GOODBYE NOVEMBER, HELLO DECEMBER

It's that time of the year when I don my Santa hat for a month of cheerful blogging. You never know what I'll be writing about because I don't have a clear idea until my finger's touch the keyboard, but let's get started....

I took a brief respite from the Blog to enjoy family, friends, and food - which was very relaxing, but not so much that I wanted to stay away from yakking on the radio or writing on this Blog any longer. Looking back, I would have done much better by doing the latter as opposed to the many online purchases I made. We (Robin and I) went out and saw a couple movies: Ford vs. Ferrari, and Knives Out, as well as staying in to view The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese and featuring  De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, and several other well known actors (Netflix).  

None of these were under 2 hours, with The Irishman the longest, clocking in at 3.5 hours.

We enjoyed all 3 movies and because they're all different genre's it's hard to compare one against the other. Nonetheless, I liked Ford vs. Ferrari best. Defining the experience is a struggle but I'll give it go by saying that:

"I haven't enjoyed a car racing movie as much since viewing my all-time favorite, "Grand Prix" with James Garner"
 
Scorsese does well in the gangster Genre, and the digital de-aging effects are really something to see. These effects seemed a little noticeable for the first 20 minutes or so, after that it all seemed natural.

November was an interesting month as we saw Uniden's 980SSB being discounted to the attractive selling price of $97.99 with free shipping (AMAZON). I was really tempted to buy another one, partially as a backup rig, but mostly just because. But I didn't.

Last week, with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and then Cyber Monday you could have had the opportunity to purchase a President Lincoln II+ for only $225, with free shipping (AMAZON). I really had to exercise my will power not to buy one for the same reasons mentioned with the 980. Fortunately for me (but not you if you didn't get one) that lower price is no longer, and it is back to it's normal $248 price tag. Lightning could strike twice though so I'd keep an eye out all month just in case it's lowered again.

I swapped a few emails with a friend of mine reminiscing about days past, the era of 23 channel radios, and our first experiences with linear amplifiers. Using some of the email content as notes I've started several articles for publication here on the blog, but it remains to be seen which, if any of them, will actually see the light of day (or backlight of the computer screen)🤞

My segway from November to December is now complete. Hope to hear ya on the airwaves -


73

WOODY

DEOXIT, OR, WHAT TO USE TO CLEAN YOUR "STUFF"

I'm gearing up for a big project that will probably take up most of my time this winter. I have dozens of both desk and hand microphones, plus many older rigs with scratchy controls that I've procrastinated over cleaning and lubricating  all year long. The product "Deoxit" and I will become very good friends during this time, but which one is the best to use? 

Below, is a very good video on which cleaner/lubricator to use for various devices. If you're in doubt, perhaps Mark will help you decide.

73

Woody

YOUTUBE VIEWING

11/14/2019

I have quite a few so without adieu, here they are:

HamRadioConcepts Reviews Commander Mini CB-27 CB

USING LIQUID TAPE

CB MICROPHONES

FRED-IN-THE-SHED TALKS CB NOSTALGIA

FLAMING AERIALS IN KEYDOWN CONTEST

73

Woody

SOLAR WEATHER REPORT FOR 11-07-2019

POW! IT FIRES A FLARE..AND POW IT FIRES ANOTHER FLARE

NEW SUN SPOT FROM CYCLE 25

It's not a "biggie" but a Sun spot from cycle 25 has been reported!

See update, via Solarham.


73

Woody

TODAY IT'S HALLOWEEN ON YOUTUBE

Well, we've zipped thru October, today is Halloween, and tonight my pumpkin head gets retired until next year! Let's close out the month with some appropriate YouTube Halloween viewing -

HALLOWEEN WITH THE ADDAMS FAMILY

AND ONE OF MY FAVORITE VINCENT PRICE MOVIES.....

"THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES" 

 

73

Woody


 

LATEST SPACE WEATHER REPORT OCTOBER 24 2019

WEB VIEWING OCTOBER 24 2019 / ABBREE TACTICAL ANTENNA TOO!

