I will second the
President Bill as a great compact radio. It's a little more money than the Radioddity but I think it's worth it. Cheaper and FAR easier to use WHILE DRIVING than the President Randy.
The Randy is a great radio but its no safer to fiddle with driving down the road than your cell phone. If you want to set it on one channel and just listen or talk on that one channel it's just OK, but I've played that game with my Midland 75-822 and it is
not popular with my family having both a power wire and an antenna wire ran to this large handheld unit, sometimes an AUX cable besides into the car radio because those little speakers on handhelds are so weak and quiet... a 2-in-1 radio
sounds good on paper, in reality its a mess of wires and very poor, borderline dangerous usability while simultaneously trying to control your 4000 pounds of rolling steel going down the road at 75 MPH. I don't recommend.
As someone who has a President Bill in a (much older, first gen) Honda CRV, with a mag mount antenna, I can tell you I am pretty happy with it although my plan is to move it to my wife's car and go permanent antenna install.
The main advantages I'd cite over the comparably small radioddity are these:
1. The P. Bill has Noise Blanker and Hi-Cut (both selectable), and you can infer it also has a permanently enabled (not selectable) ANL filter as well. This means it would be likely to be a better sounding radio/nicer to listen to, less static and harshness (I don't own a radiodditty to compare, though).
2. The P. Bill has NOAA weather station listening, while the radioddity does not.
3. The P. Bill has hidden menus that will allow you to programmatically adjust the RF power and modulation slightly, meaning you can bump it up a bit to output about double it's stock wattage (controversial topic I will get lit up for shortly, no doubt) OR you can turn it down to more cleanly drive a small amplifier that won't otherwise take the stock wattage the radio puts out (another topic of controversy).
4. The P. Bill uses a more standardized mic connector that you can use with other microphones, such as a power mic or the Uniden
wireless mic which I am a big fan of. The radiodditty mic uses a proprietary connector so you can only use the mic it comes with.
Good things about the radiodditty:
1. Cheaper.
2. ASQ is adjustable on it vs one setting on the P. Bill.
3. RF Gain is adjustable on it, while the P. Bill does not have adjustable gain.
On that last one, you can make up for that slightly by putting one of those PROCOMM NR400 noise clipper boxes between it and the antenna. They run $16-$28 and they really work (
Robot or human?) I use one in my CRV with my P. Bill and it is like a godsend for cutting down static, I've used it with local contacts out to about 6-7 miles with great success.
Other tidbits; I pretty much always run my output of my P. Bill into my car's stereo via the AUX connector. The speaker is just so weak on the P. Bill. You mileage may vary. I would not expect the speaker to be any better on a Radiodditty or any handheld unit, just because of the small size. Physically bigger radios have better speakers
usually. The NR400 noise clipper box actually helps with the speaker, I can turn it up much farther without static making it sound like hell. It is tolerable to listen to vs without the noise clipper box and like I said I still hear skip just fine and make local 6-7 mile contacts that are clear enough to carry on a conversation. Note that using that noise clipper box usually means not using ASQ other than for very short-range vehicle to vehicle chat.
The P. Bill radio is super, super easy to use. I chose this one for my wife's car (it's just been temporarily installed in my car) because it's so stinkin simple I know she will be able to use it comfortably even though her interest in using the radio is very, very slight. Just turn it on, basically. Leave the squelch in the ASQ setting. Go to the channel you want, and use it. One button to flip to the weather if you want to hear that quick. Small, unobtrusive design. Bonus USB port (handy to recharge the uniden wireless mic with, if you go that route).
I'd say the P. Bill is the best sub-compact radio you can buy for a car with few mounting options, and the simplest to use.
President's "Wyoming UP" antenna pairs with it pretty nicely, if you are determined to go mag-mount. Mag mount is fine for real temporary use but you run into issues with dust being used as grit to cut a fine circle in your paint if you use it long-term, and if you don't put it up then you are not getting anything for your time/investment. You might want to look into a hood or trunk lip mount instead, or get creative if you have cross bars maybe a bracket onto one of those (but then you loose garage door clearance vs hood/trunk bracket mount)
The antenna is the most important part of sending and receiving
but a cheap radio just doesn't deal with static/interference as well as some others that have ANL, NB, Hi-Cut, variable gain, etc and that makes listening a bit hard in the long-run.
I'd suggest that if you don't do a permanent high quality antenna install of some sort you will ultimately never use your radio. Maybe you'll throw the mag mount up for a road trip once in a while, the first 3 times anyways, then you will eventually never care to do it. CB frequencies too quiet for most people's taste these days. I do like using it to listen to the weather and to talk with friends/family on multi-car road trips, especially in places where cell signal drops off.
