Radioddity CB-500 Radio & CBL-561 Antenna Review

--By E.T. Bryant

What I like about the CB-500 Citizen Band radio is its small size. It is easy to place in a car or truck so it will not be seen easily. There is a small compartment under my display console where the radio fits nicely. It comes with a cigarette lighter plug, and I can plug it into the cigarette lighter socket. CB transmits at only 4 watts, so there is no drain on the battery. Sometimes I can just place the radio under my seat and the microphone cable along with the power cable and cigarette lighter plug will come up between the seat and the center console. Running the antenna cable is not a problem because my hatchback will allow the cable to fit between the two rubber gaskets. The cable runs between the two back seats since they are split between them and up to the center console.

The radio is also easy to remove from my car when I want to bring it indoors to use as a base station. I will have to mention that the Radioddity M916 antenna mount has some strong magnets. On the one hand, it is good because your antenna will not blow off your car or truck but on the other hand it is a little hard to remove. I needed to get a wooden spoon to lever up on one magnet to get it loose as it was so strongly attached to my car roof. A word of caution is that you do not want to get your fingers between any of the magnets and anything metal. Ouch!

The CBL-561 antenna fits easily onto the M916 antenna mount. CBL-561 has an instruction sheet for adjusting the telescoping end.

Having the meter is a great way to make sure you adjust your antenna to the proper SWR on all the channels. You can even check your power. There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to check the SWR with this type of meter.

Finally, I want to mention there is a simple modification you can make to the CB-500 radio to open it up for 10, 11, and 12 meters.

Check with Radioddity before making the modification to be sure it will not void your warranty. Removing the four screws holding the bottom of the radio, be careful not to disconnect the speaker. You move the jumper from pins 1 and 2 to 2 and 3. Don’t cut the white wire unless you only want the radio to be a 10-meter radio. When you have reassembled the radio and turn it on you will find in the Menu a band selection. If you program the PF key on top of the microphone to be BAND then you can use that to switch through the bands. Also, now you will find in the Menu a selection for power. Low power is 4 watts, medium power (NL) is 7.5 watts, and high power is 15 watts. I watched a YouTube video where they checked the transmit high power at 19 watts. That’s very good for this small radio.

One other thing I would like to mention about the M916 antenna mount is you can swap the HF-008 HF antenna with the CBL-561 CB antenna. This gives greater flexibility for your money. So, when you want to use your Xiegu G106 HF radio you can use the HF-008 and when you want to use your CB-500 you can use the CBL-561.

I would recommend that you purchase this radio, antenna, and mount. The price for all is extremely reasonable and if you are thinking about getting your Technician Class license to use 10 meters it is a good investment.