SOME OF MY YouTube VIEWS THIS WEEK

I've mentioned the ABBREE "Tactical" antenna several times and have seen countless video's and text reviews about them, but the video below, by IZ2UUF, is one of the best (Short) review / test reports I've encountered. I use the 18" model, but most folks seem to go all in with the extreme 43" version, as in this video -

Next, if you're a fan of 3885 AM talk in the New England area but sometime miss out on the hearing the fun, check out W2PHL's YouTube channel which does a 24hr. live stream where you can catch any conversations you may have missed.

K8MRD GIVES US A LOOK AT THE "PORTABLE ZERO ESCORT" MOUNT FOR HIS IC-7300

Last but not least, is "Ham Radio CQ's" video on the 9V BIOENNO BATTERY for QRP

73,

Woody

HOW THE MOVIE "IT PART II" SHOULD HAVE ENDED

HALLOWEEN MOVIES: MY OWN TOP 20

HERE'S MY TOP TWENTY LIST

(1973-PRESENT)

Every now and then I'll challenge Josh and Chris to come up with their favorite movies of  a specific genre, and seeing as it's October it was fitting to try and come up with a list of 20 favorite Horror movies. I decided to  make 1973 the oldest year in order to make it the selection easier. Why '73? because, with the exception of "Night of the Living Dead" horror movies weren't that horrific up to that point. You can argue that the change was because  of NOTLD, but it wasn't a huge mainstream release. Between 1968 and 1973 there were a few other drive-in movies that were horrific yet low budget, but in 1973 one widely released movie took ma & pa citizen by storm (and surprise) - "The Exorcist".

That Monday, after the first weekend showing, I was sitting at a desk during Homeroom period listening intently as several girls talked amongst themselves about the movie. As their chatter reached a fervored pitch I chuckled silently at their excitement and terror. Talk of the pea-soup colored vomit made for some unsettled stomachs that morning. So this is why I picked 1973 as the cut off date - yet it was still as hard as hell to cull the rest into twenty-something selections. It would have been way too hard to rank them so we decided not to give one movie a greater weight than another.

HERE WE GO (in no particular order).....

1.  Halloween (w/o it there may not have been a Freddy, or Friday the 13th as we know them)
2.  Nightmare On Elm St
3.  Alien (it took place in the future, and it was Sci-Fi, but at the core it was all Horror)
4.  Dawn Of The Dead (1979 version)
5.  Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
6.  Hellraiser
7.  The Host (2007)
8.  Suspiria (1977)
9.  The Omen
10. Evil Dead 2
11. Carrie
12. Let the Right One in (2008)
13. The Exorcist
14. The Thing (1982)
15. The Ring
16. Wolfen
17. The Fog (1980)
18. The Witch
19. Phantasm
20. The Shining

I'm pretty sure you'll disagree with some of the ones on my list, but then, everyone has their favorite horror movies for reasons only known to them. Whatever YOUR favorites are, take some time and binge watch them before Halloween has come and gone...

73

Woody

REVIEW: CHAMELEON P-LOOP 2.0 MAGNETIC LOOP ANTENNA

MY 6th MONTH REVIEW





As I've mentioned a time or two, my chance at an outdoor antenna has been zilch, or maybe negative zilch. I tried a simple indoor dipole with terrible results, then last year I tried using the MP1 "Super" antenna indoors with no luck whatsoever, and ended up selling it at a local Hamfest this past Spring. 

Enter stage right - Chameleon's P-Loop 2.0 Magnetic Loop Antenna (MLA). 

Combining several specials (10% off first order and a 30% OFF sale from Chameleon) I was able to order this model for just a little over $250. I had toyed around with constructing my own MLA (and still do) but I knew that I'd probably keep putting off buying what I needed to build one and end up six months later with nothing. So I took the plunge.

So what was in the box that arrived? The coax that is used to form the loop, the capacitive ring that is velcro'd approximately at the mid way point of the coaxial loop, the "magic" sealed box where the capacitor lives, tripod, 15' of rg58 coax to connect the loop to a transceiver, and a nice canvas back to stuff everything into when being stored away.

