HELP I'M LOST!!

A long long time ago I had a York 863 modded to get usb and lsb. Not had rig for years! Recently I was given a President Mckinley Export model a swr meter and 30 amp power supply! So I thought  I might try again! Rig looks ever so complicated! Is it any good, and what aerial is best? Will be back as forgotten all and got lots of questions!! Thanks in advance.

Hi Tony,

There are many members here that own and operate the President McKinley and by all accounts it's a pretty good and fully fledged multi mode/multi band CB radio. It may take you a little while to get used to operating it with all the 'bells & whistles' but the manual is pretty good and there are plenty of YouTube videos on this radio. Worth having a search on the old internet and perhaps some other members who own this radio can give you a few pointers.

As for an antenna, the best one is often whatever one you can put up. (Certainly better than no antenna!  )

If you're running mobile any good mag mount will serve nicely and with a vehicle at least you can drive to high ground to gain an advantage.
(Easiest way to add antenna height.)

For home use a good home base antenna will serve you well and up to you whether that is a half wave, five eighths, etc. The 'bigger' antennas will serve you much better than the cheaper small antenna systems that's for sure.

You'll probably find there are many other caveats or points of view as regards manufacturers, type of coax to use etc. The best advice I can give you is don't skimp out by buying cheap equipment, buy the best you can afford where possible.


I hope that's of help, but do enjoy yourself whilst getting set up and learning to operate your radio.  

All the best,
Victor

Thank you so much!! I'm sure ill have lots of questions!

A York-863 with usb now that would be seeing and worth some money now ???.
I only ever did the FM mid band mod on them.

No worries Tony.

There are a lot of helpful members here who are often happy to answer any questions you may have so fire away and enjoy the forum.
Might be worth searching through some of the older postings too as the forum is a bit of goldmine with great nuggets of information.

Alan,

That could be a mention for one of the typical 'mid block' conversions common back in the day. Although the York's did have a similar appearance to the old Hygain V and it wasn't unusual to have radios re-badged. My old NATO had a UK27/81 decal as did my old Tristar 747. I even saw a Murphy homebase modded once with a Cybernet SSB board hooked up inside!

The things we did to avoid hassle with 'Buzby' were well founded.