I am familiar with all the complaints about the MRC decoders. Haven't heard much lately. Are the newer MRC decoders any better than those of a few years ago?
Are you feeling lucky?
Aside from reliability questions, I can't take seriously a decoder made by a company which cannot identify the whistles and horns it brags about.
Hal
MRC was KING of DC in model railroading and still may be but they really screwed up when they thought they could do DCC.
Wadda ya mean I'm old ? Just because I remember gasoline at 9 cents a gallon and those big coal burning steamers.
Well, I'll tell you my experience with them. For a long time, the only MRC sound decoder I had was the factory installed one in the Athearn Challenger. So far I have not had any trouble with it and had considered trying other ones but have been scared away by other people's experiences coupled with the high price of sound decoders in general. Recently I found the MRC 1833 for the Intermountain FP-7 on sale for $35. I figured that was cheap enough to give them a try and ordered two. At first I was happy with them, but one of them quickly(as in the first day I used them) quit working correctly. The motor control still seems to work right, but the sounds are mixed up. They work, they are just mixed up. For example, if I turn the bell on instead of the bell sound I get the horn sound, so instead of getting "ding, ding, ding, ding, ..." I get "honk, honk, honk, honk, ..." until I turn the bell off again. If I change the horn sound, the change does take effect, but it still sounds as the bell.
I have not sent the decoder back to MRC yet but I plan to. Unfortunately, the paperwork with the decoder says to send in $8 for return shipping to have the decoder repaired under warranty(unlike other companies who pay for shipping items repaired under warranty). Also note that their warranty is only six months, where most decoders have a one year warranty.
rockislandnut MRC was KING of DC in model railroading and still may be but they really screwed up when they thought they could do DCC.
I think their Tech 6 is the best thing they develop since the CM20.
The DC start and top voltage has no equal nor does their programmable DC acceleration and deceleration settings...
In the dual mode the DCC can program the decoders CV settings plus you can shuffle though the horn styles of the sound decoder and has rule 17 lighting plus the Tech 6 is computer interfaced.
The T6 will only run one DCC equipped locomotive..By adding the T6 walk around throttle you can control several DCC equipped locomotives..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"