Customer Reviews

Midland 1001Z 40-Channel CB Radio

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

So, you're sitting there viewing this page in your browser, perhaps with a look of doubt in your face. That's why you've scrolled down here to the reviews. You're thinking to yourself "A $30 CB? It can't be worth a flip, right?". I tell ya what, I was thinking the same thing. But I gave it a shot and installed it in my wife's little '97 Corolla a few days ago, and so far I've been pretty impressed.

When I pulled it out of its box, my first thought was "Wow, cheap". And indeed it is. Its plastic case has almost no weight to it. The knobs and switches have the tactile feedback of a dirt-cheap appliance from Wal-Mart. Being the ham radio geek that I am, the first thing I did was pull out my trusty phillips screwdriver and open the case. More cheapness on the inside, all of the components no doubt obtained from the lowest bidder somewhere in Asia. However, I didn't see any sign of shoddy manufacturing that I've seen in other super-cheap products. No solder marbles shaking around inside, no apparent bad solder joints, components all in good shape, and everything seems to fit and function well. I put it back together.

Time to install. I spent an hour measuring and cutting a hole in the plastic tray beneath the stereo in our little Corolla to accommodate the length of the unit ; slid it in and secured it with 3M double sided tape. It looks pretty good, non obtrusive, black case matching the rest of the plastic in the car. It will no doubt fit will in other small cars too. After some snipping and soldering, I had power from the backside of the cigarette lighter. I temporarily attached my antenna (more on antennas later) and turned it on.

My main gripe is the channel knob. The flimsiness of the channel knob is really the only giveaway as to just how cheap of a radio this is. It "clacks" when you turn it, and feels like a child's toy when you do so. The channel doesn't change with every "clack", it could be 2 clacks or one clack before it actually changes. But, it works. And it doesn't feel like it's about to fall off or fly apart, so I'll let it slide. I go to channel 19 and key the mic to ask for a radio check. A trucker on I-20 about 5 miles away tells me it's working fine and sounds OK. I mention that it cost $30, and we share a laugh. That's when I notice my huge metal garage door is still closed. Nice, the radio works pretty well. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hear the speaker since I mounted it flush with the plastic in the dash, speaker covered. I had even bought a $10 cheapo extension speaker from Amazon with the radio. But it's still pretty loud! And it doesn't sound too bad when I crank up the volume. Not bad! I declined to install my extension speaker...for now at least.

So I install my mag mount antenna on the truck, tuck the wires in, and put everything back together. Let me give you some radio nerd advice about antennas, because there seems to be lots of confusion about this in CB world. A -LEGAL- CB radio puts out 4 watts AM. That's it. All of them, expensive or inexpensive, doesn't matter...4 watts AM if it's legal. And if you want it to "get out", then you need to squeeze out each of those 4 watts as best as possible. The CB band is around 27 MHZ, or around 12 meters. Boring technicalities aside, it basically means you need a "large" antenna for best efficiency. The absolute best CB antenna ever made is the good ol' 102" whip. You can order them from Radio Shack for about $20. But 102" is huge, and unless you're driving a big truck, it will probably look bad. The second-best antenna you can get, in my opinion, is the Wilson 1000. It has a 62" whip, which is pretty long but doesn't look too bad on a car. They come in mag mount or permanent mount. I'm using a mag mount. Now once you've got the antenna installed, you're not finished. You need to tune it for a good SWR. Go buy a cheapo SWR meter and a small piece of coax from your local CB shop or truck stop, read some directions on the internet, and tune that thing as best as you can get it. The local CB shop might even do it for you if they're nice. It WILL make a difference, and you need all the help you can get when you're only running 4 watts.

So, now I have everything installed, antenna tuned, and it looks nice. I start up the car out and cruise around town. I chat with a few other locals in town, as well as truckers passing by on I-20. This little radio is working just as well as my "big" CB in my other car, which cost almost 3 times as much. It doesn't look fancy or have all the features that one does, but when it comes to just plain talking, this cheap guy gets the job done admirably. Someone in another review mentioned how well the squelch works and I can confirm that. This radio may be cheap, but function-wise it works great. The only "dumb" design decision I've noticed is that the speaker shuts off if you unplug the mic. But that doesn't effect you really, you need a mic to use a CB anyway.

