2013 Buyers Guide - Input and Survey

[cbradiomagazine.com]

Hey everyone - I've been getting a ton of requests from people asking what radio to buy lately and I thinks it's time I put together some sort of buyers guide for people to look at to at least give them some ideas of what's out there.

Please see the attached survey and complete it so we can choose a "readers" choice for each category. I'm also going to do a "CBradiomagazine" choice and also an honorable mention.

I've chosen the radios and equipment listed based on certain criteria and I've only included items that are currently being sold and are fairly widely available. As much as we love some of the older models this guide is meant to help people trying to buy new products. I know that the choices are limited and I've left off some radios but I needed to keep the results somewhat limited to get clear results. If I left something obvious off please let me know.

When making selections please consider the following - performance, technology, durability and reliability, availability, user friendliness, etc.

Don't choose a radio because it's what you own, choose a radio based on your knowledge of the radio, features, and how it compares to the other choices listed. Keep in mind any trends that have happened with certain radios as well - warranty repairs, blown finals, etc even if you haven't had those problems with your radio.

Lastly - while I picked the items for this list based on my own criteria if you believe there is something I should have included please let me know.

Here is the link to the survey - thank you for your help!

2013 Buyers Guide - Readers Poll Survey

 

[DJboutit]

For #4 you forgot to add ranger ss 158 edx

Also you need to add a few just noise canceling mics

Skythumper ST 65DX
636L
Stryker mic
K40 mic
Ranger SRA-198
D104M6B

 

[cbradiomagazine.com]

Hey DJboutit, yeah there were a few I left out and mostly because of SSB drift comparative to the other models. While the SS-158EDX is a good sounding radio and has a lot of features I feel the other radios listed do better on SSB in particular.

I had to make some choices just to make the lists reasonable so some radios had to be left off. Not meant to knock any one radio or anyone's favorite.

For the microphones I was only doing power microphones as those are the ones people most commonly have questions regarding.

 

[cbradiomagazine.com]

10 people have completed the survey so far, thanks guys, keep em coming!

 

[davegrantsr]

I've chosen the radios and equipment listed based on certain criteria and I've only included items that are currently being sold and are fairly widely available. As much as we love some of the older models this guide is meant to help people trying to buy new products. I know that the choices are limited and I've left off some radios but I needed to keep the results somewhat limited to get clear results. If I left something obvious off please let me know.
2013 Buyers Guide - Readers Poll Survey

I took your survey, & as you qualified it above, i think there really are no good choices anymore. So we're finally winding down the rehashed-rehash of rehash. & thats only cuz transistors are becoming scarce. For 20 years we bought 30 year old technology. Because of that, the new technology hasnt really changed. It uses LED's & mosfets. Whoopie. Thats because we pay $700 for an rci69ffc400m-o-u-s-e or whatever they wanna name it. For what? Chrome covers & 400 watts worth of flame throwing mosfets that covers 27.384-27.386 over the course of 15 minutes without ever touching the clarifier??? We brought this upon ourselves. Of course we cant afford HF rigs, but at least they're advancing. I'd pay $700 for a modern ar3500 with filtering, dsp, & 100 watts of mosfet power. In a heartbeat. Well at least long before i bought that 400 watt ranger.
I just hope your survey doesnt make rci think we want more of that sissy-crap they produce, legal or export. Same for uniden. So yeah i voted but it doesnt mean i like what i voted for.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

i wish we could still see the survey after we submitted our answers ...... i wanted to comment on a few things but don't remember them without the survey to remind me .

 

[davegrantsr]

i wish we could still see the survey after we submitted our answers ...... i wanted to comment on a few things but don't remember them without the survey to remind me .

My comment would be....i THINK i like the optima but never owned one, i mostly like my blue faced 1st gen mosfet 257, my predator 10k is perfect for ME, an am/fm only radio is useless, i'd probably never own an un-modifiable cb, most modern mics suck cuz they do what they're supposed to-effect the audio to a more pleasing sound without amplifying it so much as to distort it.
As i said, radio-wise, not that its perfect by any means, but no radio has ever compared to my ar3500, or XL for legal stuff, but the 3500 is what needs to be built upon. Other then the optima, there is no newer or modern radio that excites me in the least. I still prefer to use my 101e vs the rest of the list....my 101e excites me far more.

 

[Mudfoot]

i wish we could still see the survey after we submitted our answers ...... i wanted to comment on a few things but don't remember them without the survey to remind me .

Just log in under your other alias, take the survey again and make note of the choices.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

i don't have a alias here . there's no need for one ...............

 

[cbradiomagazine.com]

I'll post up the results when I start writing the article but so far they are probably exactly what you expected

Again I think everyone understands why I limited the choices somewhat but if ten of you all post up on this thread and say whoa "you left off XYZ" I'll consider adding it back in.

Also this isn't life or death It's just a poll to get your input so we can help people out there who are looking for new products. At the end of the article I'm going to post up the forum info so they can come here for more specific info.

Hopefully those of you on the forum don't mind but I direct 2-3 people here every day who email me asking questions I don't have time to reply to all of them and I think we have such a good group of people on this forum and the technical knowledge is great that getting a bunch of responses here is better than anywhere else on the net.