I had viewed numerous YouTube videos detailing how to put together and use one, but when I pulled everything out from the shipping box I was still trepidacious about getting things just right. In one video I watched it was stressed that you should get the smaller loop exactly in the middle of the big one, and once that was done it was recommended to mark that spot with some tape so that when assembled it would always have that sweet spot. In another video it was mentioned that the tuning knob was so touchy that just by placing your hand on or near it the loop could de-tune. Other videos said that it was best used when at ground level, yet others suggested it would be better to have it well off the ground. I was ready, and then again I was not.

The instruction sheet was just "okay". Several sheets of regular weight paper that appeared to be printed off your typical home laser jet. There isn't a lot of detail that has to be written about setting one up, yet the MFJ-style instructions seemed a bit homemade.

Looking back, it's really stupid at how intent I was to get this right. I actually played-paused-played a YouTube video as I began assembly, but don't be alarmed, it's really "Easy Peasy". The main thing is to stay loose and don't get too stressed while putting your loop together.

I setup the tripod and extended it high enough so when the thicker coax was screwed into the SO-239 connectors on the tuning box it would form a half-assed circular loop. It was held in place whenever the smaller loop was attached via velcro (approximately midway to the thick coaxial loop I just formed). Now let me explain "Half assed". The coax is scrunched into the box for shipping so when it's pulled out, being stiff coax, it doesn't allow for perfect smoothing, so YES it's roughly the shape of a loop, but it looks like I put it together while hung over - which I wasn't.

Moving on....


Once set up and affixed to the tripod it was time to figure out MLA tuning. One end of the variable capacitor stops at the top of the 10 meter band while many-many (many) turns later it end-stops in 40 meters. I wanted to try 20 meters so a-tuning-I-did-go. Like you've heard and/or been told many times turn the capacitor, while listening for the loudest noise to come out of your receiver. Once your in the ball park you can tune it more slowly until the SWR is at it's lowest.

The way I did it (and currently still do it) was to have the 15' foot coax come into a 2 position switch box. One position sent the signal to my radio while the other one was connected to my Comet SWR display. I slowly tuned it down to under 1.5:1, switched over to my radio and BAM--->my FT-817's receiver came alive with actual activity on 14.300. This was the most I'd heard out of it since the last time I ran portable, and never inside the QTH.


Sitting in my "shack" on the second floor of the house I was actually able to get in on one of the morning nets that are running on 14.300. Let me stress that this was the first time I'd ever been able to hear a net, much less talk on one, from an indoor antenna and I was elated. Eventually I put the 817 back in storage and have used my TS-2000 ever since. The maximum supported wattage is 25 and I normally keep my rig set to 20 watts just to play it safe. I've checked in on various nets, and participated in several ARRL contests where I've discovered that if I hear them, they'll hear me as well. Many times I have given out a 5-7 signal report and received a 5-9 report back from the other station.


Let's get down to brass tacks about my take on this antenna -

• PRICE - At $400 this is fairly expensive. At the price I bought it for the P-Loop was affordable 😁
• You don't need to make a perfect circle. I.E. - feel free to half-ass it.
• It has never made a difference on the precise location of the smaller loop. I eyeballed it when I set it up, but have moved it a little each way to see if there was a noticeable difference and there wasn't.
• Once you get used to it, setting the loop up should take you all of a minute or two.
• I never found that I could distort the tuning by merely touching the black tuning knob.
• Tuning is really easy. If you have 29 mHz at one end and 7 at the other why tune slowly? If I'm on 10m and want to get to 20 I know it's roughly at the mid tuning point and take huge turns of the capacitor to get in the ball park quicker.
• Location: I've tried this downstairs at garage level and then upstairs in the shack and have not found either location to be better or worse than the other.
• Being vertical there should be quite a bit of directivity to the loop. Sometimes I've noticed it and have moved the loop's direction to get a better signal, while other times it doesn't seem to matter much. Perhaps this has to do with the type of propagation I'm getting. If anything is certain, I know that by turning the loop in one direction or the other allows me to tune out much of the electrical noise I pick up from our structure.
• Bandwidth. Yes, the bandwidth gets wider as you tune upwards towards 10 meters but even on 7 meters I haven't found that having to re-tune is an issue. After a  month or two I discovered that it had become second nature.
• 25 watts maximum SSB. Yes, that is quite a drop from 100 watts, but seriously, the loop has a butt load of electricity on it and because it's right there in the room with me I wouldn't be comfortable with it any higher.
• Yep... It works fine on 11 meters too!

