24 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH: MIDLAND 79-290 REVIEWED

RETRO WOODY PHOTO

RETRO-WOODY REVIEW: MIDLAND 79-290 AM/SSB MOBILE

Very often I'll link someone else's review of equipment that compliments my own review of the same item, but I haven't  thought much about revisiting older reviews from my former publication, the CB Gazette, until today.

In 1996 I featured Midland's new 79-290 am/ssb mobile radio on the cover of the August issue, with a review of the radio inside. I had forgot about that issue until just a few days ago when I stumbled upon a cache of back issues including  Issue No.14, August 1996, and utilizing the highest levels of my brain I quickly deduced that coincidentally this month was August as well, so why not re-visit that 24 year-old review?

 Well, I only winced a couple times while re-reading my old keyboard-pecked words, but, after giving it some thought, I'm happy to let you know that I haven't changed much, and I'm just as full of myself as I was back then 😏

I couldn't find the Gazette issue with the 2nd article I wrote about the 79-290, but I located most of my notepad files and will spew them upon ye now:

This Fall, when a road trip to Florida presented itself, I didn't hesitate to combine work with more work by bringing along a few radios to test during a long drive. Using my excellent mobile radio installation skills (i.e. - if can be wedged between a seat, it's installed) the infamous Woodyworld Test Van was ready to roll!

"Along with my Icom IC-207 dual-band mobile and a 10 meter rig, I brought along my recently purchased-for-review Midland 79-290 (introduced 2nd Quarter 1996), a clever transceiver in it's own right, which could serve the dual function of a CB and 10m mobile, but as you already know from my previous rants, I prefer a CB for CB, and an HF rig for 10 meters. As a back up, I also brought along my trusty Uniden PC-122xl which I could easily switch to by using my A/B switch box.

Occasionally, while driving along, I'd jump to channel 19 to obtain the latest road conditions provided by truckers that were coming from the other direction, but mainly I was roaming channels 36-40 LSB looking for any local or distant stations to chat with. While sandbagging on 38 I experienced something that would drop the review down a point or two - bleed over from ch.19

In most instances I could still hear stations on ch.38, however their voices were  occasionally crushed by a big truck going the other direction. Using the A/B box I was able to compare the Midland with the Uniden, and while I still received some splat on the 122, it was less severe than what the 79-290 picked up.

For this reason alone I would not use this as a primary base station.

As well, the noise blanker circuit in the Midland, which is incorporated in the design with no switch, wasn't quite as good as the switchable NB/ANL circuitry of the PC-122xl. I'm not sure if it even has an ANL circuit, or does but it's just not as good, but Uniden always seems to get noise reduction right.

Other than that, the 79-290 did a fine job - I received excellent audio reports and the receiver was very sensitive, picking up the smallest of SSB signals very clearly - slightly better than the Uniden PC-122XL. All other car-mobile comparisons were fairly equal during the remainder of the trip."

3 MAIN ADJUSTMENT POTS

 

PCB COMPONENT SIDE

Inside View: Dual Finals (bottom-left) - ADJ. Potentiometers (top-left) Some models had adjustments labeled on silkscreen, others didn't. Some models had gobs of glue on components, others didn't. Really strange QA.

"...you'll find yourself doing the two-finger/two-button power ON Tango to regain those expanded channels...."

Final Thoughts:

The Midland 79-290 is the Swiss Army Knife of CB transceivers: It's nice to have a very small am-ssb mobile in the car with features like: NOAA weather channels, dual-watch, instant ch.19, last channel recall, as well as several memory channels. It is highly expandable, with 240 channel/frequencies (25-29MHz), and the ability to toggle between a large 5-digit frequency readout or simple channel number. Depending on the method you use to power it "ON" you'll get:

Regular CB Channels

The 10 meter band only

Frequencies from 25-29MHz in bands A-F

In my August review I noted that when I picked the test radio up at the Distributor they told me the radio had to be connected to a continuous power source for at least 12 hours, to allow a full charge of the internal battery. This was incorrect information. There isn't a "battery" inside the radio, merely a capacitor circuit that will hold the configuration for about 24 hours. 

What this means: when the configuration is lost the radio no longer remembers whether or not it was modified, and assumes an UN-modified state, so you'll find yourself doing the two-finger/two-button power ON Tango to regain those expanded channels. Price: At the time of this review the Midland 79-290 is selling for under $170, just about anywhere that sells CB radios.

