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Great Radio

Customer Rating:
Radio works great. I read other reviews complaining about it changing to channel 9 when you turn it off. If you wire it so that it's hot all the time and just turn it off whith the knob, that don't happen. No complaints at all!!

Best compact CB out there

Customer Rating:
I've used the 510xl and have owned a few different cobra 19's (including the newest version). This got rid of the funky squelch issues that the newest version of the cobra 19 show (it pops whenever it looses or gains signal and that digital RX/TX meter is terrible), and it hands down beats the previous version as well. The squelch works much better then even some high end radios, and the gain is a really appreciated feature, especially at this price point. They can be found at most truck stops, so that's handy as well. It seems to be much less sensitive to alternator noise then some previous vehicles, but that could just be this particular installation. Every cobra I've ever hooked up wasn't happy until it was wired directly to the battery. I wired this one to a free switched accessory port for a quick hookup on a weekend offroading trip, and I won't be switching it, it's that quiet. Squelch turned up about 1/4 of the way is dead silent with the jeep running.

I'm very impressed, this has made a cobra man switch. Would definitely buy again, even at the $40 the truckstop charged for it.

Good radio

Customer Rating:
I had the Uniden 510XL, two of them and they both stank. The transmit audio was terrible, and the mike was a flimsy piece of junk. After spending money on antennas, and trying in vain to get a decent SWR match with the Uniden. I gave up. I took a chance on the Midland. Not only is it cheaper, it is a much better radio. The mike is heavier, the mounting bracket is better, and it includes rubber washers for vibration dampening. I hooked it up to a lil wil antenna and got great signal reports without even tuning the antenna. It is a much better radio than the Uniden 510. This radio even has an rf gain control along with squelch control. It is an excellent bargain. I have been a ham for over ten years.

Good simple radio.

Customer Rating:
I bought this because it was much cheaper than the comparable Cobra product I was looking at. This has all the features I need for off roading. I paired it with a Firestik 4' antenna and have been able to hear chat from truckers several miles away. It also has a PA speaker output, which I didn't notice initially.

Nice little radio for the price, with one caution.

Customer Rating:
My old Uniden CB handitalkie died so I wanted a new CB radio for keeping track of traffic conditions when I'm on a road trip. I noticed the very low price on this Midland and ordered one.

When it arrived, I put it on the bench to try it out, connected to a 12 volt, 10 Amp power supply, Bird watt-meter and a 50 Ohm dummy load. When I hit the PTT switch on the mike the meter on the radio moved up to full scale, but the watt-meter showed zero. I double checked my connections and even connected the watt-meter setup to another radio and it worked fine. Hmmm... Being an old (in both terms of the word) radio guy, a licensed ham for 51 years, I opened up the radio.

Lo and behold, the short length of bare wire going from the circuit board to the SO-239 connector was broken right where it was supposed to be soldered to the center pin of the coax socket. I heated up the soldering iron and repaired the connection. Back into testing mode and, sure enough, the watt-meter now shows exactly 4 watts when I key the mic.

It seems like a nice little radio with basic features that serve my needs when I'm on the road. I like that it has an RF gain control and would miss the NOAA weather channels except that my mobile Ham rig has that capability so it's not important in my case.

Other than the one caveat about potential quality problems, I think this is a very good value for the money if what you need is a simple to use, basic CB transceiver.

I'd also like to make a comment about CB radio antennas in general. All the radios put put the same power, 4 watts. The single factor that has the most effect on the range you get is the antenna. Small is NOT better. The best mobile CB antenna is still the 108 inch whip without loading coils, mounted as high on the vehicle as practical. Anything shorter is a compromise. That said, I use a loaded short mag mount antenna because it's convenient and I'm only using the radio to talk to others in relatively close proximity.