To wrap up: Before the loop I was strictly a listener indoors, only able to work stations while mobile or in the field. Now I'm able to sit in the shack and make contacts. I am no longer bound by the constraints of not being able to have an outdoor antenna.

One day, when I have some extra cash floating around I plan to make my own magnetic loop. Also, since using this one, I've been kinda chomping at the bit to see what using the F-Loop can do for me, via coax or the solid aluminum loop, but that would fall into the category marked "Luxury"

A magnetic loop is not the ultimate antenna, however, I'll leave you with these words: "The best antenna you have is the one you can actually use"..(Nuff Said)

73

WOODY

SOLAR STORM FORECAST FROM SPACE WEATHER

10-17-19

UNIDEN 980SSB - PRESIDENT MCKINLEY - PRESIDENT GRANT II PREMIUM

"WHICH ONE?"

WINNER

As you know, I just recently compared a Uniden 980 with the President McKinley, and the McKinley
won hands down in several categories, categories that mattered to me and most importantly - screen visibility in the vehicle during daylight hours. I pulled the 980 out from the car as soon as the comparisons were over. Even at night I found that the 980's screen was slightly difficult to view unless it was right there in front me. Viewing from either side angle was not favorable.

Enter the President Grant II "Premium" CB transceiver.  The Grant II came out about 6 years ago and was replaced with the Grant II "Premium" in 2015. Unless someone buys one for you overseas, or, you buy one yourself and have it shipped to the U.S. you won't be able to get one. In fact I believe that the Premium model has recently been discontinued in lieu of a President McKinley EU model (many more frequencies). A quick glance and you might think you were looking at a Uniden 980, but soon enough it's easy to pick either one by the bezel. The 980 has a shiny

GRANT II PREMIUM

chrome bezel that while looking sharp, the chrome area is a magnet for fingerprints and smudges and the Grant II doesn't. I prefer the mat finish of the Grant II Premium.

The Amber background is most pleasing to my eyes, but you also have the option to select GREEN. I guess I should have mentioned in the beginning the reason why this is called the "Premium". Well, the Premium version has a larger sized filter manufactured by Murata, and it's purpose to help your adjacent channel rejection fight off strong signals on channels other than the one you're talking on. Because I live in a RF "Dead Zone" as well as poor band conditions, I didn't really have an opportunity to see if there is any noticeable change in reception, and my noise level / reception was the same as either of the other two radios.

THE GRANT II HAS LARGE HEATSINK

Comparing each radios footprint, the 980 and Grant II are identical, with the exception being the Grant II has a large heatsink. The transceiver itself is your typical 4watt/12watt SSB output so I'm not sure that it really needs one. As you would expect, the McKinley depth is much shorter than either of the other two.

With the McKinley's smaller footprint and front firing speaker it would be the easy choice when you're tight on space. All three models are very light weight compared to older rigs like a Cobra 148 or Uniden Grant.


The Grant II Premium is a fun rig to play around with but is it worth spending $300 or more for it? No. I wish the Premium model offered features similar to the McKinley like Auto-SWR, and NOAA reception. It would also had been nice if the design had been reworked with a front firing speaker too. The Premium is the only one to have FM, but that's not a mode I would every imagine using in the US anyway. Once the export mod is done you get a choice of bands similar to any export radio including the UK CB band.

All 3 transceivers had good transmit audio. I used my Turner Road King 70 on each model. They all had "okay" noise blanking ability, and I found the Hi-Cut feature (used in the Premium and McKinley) to be very useful fighting noise as well. To say that either of their noise blanker's worked as well as the classic 138GTL or original Uniden Grant would be a falsehood. While I'm wishing for other features, I wish that one day you could change the display from channel number to frequency ONLY via a menu function.

