HH50WXST Handheld CB Radio - Emergency Radio with Access to Full 40 Channels and NOAA Alerts, Earphone Jack, 4 Watt Power Output, Noise Reduction and Dual Channel Monitoring, Black

I purchased this for a few reasons. I'm into radio, HAM, GMRS, SW, SDR and more. On a radio forum I am on, lot of people were talking about CB making a comeback. In fact it's been a longtime ongoing conversation and how it is making a comeback. I was on CB from about 1972 to the mid 1980's. I purchased this and a Uniden Pro401. I also purchased a Francis Hot Rod CB26 antenna, a better mount and set everything up properly on my truck. I used this and the Uniden on a 4000 mile round trip from Tennessee to Arizona. At home I have kept it plugged in and on and with one radio scanning and one radio on these were the results during the 4000+ mile round trip. I heard exactly one trucker and two women talk on the CB. The trucker long enough to get directions from a truck stop and two women who only made contact so one could let the other know to call her on her cell. And of course the illegal high power broadcasters out of Nevada that override everything on some channels (23). People on GMRS were broadcasting constantly to the point I had to turn off my GMRS radio. Unfortunately it appears Citizen Band is not making a comeback, from my experience, this radio is called a Road Trip and that is what I used it for, a 4000 mile road trip. If my experience is any indication whatsoever, no, CB is not making a comeback. The Airwaves are dead. As far as the radio itself, it is a good radio, solidly built, with batteries in has a nice weight to it, plenty of options and the weather channels work well although I can do the same real time weather on my Digital trunking Scanner or Cell phone. The radio itself gets five stars, the CB airwaves get zero because almost nobody is on it. Edit: We just had a major winter storm and received more snow and ice than we have in over three decades. The one day snowfall hasn't seen this accumulation since 1993. We are in the hills and mountains with a lot of trucks coming this direction to get to Knoxville, Chattanooga and further on up to Nashville. Listening to my scanners everything is extremely active with one emergency call after another around the clock. Thought I might turn on this CB to see if Channel 9 is active. Channel 9 (The emergency channel) is extremely active. We have had multiple jackknifed trucks, one rollover and one went off the mountain into the trees. Truckers are using Channel 9 like I have never heard it. We are in the mountains, everything is snow and ice and this is what they call, for us, a once every 25 year storm. so no one expected the conditions to be this bad and off the main highways nothing gets cleared, it has to melt, because we don't budget for storms that only happen once every 20-30 years. so yes the CB is being used heavily to get help on Channel 9. For normal day to day use, the airwaves are dead. But now, under extreme weather conditions, the truckers are definitely using it and so are some of the people stuck in their homes up on the mountain and plateau.

As advertised. In summary - Because I have thoroughly tested this radio, I now know that it provides my family & me an EASY TO USE (including a well written, organized & illustrated Manual), portable, proven/stable technology, easy to keep energized means of local (i.e., "line of sight" to the horizon) e-m-e-r-g-e-n-c-y communication. Based on the above (and with lots of hands on experience with other popular means of family communication, such as GMRS & FRS) this is, for us, an optimal investment. Update – Jan. 28, 2025: Wanted to offer the following FAVORABLE ‘field testing’ FINDINGS to those, i.e., NOT ‘everybody’ : ), who would want THIS GRANULAR LEVEL OF DETAIL. This is based on running the Cobra HHRT50 (aka HH50WXST) CB thru the following test cycles: 6 Charge mode and then 6 thru Listen, aka Receive, mode, using NiMH batteries + 1 test cycle thru Listen, aka Receive, Mode using Alkaline batteries. None of the following field testing has to do with Transmit mode, or Scan mode. CHARGE mode: Used a well known / proven brand of NiMH 2500 milli-Ampere hours (aka, “mAh”) AA batteries. Number of hours to Charge averaged 11. This 11 hours statistic does NOT include the 1st full Charge which took the characteristically longer NiMH 1st Charge cycle, which in this 1st Charge case took 28 hours. LISTEN, aka, RECEIVE mode: (a.) NiMH: Used the above NiMH 2500 milli-Ampere hours (aka, “mAh”) fully charged AA batteries. Number of hours of usage averaged 28 for the batteries to deplete. (b.) Alkaline: Used a fully charged well known / proven brand of NON-rechargeable 2500 milli-Ampere hours (aka, “mAh”) AAs. Number of hours of usage was 22 for the batteries to deplete. I only cycled thru THIS specific test using Alkaline one time, thus, this number, 22, is not an average. Associated technical FAVORABLE experience to be reported: I found the Cobra User Manual *, cover to cover, to be well organized, illustrated & written. Meanwhile, the User Manual does not include the Ampere consumption rates in the various modes. I recognize that only a small percentage of CB users would actually ever want this level of detailed information. In my case, I did, hence, I posted related questions on this to "Amazon Q & A." & learned as follows. Want interested readers to know that with in less than 2 days I received the needed & helpful information directly from the Cobra Manufacturing Support Department (along with their professionally required responsible statement: “These values are estimates and may vary based on specific conditions and settings”). For all of the above, I am MOST appreciative; here were their replies that some Review readers might want to know: Charging mode Amperes consumption rate: 500 – 1000 milli-Amperes, depending on usual variables. Listen, aka Receive, mode Amperes consumption rate: 100 – 150 milli-Amperes, depending on usual variables. Transmit mode Amperes consumption rate: On “high power” 700 – 900 milli-Amperes, depending on usual variables. ______ * Cobra Part No. 480-1088-P-001, Version D (Publish Date: 2017).

I bought two of these Cobra HH50WXST walkies, two years apart. I've never used the rubber ducky antennas that came with them; I got the HYS ducky (here on Amazon) for one, which works well, and a magnetic mobile antenna for the other because I have it on a vehicle. The radios are well made and everything works as it should, including the NOAA weather channel. My only gripe is with the squelch control on both of them. After five minutes or so, with the squelch turned up to cancel out noise, I have to turn the knob back and forth several times to get static again in the low-squelch position. This is with the Sound Tracker circuit turned off, so it's not the Sound Tracker acting up. Or maybe it is? I just figured, if it's deactivated then it's deactivated. But both radios will still receive a signal regardless; I tested them extensively on transmit and receive. It's just a quirk with this particular model, as I bought them two years apart so it couldn't be a case of a "bad batch" or whatever. So I give a 4-star rating because of this (slightly irritating) characteristic these radios have.

Fraco pelo preço. Esperava mais dele

Works really well. I hear well and I believe others are reporting me loud and clear. Also, the connection to external speaker system allows me to plug into my car's radio for "big sound". Very practical and small form factor.

Muy práctico pero si les faltó mencionar que para hacerlo portátil ay que colocarle 9 pilas AA

Brought it for someone else they say its a good thing

Très pratique pour utilisation en véhicule, fonctionne très bien.