Newer Presidents aren't for your noise-toy-loving, whip-on-the-rusted-out-Delta-88-bumper redneck CB crew. They're laid out like a piece of equipment with just the right extras, intelligent controls, they look professional and they sound good.
I agree, just ordered a president "bill" that I stumbled across a great deal on (so good I'm almost not going to believe my luck until its actually shipped and in my greedy hands! Don't ask, I bought the very last one, sold out, I would have bought several if I could)
On my 1999 Honda CRV with 301,000+ miles an inexpensive uniden with no features tied to a $20 roadpro fiberglass antenna is fine and dandy, and call it a day.
The bar is set a little higher for my wife's fully loaded 2020 Jeep Cherokee. I want to have a CB in that car, its our main road-trip vehicle, but a husband does not just go gob a $35 uniden and a $20 fiberglass antenna on his wife's $40k car, right?
To get the approval to put a CB in
her car, it has to be a nice looking and unobtrusive unit and the same goes for the antenna. You didn't really touch on antennas in your first post but President Electronics is one of the only brands I see making an actual attempt to produce low profile, nice looking CB antennas that blend in better with modern cars. They have two short 1/4 wave antennas which, no doubt, will never perform like a 102 inch steel whip BUT if they work decently for their size, and don't detract from the aesthetics of the car, its a big win in our book.
Now ideally a radio installed in the nicer car that she mainly drives is not just in the car for my benefit on road trips. I'd like for her to use it as well even if I'm not in the car.
For her to want to use it, it has to be well designed and easy to use. President shines in this area as well.
The "Bill" radio I ordered is almost impossibly small and compact compared to traditional radios, small enough that I can surly find a nice spot for it on a modern dash of her nice car and not draw her ire every time she looks at it. She actually loves mods for her car that make it look more adventurous and off-roady, but they have to at least match somewhat aesthetically and not be obtrusive. I'd say the President model "Bill" hits that nail on the head. Small, with straightforward controls, adjustable LCD colors to match the car, and easy to use. I truly believe that the automatic squelch is the saving grace that will get her to actually use the radio. Without that, she would listen to probably about 10 seconds of the static and shut it right off. Fussing with manual squelch and/or listening to continuous static is going to be a no-go for lots of people with only a marginal interest. President seems to know this and looks to have automatic squelch standard on virtually every CB they make.
So with a President "Bill" installed I can tell her to simply turn on the volume and leave the squelch on auto and that's it. Use the radio. Channel up/down controls right on the mic and nothing else to fuss with. Press the weather button if you want to listen to some forecast for a while. No array of 20 other buttons across the face to cause confusion. Just leave the ANL and NB on all the time.
President makes nice, simple, quality radios for people who don't even care that much, and I think it's awesome because that's how I'm going to get a few more people "into CB". For what you're getting with a "Bill" model they aren't even charging that much. Still can't believe I snagged one bundled with the Wyoming UP Magnetic antenna for $69. Oops, did I say that out loud? Better not jinx it! Like I said I'll fully believe it when its actually shipped and delivered, but I just stumbled across it on walmart.com of all places while researching, with one left in stock, ordered as fast as my little fingers could go!
Don't get me wrong, I really like my Uniden 980SSB. That has been an awesome radio so far. But I'm using it as a base station at home. Its a fairly bulky unit with a kinda cheesy chrome faceplate and there is, according to my wife, no place for something like that on the dash of an all black-on-black-on-black blacked-out inside blacked-out outside 2020 Jeep Cherokee with the "High Altitude" package...
The car is sleek and sleek it must stay!
I'm really looking forward to installing that P. Bill setup in our... I mean,
her Cherokee. If walmart contacts me saying there was a mistake and they cannot ship me the bundled P. Bill radio with the Wyoming UP antenna and they refund me the $69, I'll turn around and order those at regular price and still feel like its well worth it. We do lots of road trips in that car, often in caravan with other cars of friends or family who I can loan mobile handheld units with magnetic centerloads and we'll all have a great time chatting on for miles on end
plus chatting with truckers and getting weather and road updates and all that other good stuff.
But no doubt anyone of my friends or family who show interest in CB radio when they see me messing with it, President is the brand I'm most likely to recommend and 9 times out of 10 it will probably be the compact P. Bill specifically as a starting point.
www.policescanneroutlet.com
