President McKinley AM/SSB CB Radio, 12/24V,40 Channel, NOAA Weather Alerts, Automatic SWR, ASC, Large LCD, NB, ANL, Hi-Cut Filters, VOX, Front Panel Loudspeaker, Clarifier, RF Power & Gain

This addition to my review is to document the performance of the replacement to the first radio shipped to me. As noted below, the first radio had some problems. I returned it, and ordered a replacement. The new radio works very well. Internal speaker sounds good and no spurious tone in audio. Power output and modulation are close to legal maximum, in both AM and SSB. Have made several contacts, every contact remarks on good sound of this radio. Just finished a 13.5 mile mobile contact on SSB; the other operator has decades of experience on the radio and commented that this President McKinley was one of the best sounding "out of the box" radios he's heard. I'm very pleased with this purchase, and highly recommend this radio. *** ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW *** Nice radio with lots of good features. Unfortunately the radio delivered to me came with no internal speaker output, and had a spurious tone when receiving in AM mode. Very attractive, modern radio with a lot going for it. Installation was straightforward. The small size of this unit allows for many options for install. Unfortunately, upon power-up, no output from internal speaker. The external speaker output worked fine. Great reception, except a very low level tone, maybe around 1KHz or so, was present in AM receive. No problems noted during SSB reception. Power output and modulation was right up where it should be. I like this radio, and believe the problems I experienced with this individual unit are simply a random manufacturing defect. I have returned the defective radio, and will be ordering a replacement.

Installed a Uniden PRO520XL a while back and decided I liked using CB enough to buy a better radio. I had a lot of issues with what I believe is alternator or spark plug noise on the cheap Uniden, the ANL on it cut the noise but also cut a lot of the signal along with it. The noise reduction features on the President seem to be a lot better at cutting the noise while still retaining a clear signal. Built in speaker is good quality. Gets loud enough without distorting. External probably would be better but I'll have this mounted close enough to me that I don't think I'll bother. Built in SWR meter is nice. Matches my external meters close enough and is always nice to have as just a final sanity check in any installation, or to just double check SWR occasionally. SSB also works well. I don't hear many people locally using it but was able to make a short contact from Texas to Georgia just running barefoot/stock power, center of the roof mounted ~50 inch antenna. Atmospheric conditions are obviously the main limitation but shows that this radio can get out there.

I purchased this cb to replace my trusty cobra 29 and have ssb capabilities. Things I like: Compact size Ready to go out of the box. No need to peak and tune. SWR calibration process Channel changing mic Ability to adjust power out of the box Scan feature Weather Things I dislike: Having to key the mic to make some adjustments The lack of a rf gain knob. 6 pin mic connector Somewhat noisy Overall I like the radio a lot. I found that you need to run the mic gain at about 80% or it distorts transmissions. Set up is super easy with the swr tone calibration. Don’t expect a ton of power, but the radio plain works. I’ve talked dx barefoot but you won’t get much attention unless conditions are in your favor or you add power. The radio has great “ears” for a mobile transceiver. The one thing I miss about my 29 is the rf gain knob. Sometimes you want to have it open and sometimes you only want to hear the other side of the highway and squelch alone doesn’t work as well as gain and squelch combined and the ability to easily make adjustments. One feature that I’m still on the fence about is the Automatic Squelch Control. It’s not quite perfect yet. There are times it works too good and other times it’s not good enough. Overall I really like the radio and I’m happy with its performance. I wish I could give it 4.5 stars as it more indicative of my opinion. The negatives aren’t deal breakers, hopefully they can be corrected in future editions.

Excellent SSB radio. I run mine with a linear and the adjustable power output from the unit is great for that, it lets me feed it with about 1W for clean transmissions. I like everything about this radio with one exception: No lockouts for scanning. Cant have 6 in the mix. Otherwise its great.

BLOWS Cobra out of the water! This is an AWESOME radio right out of the box it was easy to tune the antenna because of the built-in SWR Tuning feature. I am a Pilot Car driver and depend on my CB radio a lot, all the drivers I work with all say how clear my radio is and what a strong signal it transmits. I also purchase the Maryland RW CB antenna at the same time and I am able to hear & talk to drivers 5-6 miles out. Watch the President McKinley USA 40 ch AM/SSB CB radio teardown and review from MikesRadioRepair on YouTube, thanks Mike it really helped making the decision to buy this radio easier. I would Highly recommend buying this radio to my friends. Update June 2019; The radio is still going strong no problems at all. I love this radio very easy to use, packed with auto features that really work, Automatic SWR Reading Zero In "Beep" Function really makes it easy to tune in your antenna, the Automatic Squelch Control is nice because you don't have to even mess with the squelch unless your on 19 and you want to tune out some of the long distant rambling. The scan feature allows you to scan all channels or only your channel plus 9 and/or 19, or you can scan your channel plus 3 memory channels really easy to monitor your friends out on the road. If your thinking of getting a radio you won't regret buying this one!

Great radio and works well. May need a noise filter connected. I get a lot of engine noise when car is running.

buen producto cumple con las características

The President McKinley USA is a fine and reliable performer. It is easy to operate, and clarifying an SSB signal requires only a very slight adjustment of the fine-tune clarifier. There are course and fine clarifier controls, but the course tuning control knob never needs touching. (See the video of the transceiver receiving a signal on channel 33 lower side band). The unit is robust and well built, and can be used in a mobile or base station situation. I particularly like the front mounted speaker (on the left), as the audio quality from that speaker is good enough to obviate the need to plug in an extension speaker. Other features of this radio include a built-in VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio) meter, eliminating the need to check the VSWR with an external meter! The SWR reading I obtained from the built-in meter coincided with the result I obtained using an external SWR meter, so the built-in device is reasonably accurate. The McKinley also features a ''President'' invention, namely the Automatic Squelch Control, which first appeared in President CB radios back in 1996. This radio also has a scanning control, so you can easily scan the 40 channels in about 5 seconds. You can scan in AM mode or Upper and Lower Sideband modes, but note that when scanning, the Automatic Squelch Control will only work in the AM mode. I've given this radio 5 stars overall for quality, reliability, and ease of operation.

Advertised a EU which has FM band , unit send is a USA , no FM or EU channels , tidal waste of money , waited 3 weeks for something completely different than advertised

Back in 1977 I bought 1 of these n it lasted 35 years b4 it stopped working, that was sad. I was told it has had it's day. Anyways I tried to buy a new 1 n for years there just wasn't a new McKinley but just recently Yes so I bought it, it's every bit as good as the last radio n a few more lil features like scan n a SWR meter I also bought n antenna tuner n it has arrived, awesome n the new McKinley looks just like my UHF too, very nice. This new radio drags in awesome skip from every where just like the old radio. Works for me n that's awesome. Iv since bought a great new antenna my new antenna is a half wave marine stick so I can use it on the boat. Buy a McKinley still blows Cobra out of the water n a few other radios too 3's awesome is what awesome does!