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Thread: Deciding between two radios

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by whiteastro View Post
    Yes I thought I read somewhere that the President McKinley had the same 6 pin mic adapter as the 980. If my 980 ever takes a dump on me I will check out that McKinley because I like the small size. How do you like that Automatic squelch control or don't you use it?
    It's "OK"...Not that big a deal, it does the same thing as just rotating the squelch knob till it kicks in...I use it some but not a whole lot...just never really cared for squelch. (figure I might be missing something when it's on)

    There's several other President radios too, I think the newest one to come available is the President Bill.


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    i took a look at the Mckinley radio. It does look good .

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1911 guy View Post
    Sounds like I need to look seriously at the 980 then, since i do plan on getting into side band.
    Is there another antenna that has surpassed to Wilson 1000 for mobile? Will be either a roof mount or magnetic mount.

    Someone mentioned an amp with the 980. Google showed the RM Italy KL203 commonly paired with the 980. Does the radio need to be tweaked first, or just hook it up? And do I really need or want the amp?

    Thank you for all your help and discussion so far.
    I'm not a Wilson fan by any stretch of the imagination...They "USE-2-B" good antennas years ago, but they lack in the Quality Control dept. now...Hit or Miss at best.

    As for as the magnet mount base loaded type antennas go, the Sirio Performer seems to be one of the better ones on the market...Now I have never used one, nor do I plan on it, but I know lots of guys who do use the Sierios and like them, plus I have yet to read any negative posts on any of the Forums or fb about them...

    Another option would be the antenna made by Stryker...It's also base loaded, a little bulkier looking tho, but people who have them seem to like them...They did have a bad-batch not too long ago, but the ones on the market now are suppose to be well made.

    Strykers and the Sirio antennas may be a little taller than the Wilson 1000...but that's a good thing!

    Biggest problem with the Wilson antennas is with water getting inside the coil and rusting it out till it shorts...I've had two Wilson 5000's in the past that did that after just 6 months...and if you check around, you'll find i'm not the only one!

    Here's the inside of a Wilson 5000 that got water inside and shorted out...



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    [QUOTE=1911 guy;15486]Sounds like I need to look seriously at the 980 then, since i do plan on getting into side band.
    /QUOTE]


    The only thing I worry about getting the 980 is I have read quite a few customer reviews complaining about the same 2 things over and over when there is a complaint. Many rave reviews too but,,

    1 LED display parts of it stop working and for some stops completely and goes black.
    2 LED display when working properly is hard to see in some daylight conditions in a car.
    This doesn't bother me as it will be inside at a base station.

    There were a few complaints about warranty time limit etc. I guess the best thing is burn it in for a good long time when you get it to make sure. Don't know if the LED problem was mostly in cars, trucks or Jeeps [rough rides etc] or base stations.

  5. #25
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    Mckinley got overall better reviews.

  6. The Following User Says Thank You to Turboomni For This Useful Post:

    JesseJamesDallas (01-23-2020)

  7. #26
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    [QUOTE=Turboomni;15499]
    Quote Originally Posted by 1911 guy View Post
    Sounds like I need to look seriously at the 980 then, since i do plan on getting into side band.
    /QUOTE]


    The only thing I worry about getting the 980 is I have read quite a few customer reviews complaining about the same 2 things over and over when there is a complaint. Many rave reviews too but,,

    1 LED display parts of it stop working and for some stops completely and goes black.
    2 LED display when working properly is hard to see in some daylight conditions in a car.
    This doesn't bother me as it will be inside at a base station.

    There were a few complaints about warranty time limit etc. I guess the best thing is burn it in for a good long time when you get it to make sure. Don't know if the LED problem was mostly in cars, trucks or Jeeps [rough rides etc] or base stations.

    The plastic they use on the 980 display screen scratches easy or at least the early ones did, don't know if they fixed it. I see it in my 1st version. I never heard of the display going out but you might have read more reviews than.me. I have used thin aluminum flashing material to make a sun screen to block the sun from blocking my view of the display. That can happen with any radio. Flashing material bends easy and is flexible.

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    Turboomni (01-22-2020)

  9. #27
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    For the screen just get a universal screen protector and place it on the screen. It’s what I did and don’t have any scratches on my screen. Works very well just as they do on your phone. You could even buy one for a phone that is around the same length wise. For antenna for mobile, like JJD said the Sirio performer 5000 and the PL145 magnet mount is a good setup. It’s what I used for a couple years on my work van and I talked around the world while driving down the highway. I used a few different radios, and had a small 2 pill amp. But the antenna setup was a Sirio 5k and the pl145 magnet mount. I did change out the coax to lmr240. That is not necessary for what you’ll be using it for. I’d you do decide you want to replace the coax, get some good RG8X or some RG400 and good pl259 connectors. And I have to also agree with JJD about the newer Wilson antennas. They lack in the QC dept. that is for sure!! Same thing happened to mine just like JJD’s. The Sirio antennas are well made and work well.

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    Turboomni (01-22-2020), whiteastro (01-25-2020)

  11. #28
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    Good idea.

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    222DBFL (01-23-2020)

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    Quote Originally Posted by 1911 guy View Post
    Sounds like I need to look seriously at the 980 then, since i do plan on getting into side band.
    Is there another antenna that has surpassed to Wilson 1000 for mobile? Will be either a roof mount or magnetic mount.

    Someone mentioned an amp with the 980. Google showed the RM Italy KL203 commonly paired with the 980. Does the radio need to be tweaked first, or just hook it up? And do I really need or want the amp?

    Thank you for all your help and discussion so far.

    I use a K40 antenna with a mag. mount on top of my travel van and it tunes out well. It can also be used as a trunk mount. It's worth taking a look and checking out. It's made in USA for those who care.

    http://www.cbradiomagazine.com/Anten...%20Review.html
    Last edited by whiteastro; 01-25-2020 at 11:45 AM.

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    222DBFL (01-25-2020)

  15. #30
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    Here is a link to cbradiomagazine.com which has a article about the McKinley giving the 980 some competition. Just for the fun of it!

    http://cbradiomagazine.com/Radio%20R...B%20Radio.html

  16. The Following User Says Thank You to whiteastro For This Useful Post:

    Turboomni (01-25-2020)

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