Once again, I'd prefer to have a McKinley in the car. It's backlit screen just edged out the Premium for readability in daylight hours. I would have preferred some Sunspot activity to see how each radio compared against the other but I'm afraid we're many months away from that happening. A detailed review of the Grant II can be found via CB Radio magazine as well as various YouTube channels.

AUDIO AUDIO

 

If you've noticed, lately I've been posting some audio clips on this blog for your enjoyment (right-side). The most recent upload is another classic "Clark" clip about a High School science experiment gone horribly wrong in "the Lightning bolt from the butt "story. If you haven't noticed, well, now you know. I rotate these clips with others from time to time.


73

WOODY

SPACE WEATHER: 2 SOLAR CYCLES ON 1 SUN

T.I. SSB RADIO UPDATE

AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN STUMBLE ACROSS ON THE WEB

Well, I missed the Fall Belton Hamfest last weekend for a variety of reasons that should not have been reasons in the first place (but they were). My regret was further amplified when the "Friz" emailed me to say that it was the largest turn out he had seen in many years (😰). My plan now is to get there next Spring.

On another note, and the main reason I started this entry, I was  perusing archival stories of the Wall Street Journal when I ran across an article from August 31, 1977 and the title read: "Texas Instruments Delays CB Radio Sales for several months".

Yes, this was all to do about their upcoming 40 channel SSB radios. "Citing production-cost concerns and a flooded market they (TI) will delay for several months its prevously announced entry into the citizens-band radio business".

Concerned about the 23 channel glut along with the switch to 40 channel radios they were now postponing their planned releases until 1978. Previously their Hi-Tech transceivers were supposed to hit in the Fall of '77. Not only were they wavering on the release date, Texas Instruments hadn't even filed for FCC approval!

A TI spokesman said that they were also planning to redesign their units so that they would better fit the market demand as well as pricing. When asked if the base/mobile radio pricing would change due to redesigns he said "We don't have any anticipation that we will change the prices UP or Down".

Clearly, they had mock ups and perhaps even pre-production models about around when they announced these transceivers, but after reading this article it seems to me that it never got any further than that due to apprehension of a tightening marketplace. (pictures from advertisements of these radios are in my previous posts about them)

Knowing what we know now about the CB manufacturer "Blood Bath" of 1977/8 TI was smart in making that decision however, I sure wish that they went thru with it so we could have one or both in our collection.

Unless some old TI guy contacts me to say that he has a pre-production model, this pretty much ends my posts about it.

73

Woody

RANDOM SIGNALS / UNIDEN 980SSB VS. PRESIDENT MCKINLEY

MISC END OF THE MONTH STUFF

Time continues to blaze a path towards 2020 and the Halloween decor in all the stores seem kinda old now as they've been up since Labor day, and I had a couple of things to note before we're into October. First, there's a YouTube video of one man's unique mobile setup which was posted on another radio forum. Next up is my radio comparison.

ODD USE OF LITTLE CAMERA IN THE MOBILE SHACK

UNIDEN 980SSB VS. PRESIDENT McKINLEY

I've been doing an A/B comparison in the mobile shack between the 980 and the McKinley while I still have both radios. Here's a few things I noted:

• The 980's NB doesn't seem to work as well as the McK. It should, but it didn't.
• The display in the McK is easier to see than the one in the 980. I tried every color option, playing around with brightness/contrast settings, but unless I was driving at night, it was hard to view the 980's display - especially if the radio wasn't directly in front of me. The orange colored background of the McK with black numbers is much better (or my old eyes at least).
• Because the Uniden is larger, it takes up more space than the McK
• I really had to use an external speaker on the 980 while the front-firing speaker in the President was all I needed.
• Even though the microphone pinout is identical,  the voltage on Pin 6 is NOT. There's 8v on the Uniden and 11v on the President, so the President hand mic would not work on the 980SSB. The radio will key, but you won't get audio. It's probably not that big of a deal however I was thinking of trying Uniden's wireless microphone on the President and I'm wondering if that extra 3v in the McK will harm it or not.
• Regarding cosmetics, of course, the 980 is a nicer looking radio
• NOAA WX station reception was equally MEH on both units
• Clarifier mod's are pretty much the same
• The President's auto-swr is nice