Wow, this got pretty long, but hopefully it'll help someone out there. If you want a basic CB to do basic CB stuff and don't want to spend a lot of money; go ahead and buy this one. I'll give it 4 stars, deducting only for the flimsy feeling of the channel knob and switches. It's one of the best values I've ever come across in all my years of goofing around with radio. Just remember though, it's all about the antenna. Get a nice long one and tune it as best as you can, and this radio will serve you well.

I have been into CB radios since they first came out. I also have 50 year experience as a ham radio operator and an electrical engineer. I have never had a better CB radio. I purchased a second one just to have in years to come as a spare. I use it every day-it has very low crosstalk from high power CB transmitters nearby on the Interstate.
Can't beat it for the $

Jay

I purchased this radio new on Amazon for about 26 bucks delivered; not a bad price for any CB that is in working order, new or used! So there is value here! The first radio I received was defective; the receive section totally lost it's sensitivity after a few minutes of turning the radio on, and it was easily replaced with a fully functioning one. As one who enjoys "big" rig equipment, the compact size in this case allowed me to install it within the space beneath a removable tray in my car. Using a good quality extension speaker did the trick; but the radio has surprisingly good audio quality and volume from its internal speaker. An added bonus that NONE of the sellers; even the manufacturer ever mentions is that this rig does have an RF Gain control, a feature NEVER seen in a radio at this price point. Another thing I am impressed with is the fact that the squelch control actually works properly; set it for a particular threshold, and it will allow signals to pass selectively based on the FULL range of differently received signal strengths. It seems that the radio has some sort of "fuzzy logic" that allows a signal to break the squelch and remain received even as the signal fluctuates under the selected threshold to some degree. Most squelch circuits, even in high priced equipment, operate miserably in this regard. So with the other features presented with this radio, ease of operation, good TX & RX audio, the nice size package, and the price - you simply can't go wrong!

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.

Excellent choice, will work as a champ, good value and a compact design that will fit anywhere in your car

Great product for the price. Works just as good as my previous CB with all the bells & whistles.

I am satisfied with the product I purchased thru Amazon.com. The radio does look like the advertised picture, works fine and I consider it a good value for the price.

The Midland 1001Z is an overall decent radio at first glance. The compact size and easy installation was a plus. I thought that you couldn't go wrong with that price, and maybe that is still true. It worked great for a month. Then one week after the Amazon return window closed, it stopped working. Completely dead. Every other piece of electronics in my vehicle was functioning fine. My recommendation, save your money up and buy a better radio. Sure, you can always send it in under the three year warranty, but after the shipping and handling costs, you might as well have just bought a new radio.

This is the best cb radio for your value. This rivals the cheaper cb units in the 60-70 dollar range. The RF gain is not found on other units until you get to the $100 range. It is nice and compact and has pretty good volume output from the internal speaker. The only thing I don't like is the channel selector knob. The knob is not very fine tuned. Sometimes I hit it and it just starts going through all of hte channels like a scan but its not. But, you learn to deal with it and after awhile I know how it is and it works fine. Otherwise it is a great cb radio.

Remember though, the antenna and ground plane make most of the difference in range, the mic in clarity, and the radio is just a vessel. Plus a good swr tune does wonders as well.

I installed my Midland 1001Z 40 Channel CB with Channel 9 Switch and PA on my PT Cruiser about 6 months ago. It's a basic CB that sends and receives fine. I bought it for the PA option, I had a powerhorn speaker under the hood and it's plenty loud. I have worn out 2 musical horns on my clown car in the last 4 years. The CB with PA is my attempt at adding an MP3 player for custom sound effects, songs and sounds of my choosing. With a little modification to the Mic speaker it's working out fine. Plently of amplification, and since I can customize the sounds it's virtually unlimited what my car can say or sound like. My wife preffered the ease of push single button for single song. The MP3 player has to be turned on, track selected, then hit play. (Not too difficult, at all).

I'm using the CB with a Firestik antenna mount and Firestik USA flag antenna. Instead of trying to blend the CB antenna into the car color, now it's a bit showier. An advantage is the high mount, low enough off the back door frame to clear my garage. It's now even easier to locate my clown car in parking lots when a larger vehicle blocks the view, the antenna is still visible.

Overall I loved the price and ease of install, no frills CB, the PA option was a must for me. The Antenna and mount was the most expensive part of this project.