DVINTHEHOUSEMAN
Up North
A couple months ago I bought a Midland 75-790 CB off of Ebay to see how the metal telescopic antenna walked and talked compared to a duck on a Radioshack 21-1679A handheld. Blew it right out of the water.
The 75-790 is a big radio for sure, requiring 10 rechargable batteries and needing to fit a 51" antenna into a foot-long space. The thing really is a brick, almost an entire block, but it's amazed me how well it performs. I can get about 5 miles out talking locally, no skip, standing on my deck outside my house. To get that same kind of range out of the duck antenna, I'd need to be 15 feet or so off the ground.
The version of the 75-790 I have doesn't have an external antenna or DC power jack, those are on the "blue logo" variant of the radio, which were primarily sold overseas from what I can gather. There's also a French version of the 75-790, likely a rebadged unit, which looks nothing like the standard 75-790. That's the most common result you get when you google it, and I have to admit, it doesn't look all too bad.
As for skip comms, I've reached all the way out to Oregon and Arkansas standing about 8 feet up on a metal surface. I'm 6'2, so that places the base of the antenna around 14.5 feet or so. The antenna itself is 51 inches, or 4'3", making the total height at the antenna dome just about 18'9" above ground level. Not sure what the technical details on what my odds are of making it out there but when the skip rolls in, it's either enough or not enough.
Anyways, it's a great radio and I've enjoyed messing around with it. If anyone does have the manual to it though, please scan it if you can and upload it, it's been impossible to find. Also, if you have one of these radios, how has it performed for you? What kind of talking did you get out of it?
The 75-790 is a big radio for sure, requiring 10 rechargable batteries and needing to fit a 51" antenna into a foot-long space. The thing really is a brick, almost an entire block, but it's amazed me how well it performs. I can get about 5 miles out talking locally, no skip, standing on my deck outside my house. To get that same kind of range out of the duck antenna, I'd need to be 15 feet or so off the ground.
The version of the 75-790 I have doesn't have an external antenna or DC power jack, those are on the "blue logo" variant of the radio, which were primarily sold overseas from what I can gather. There's also a French version of the 75-790, likely a rebadged unit, which looks nothing like the standard 75-790. That's the most common result you get when you google it, and I have to admit, it doesn't look all too bad.
As for skip comms, I've reached all the way out to Oregon and Arkansas standing about 8 feet up on a metal surface. I'm 6'2, so that places the base of the antenna around 14.5 feet or so. The antenna itself is 51 inches, or 4'3", making the total height at the antenna dome just about 18'9" above ground level. Not sure what the technical details on what my odds are of making it out there but when the skip rolls in, it's either enough or not enough.
Anyways, it's a great radio and I've enjoyed messing around with it. If anyone does have the manual to it though, please scan it if you can and upload it, it's been impossible to find. Also, if you have one of these radios, how has it performed for you? What kind of talking did you get out of it?