I didn't go into this wanting to like one radio better than the other but I guess I came out of this A/B test liking the President McKinley more than the 980SSB. When purchased NEW the McKinley sells for $179.95 while the Uniden can be had for $119 including shipping (if you can navigate through all of those BS EBay ads trying to sell you one for $180-$250).
So just this short update before I don my pumpkin face for October -

73

Woody

THE ARCHIES GO NUMBER ONE 50 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH

Sheesh... I knew it was popular, but didn't realize this was the number one song of 1969, as well, it reached the Billboard number one 50 years ago this month.

QSO PARTIES ARE "AFOOT".

 Looks like various States are having their QSO Party this weekend. I've heard people around Texas and Alabama on 40m so get yer ya-ya's to a radio and call CQ.

  

________________________________________

Saturday morning I saw an online post from a guy in Texas who was ON-THE-AIR on 40 meters. I figured I'd hunt around with the TS-2000 and see what I could hear so I tuned my MLA to 7230 and heard a fella from Bexar County (San Antonio area) calling CQ and I tried to come back to him. Nothing. Nada. Zippo.

I moved up the dial a little and heard another station but like the first try it was 
Nothing. Nada. Zippo.

This seemed odd because even though I'm using an indoor MLA if I can hear them - they can usually hear me. So I switched to my inline watt/swr meter/dummy load (just to check) and could not see any output from my rig. Scratching my head, I realized that while it had been awhile since I used the rig, perhaps the watt meter was faulty. So, I put another meter in-line. Nothing. Nada. Zippo

Then I replaced the short coax cables - Nothing. Nada. Zippo

I guess everyone has had their own moment of panic and I certainly had mine. I tried every band (up to 440) and even both A and B radios with no success. AM-FM-SSB = Nothing. Slightly alarmed, I tried a 3rd watt meter. Nothing. Nada. Zippo.

Finally, I took a mental step back in order to get a grip on the situation. I reasoned that I could have inadvertently hit a wrong key or keys on the front panel which may be causing this symptom, but even after checking adjustments that could cause this I couldn't see anything wrong. With a processor laden radio like this it could have been something I did a month ago. Luckily there wasn't  a huge or even moderate investment in memories and settings so I did a full reset and ta da - all was well with the world, and my output was normal once again.

Just to prove my point of "If I hear them they will call" I heard W4UAL calling CQ for the Alabama QSO party and got him on my first try (using 20 watts). I received him with a 5-7 and he gave me a 5-9. Not bad for an indoor MLA...


It's Sunday morning - go make some contacts!


73
Woody

YOUTUBE VIEWING FRIDAY THE 13TH 2019 - HOT NOT TO COPY CW THEN - FRIDAY THE 13TH VIEWS

AND FOR FRIDAY THE 13TH

73

WOODY

REVIEW/OVERVIEW: PRESIDENT McKINLEY

Yep, I know - I'm a little late getting to the party, but I recently got my hands on the President McKinley 40 channel am/ssb mobile, and I thought I'd jot down my overall impression as the last newly released rig I'd had so far was President's Lincoln 2 V3.


Well first of all, I procured my transceiver in the used market place ($99) without the factory box and accessories (It did have the microphone). When I received the box and pulled it from the safety of our postal box my first thought was "this box is too freaking light to have a radio in here - I've been had!" but no, the radio was indeed, in the box. The transceiver itself is just a little bitty thing that is no way near the weight of an older CB like the 138XLR. There's nothing wrong with that, it just took me by surprise.

MORON STICKER

I had an immediate pet peeve: The "moron" sticker on top of the radio which tries to help the most moronic of us apply DC power correctly. After all, it uses a standard 3-pin power connector which would make it almost impossible to key incorrectly (unless you were a persistent Moron). 


Moving on.... 


There were a couple things that attracted me to this model. Having read and viewed various reviews I was interested in the SWR feature and looked forward to having something in the car with a front-firing speaker. So out of the box and onto the bench it went.


