What is considered to be the BEST AM/SSB 40 Channel CB Radio?

[kk9h]

I was active on CB in the ‘60s in my teens, then in the ‘70s and ‘80s going to and from college and other road trips. With our son and daughter now located away from where we live, I recently bought a President McKinley to use on road trips to go see them. These are the reasons for this choice:

- SSB capability, new to me, wanted to try it
- easy to use once set up, memories, etc.
- front firing speaker with plenty of audio
- clever built-in SWR checking system
- weather channel feature works very well
- easy access to service manual information
- nice looking, well made and wife approved

Since I am not looking to burn holes through the ether with it, I simply made sure it was set for at least 4 watts out at car battery voltage, full 100% AM modulation and at least 12 watts on SSB voice peaks. I use it with a standard Larsen mag-mount that I also use for other antennas with an NMO27 coil. It works very well with a quality cigarette lighter plug attached to the power cord. I’ve had excellent signal and audio reports on both AM and SSB modes and the receiver sounds very good. I have had some nice contacts on 38 LSB which is a new experience for me. The bottom line is this is a very nice CB radio that has been enjoyable to have along on recent road trips.

 

[n7lrg]

Glad you like the McKinley. Your reasons are same/similar to why I bought mine. I run mine as a base station so bought a mic cord extender and replaced the mic with an amplified D-104. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[K4EET]

<snip> easy access to service manual information <snip>

Thanks so much for your detailed comments. That is much appreciated! With respect to the "easy access to service manual information", would you mind expanding on that comment? Is a Service Manual available for sale for the President McKinley CB Radio or does the radio come with that in the box or some other path to the technical information? That would be a HUGE selling point for techies like me that would look for long term maintenance capabilities of their purchase. Even if I could not physically do the maintenance myself nowadays, I do have friends that are highly capable if they have a service manual for the radio that they are working on. Looking forward to your response. Thanks in advance! Dave

 

[kk9h]

Thanks so much for your detailed comments. That is much appreciated! With respect to the "easy access to service manual information", would you mind expanding on that comment? Is a Service Manual available for sale for the President McKinley CB Radio or does the radio come with that in the box or some other path to the technical information? That would be a HUGE selling point for techies like me that would look for long term maintenance capabilities of their purchase. Even if I could not physically do the maintenance myself nowadays, I do have friends that are highly capable if they have a service manual for the radio that they are working on. Looking forward to your response. Thanks in advance! Dave

Just Google “President McKinley service manual” and it will come right up.

Don

 

[kk9h]

Just Google “President McKinley service manual” and it will come right up.

Don

Here’s the link:

https://simonthewizard.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/service-manual-mc-kinley-us-12-24.pdf

 

[BuzzardsBayDave]

Glad you like the McKinley. Your reasons are same/similar to why I bought mine. I run mine as a base station so bought a mic cord extender and replaced the mic with an amplified D-104. Good luck and enjoy.

Greetings ! I have a President McKinley CB/SSB and Wilson Mag mount antenna headed my way. Also a wireless mic, but interested in your Amp microphone since I had a set up like that back in the 1980's. From what I have researched the Uniden Bear 980's have same 6 pin wiring config as the McKinley....so with respect to the Amp mic you suggested above, will the mic below be the proper one for my application ?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Dave

ASTATIC D104M6B AMPLIFIED CERAMIC POWER 6 PIN MIC UNIDEN 880,980, 680 ETC. WIRED | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ASTATIC D104M6B AMPLIFIED CERAMIC POWER 6 PIN MIC UNIDEN 880,980, 680 ETC. WIRED at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[n7lrg]

Greetings ! I have a President McKinley CB/SSB and Wilson Mag mount antenna headed my way. Also a wireless mic, but interested in your Amp microphone since I had a set up like that back in the 1980's. From what I have researched the Uniden Bear 980's have same 6 pin wiring config as the McKinley....so with respect to the Amp mic you suggested above, will the mic below be the proper one for my application ?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Dave

ASTATIC D104M6B AMPLIFIED CERAMIC POWER 6 PIN MIC UNIDEN 880,980, 680 ETC. WIRED | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ASTATIC D104M6B AMPLIFIED CERAMIC POWER 6 PIN MIC UNIDEN 880,980, 680 ETC. WIRED at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Greetings ! I have a President McKinley CB/SSB and Wilson Mag mount antenna headed my way. Also a wireless mic, but interested in your Amp microphone since I had a set up like that back in the 1980's. From what I have researched the Uniden Bear 980's have same 6 pin wiring config as the McKinley....so with respect to the Amp mic you suggested above, will the mic below be the proper one for my application ?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Dave

ASTATIC D104M6B AMPLIFIED CERAMIC POWER 6 PIN MIC UNIDEN 880,980, 680 ETC. WIRED | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ASTATIC D104M6B AMPLIFIED CERAMIC POWER 6 PIN MIC UNIDEN 880,980, 680 ETC. WIRED at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

I'd say go for it but maybe compare it to the red devil. Those seem to be really popular too. Here is the site I bought my radio from. Great service. https://www.bellscb.com/products/microphones/astatic/mobile_mic/ASTATIC_RD104E.html
Look on the left, you can specify which plug you want. You can also add up/down buttons if you prefer.

 

[BuzzardsBayDave]

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.....RD104E is impressive.

 

[WA4A]

Since I have not been paying attention lately, what is considered to be the BEST AM/SSB 40 Channel CB Radio?

The answer may be more than one radio model and it may even be an out-of-production model. Just curious to see what the CB experts think.

