Kenwood MC-80 Mic I had in the drawer.

In conclusion, the 'Echo Master Plus Classic' by Sadelta outperforms many so-called up market products for a portion of the price. Not only does it have a very sensitive pickup, crisp, punchy audio and a great frequency response, but it's is also guaranteed to have the hair on the back of your neck standing up as soon as you remove it from the box.

While I’m not sure if Jos still stocks the 'Echo Master Plus Classic' at Syncro, a simple email will find out for sure. Just click on the link on the right hand side of the front page and follow the prompts. What I do know is that Jos stocks a range of superb Sadelta hand held mics such as the HM300, HM-350 and HM-650 (With built in pre-amp and record/playback) which would be ideal for mobile use or even as a back up in the shack.

73 de Admin