What C.B. should I start off with?

Thanks for mentioning the Road King, it looks like it would be a good radio too. I have no idea who makes it, and until now I haven't heard anyone who owns one. So it's kind of hard to recommend a radio that I'm not familiar with, or heard much about it. That's why I usually recommend the Uniden PC78LTX to someone since it basically has the same lay out and features of the 29. It does have one extra feature the cobra doesn't have, and that's the high cut switch. Some guys like it and some don't.

 

I agree, I don't think there will ever be another CB radio that was designed and built to last like the radios of 40 years ago. As you know the Cobra 2000 and the President Madison that were built by Uniden, had the best receivers ever. That (what I believe was called the six pack) filter design gave those radios an amazingly quiet receive.

Sixty realistic radios... That's quite the haul. I can't imagine what your radio room would look like with all your radios on display. We may have to call you the Mr Carlson's Lab (YouTube) of radios. Ha.

 

All new radios are pretty much the same. Same power output, same sound etc. The difference is price, features and physical size. A compact or mid-sized rado does exactly what a full sized radio does except the full sized radio has more features. You can not tell what model and brand anyone else is using and they can not tell what model and brand you are using.

 

That's true. The only reason I believe the Unidens are better than the cobras, is because their quality control is much better. Plus they are making their radios with the surface mount technology which should be less susceptible to problems due to cold solder joints. The cobras are still using the through hole components technology, with maybe the exception is the LX models with digital display. I believe the display boards have some surface mount components. Of course Cobra CB's were probably considered king of the hill forty years ago, although they had a lot of great competition. So I'm sure that's why the new drivers are probably being pressured (recommended by other drivers) to buy one, and later on realize it has a lot of problems.

 

When I started driving trucks five years ago, I bought an inexpensive Uniden PRO 505XL. It’s about as basic as they get. Volume, squelch, channel selector. Under $50, works fine.

 

Uniden makes the Road King.

 

There's another person on this forum that has the Uniden pro520, I believe that's the correct model number. They have posted a few times about how they like that radio. I guess if you don't need the bling and chrome, these little Unidens are probably the best bang for your dollars.

 

Oh okay. Well it should work just fine then. I'm not sure but I think that was the first CB radio that I had seen with a USB port.

 

Not for a rookie. There not user friendly.

 

I find that once I set it up, I almost never change the settings. From set-up forward, it's just your basic controls