On power up the colorful display lights up and gives you all the information you need to know - What channel you're on, the corresponding frequency (albiet tiny and hard to see), channel activity via S-meter, status of the rf gain control, and whether or not you have the noise blanker or high-cut filters in use.

Compared to the Uniden 980 the overall appearance is rather sparce, (back when I bought a 980 my first thought was "where do I insert my Rolling Stones CD?"). I guess, if I had to put the McKinley into a category I would say that it is "utilitarian", and there's nothing wrong with that.

While everything is aligned at your finger tips my personal preference would have been to reverse the layout by having the speaker on the right side vs. left, but that's just my preference. In any case it was nice to have a front-firing speaker.

The controls at your finger tips are:

• Fine/coarse Clarifier - Receive only (scroll down for more info)
• Power / Squelch / ASC - dual potentiometer control also varies RF output
• Channel selector / Menu -
• Dual-Watch (ch9/19)
• MIC GAIN (self explanatory)

Other buttons below display: MODE / PA / WX / NB/ANL/ HiCut.

[I would not have bought this solely for WX, but I was nonetheless happy to have the NOAA back in the vehicle like I had with my Midland 77-290 25 years ago].

By pressing the Channel control in you can toggle around and vary the color of the screen (orange, blue, green), adjust the brightness / contrast, and best of all - turn OFF that annoying key BEEP. If you're not a Roger Beep kinda guy you have the option to turn it off and don't have to go thru contortions to do it.

While toggling around you can also change the receive tone and/or activate the SWR feature. Now this is pretty cool! I first heard about it when I watched the review from "Mikes-Radio-Repair" and thought it was something every rig should have (it is). 

You don't have to switch any thing to "Set", align the needle to one side of the meter and then switch back to SWR (like the BS you normally would), it just does it. 

Rather than further duplicating other reviews I think it's time to stop and give you some links for further details on features it has, and what they do, then I'll continue with my thoughts about it.

CHECK OUT:

• CB RADIO MAGAZINE'S REVIEW HERE
• WATCH CBRM's VIDEO REVIEW PT.1 HERE
• WATCH CBRM's VIDEO REVIEW PT.2 HERE
• WATCH MIKE'S (OF MIKES_RADIO_REPAIR) CLARIFIER MOD HERE
• WATCH MIKE'S (OF MIKES_RADIO_REPAIR) TEARDOWN-REVIEW HERE

TO SUMMARIZE:

The President McKinley AM/SSB USA transceiver is a fairly "locked down" CB which only allows you to open the clarifier and no other mods. If they (President) had only one thing that could be done to the rig, picking the clarifier mod was the right choice. I don't have any problems using a radio on the 40 channel FCC spread, but if it has SSB then I want the Clarifier to track on receive AND transmit.

There is another version of the McKinley for the rest of the world, which is the EU model. You can go pretty much anywhere with this one, but from what I've seen, it's not available anywhere in the U.S.

UNIDEN BLUETOOTH MIC

This microphone works okay but is so lightweight that it feels super cheap when holding it, and I'm not confident about how well it will hold up as time goes by with day-after-day use. It's the new standard 6-pin configuration shared by Uniden / President which means you can use the wireless Bluetooth microphone from your 880/980 radio on this model if you want to. 

There is no hokey-pokey "voodoo" magic about getting this to work - it's just like pairing a Bluetooth device to your computer. As long as the pin-out is correct on the piece that plugs into the microphone jack matches (and it does), it should work just fine.

I'm trying to stop comparing every new radio with classic old school equipment (like I did with Uniden Bearcat's 980SSB) because they'll never quite live up to those expectations, but it's hard not to do. Because my description of the McKinley is "Utilitarian" I had to ask myself if I would have spent $180 for a new-in-the-box model? 

No, it just isn't worth it. 

This is a radio that should be selling for  $130 or less. At that price point you really couldn't gripe a lot about the stuff that it's lacking, but @ $180 it's only $45 less than a President Lincoln II  or $69 less than a President Lincoln II+ ( yes, I know they are supposed to be Ham-band only rigs, but I live in the real world).

So that's the review, as well as a big "Thank You" to all the folks (above) who covered the minutia details about this when it first came out...


73

Woody