Thanks in advance for your "2021 Full Featured 40 Channel AM/SSB CB Radio Honor Roll" listing.

The Collins KWM-2A transceiver, 312B5 VFO, Wattmeter, Phone Patch, Speaker, 516F2 power supply and 30L1 linear amp with MM-1 hand mic and CP1 crystal pack!
No AM unless you wanted to unbalance the balanced modulator but it was the best dang SSB CB radio back in the Viet Nam era!! Good as a mobile rig, too!
LOL!

 

[WA4A]

Since I have not been paying attention lately, what is considered to be the BEST AM/SSB 40 Channel CB Radio?

The answer may be more than one radio model and it may even be an out-of-production model. Just curious to see what the CB experts think.

Thanks in advance for your "2021 Full Featured 40 Channel AM/SSB CB Radio Honor Roll" listing.

 

[prcguy]

I have the exact same Collins setup but its a hassle to use on CB. If your going to venture this far out of bounds then here is probably the best you will see in this thread. This radio is over $50k new and I've used it on CB. If someone can top that then you win a cookie.

View attachment 99904

 

[K4EET]

<snip> If someone can top that then you win a cookie. <snip>

My dad and I are members of USAF MARS. My dad used to have an AN/URC-119(V)2 (Pacer Bounce) setup which he received from USAF Surplus. That was an HF (1.6 to 29.999 MHz in 10 Hz synthesized steps) station with a 500 watt power amplifier. Of course it was only SSB but I guess it would have been stellar on Channel 38. @prcguy, does that qualify for a cookie? I honestly do not know what the Air Force paid for those systems new but it had to be at least a few pretty pennies.

 

[prcguy]

Pacer Bounce was the Harris RF-350 system, good in the 1980s but not really up to today's specs. The unit above is a Harris RF-5022E full blown SDR with variable IF BW and lots of other goodies. 1.6 to 30MHz, 400 watts, autotuner that will tune a clip lead at 1.8MHz, etc. Beautiful radio but I sold it to a friend. I have one similar unit left but with 150w amp and a few less features.

My dad and I are members of USAF MARS. My dad used to have an AN/URC-119(V)2 (Pacer Bounce) setup which he received from USAF Surplus. That was an HF (1.6 to 29.999 MHz in 10 Hz synthesized steps) station with a 500 watt power amplifier. Of course it was only SSB but I guess it would have been stellar on Channel 38. @prcguy, does that qualify for a cookie? I honestly do not know what the Air Force paid for those systems new but it had to be at least a few pretty pennies.

 

[jhooten]

The Collins KWM-2A transceiver, 312B5 VFO, Wattmeter, Phone Patch, Speaker, 516F2 power supply and 30L1 linear amp with MM-1 hand mic and CP1 crystal pack!
No AM unless you wanted to unbalance the balanced modulator but it was the best dang SSB CB radio back in the Viet Nam era!! Good as a mobile rig, too!
LOL!

Yes, the FRC-93 made a decent SSB CB until those higher up in the food chain decreed that the crystals covering CB frequencies be removed from the crystal pack before they were sent out to the units. The GRC-106 on the other hand didn't need extra crystals and made four time the power as the FRC-93 without the 30L1 and would do AM.

 

[prcguy]

Yea, but if you make a slight mistake tuning a 106 the contacts in the turret can vaporize. GRC-106s would not last long in a CBrs hands plus the transmit audio is not that great and it has a lot of inverter whine mixed in with the voice.

Yes, the FRC-93 made a decent SSB CB until those higher up in the food chain decreed that the crystals covering CB frequencies be removed from the crystal pack before they were sent out to the units. The GRC-106 on the other hand didn't need extra crystals and made four time the power as the FRC-93 without the 30L1 and would do AM.

 

[jhooten]

Yea, but if you make a slight mistake tuning a 106 the contacts in the turret can vaporize. GRC-106s would not last long in a CBrs hands plus the transmit audio is not that great and it has a lot of inverter whine mixed in with the voice.

Tuning a 106 was easy. You took a spare fluorescent light bulb from the hanger, wrapped the antenna lead around the tube, then tuned for maximum brightness. But I was a 26Q microwave operator not an 05B. After the dishes were aligned we could talk over the order wire between the two vans so the 106 could be used for other things,cough CB cough.

 

[FLA727]

I'd say go for it but maybe compare it to the red devil. Those seem to be really popular too. Here is the site I bought my radio from. Great service. https://www.bellscb.com/products/microphones/astatic/mobile_mic/ASTATIC_RD104E.html
Look on the left, you can specify which plug you want. You can also add up/down buttons if you prefer.

I recently picked up this very mic from Bells and use it on my McKinley and second the great service from them. I did not go for the Up/Down buttons since I never used them on the stock mic.

 

[K4EET]

Anybody else want to comment in this thread before I make the final tally and post the final table that will look similar to the table that I did in Post #25? Going once, Going twice... Don't hold back! This may be your last opportunity to jump onboard... Going... This is it folks... No kidding... I cannot tell a lie... Going... There's got to be at least one more input out there... Going... Going...

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

My SSB radio is a Realistic TRC-465 I picked up on eBay. Looks like it just came out of the box. Good range on AM but haven’t had a chance to test the range on sideband as I only have one SSB radio and almost non existent chatter on sideband except when skip picks up. No drifting from what I have observed. So far I have been very happy with it. Keeping my eyes open for another vintage SSB radio to pop up.

Ditto on the TRC-465. I wish I had kept mine.

RigPix Database - CB, "Freeband" and more - Realistic TRC-465 (21-1567)

 

[Woodman75]

Still using my Cobra 142GTL and love it!