POPULAR COMMUNICATION FEB. 2000 PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

You shouldn't always take one reviewers experience as gospel so here are some other online reviews and information:

CBRadioMagazine

CB World Informer

Radio Mods NZ

CB TRICKS REVIEW/MOD

POP COMM 79-290 REVIEW PAGE 66 PDF

POP COMM 79-290 REVIEW PAGE 67 PDF


"I want to see a large frequency readout on my display, not a big channel number..."

Last-but-not-least: My experience was with two different 79-290's purchased in 1996/97. I've read that some later production models seemed to have stability issues on sideband that were similar to certain warbling Galaxy radios, possibly due to golden screwdrivers cranking up the finals too much. I've purchased several used models in the last couple years and they've been dead-on / center-slot, so maybe I'm lucky.

One of my complaints about the current crop of radios (with the addition of a frequency display) have been about its size compared to the channel number. Granted, if you own a legit CB radio it makes sense to have the channel number predominately displayed vs. the frequency, but when you get into the realm of a "Ten meter" radio it should be the reverse - I want to see a large frequency readout on my display, not a big channel number.

SIZE COMPARISON BETWEEN MIDLAND 79-290 & PRESIDENT LINCOLN II+

I feel that the 79-290 should have been given a second shot at success by the folks at Midland with a re-design that fixed the front-end issues. They could have called it the 79-290 II or Plus, and I think it they might have hit it out of the ballpark if they had - but it is what it was.

73
WOODY

ANN LANDERS HAD A COLUMN THAT WAS OFTEN A SIGN OF THE TIMES

SOLAR 25 IS SPUTTERING AWAKE

SPACE WEATHER UPDATE 08-10-2020

A FOND LOOK BACK AT THE EF JOHNSON MESSENGER 323-A 23CH CB

ONE OF JOHNSON'S LAST 23 CHANNEL HURRAH'S

Most of us have heard the crazy stories surrounding 23 channel CB radios and their last days of life towards the end of 1977. It was a bloodbath, and not every manufacturer came out of it alive. I was personally caught up in this two different ways: I'd recently bought a Viking 352 sideband mobile, and I was involved with the sale of CB radios.

TWO BUSY HANDS

The most surprising aspect to me was the box the Feds put the manufacturer's into. On one hand they had to sell as much of their existing 23 channel radio lineup as possible before the cut off date, while the other hand was busy designing and manufacturing the new 40 channel models.


Can you imagine a company like Johnson dealing with the fact that 40 channels were right around the corner? With their warehouses full they had to continue to slug away on the existing 23 channel line, inclusive of following thru with new models that most likely had been designed, and been in pre-production since 1975. 

It's as if someone was just told they were to be laid off in a year or two, and in the same breath, told to "keep plugging away" with the backlog of crap on your desk - as if your job was secure (err..maybe that wasn't the best analogy).

"By the summer of 1976, orders for new Citizens Band radio fell dramatically..."



That brings us to the June 1976 issue of CB magazine and on the cover: EF Johnson's NEW Messenger 323 "A".

By the summer of 1976, orders for new Citizens Band radio fell dramatically which prompted Wall Street to lower ratings on CB related companies. Gladding (Pearce-Simpson) saw its sales sag, and didn’t expect the industry to maintain itself with the lower priced 40 channel radios that were to hit the market soon**. 

The FCC compounded issues by setting a date in 1977 (December 31st) when it would be illegal to sell the 23 channel radios any longer. In the midst of all this turmoil Johnson released the redesigned 323, a huge heavy, yet well designed AM-only mobile Citizens Band radio - one of the last CB radios Johnson would stamp with "Made in the U.S.A."

 

1977 saw CB magazines shrink in volume, probably due to much lower advertising budgets across the boards while consumers were still at odds on what to buy. Manufacturers tried to hang in there by coming out with their new 40 channel radios but the momentum had changed. U.S. Citizens Band companies were in dire need of help in 1977, so President Carter ended the duty-free status of Citizens Band radios imported from Taiwan.(1977) By June, the Tandy Corporation saw an overall decline in same store sales which they attributed to the lack of sales in CB radio and related accessories.

 [ Shortly later, E.F. Johnson went to the ITC (International Trade Commission) to try and have quotas or increased tariffs on imports from Japan and other countries imposed. But by November, 1977 E.F.Johnson had announced that they were closing one of their two Citizen Band radio manufacturing plants due to the steep decline].**

Previous articles about EF Johnson:

APRIL 16 2006

APRIL 12 2006  

OCTOBER 03 2005

CLASSIC AD CORNER 

CLASSIC JOHNSON ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE 60's

73

Woody

** Source: "You Weren't Someone Or Anyone If You Didn't Own a CB"