Midland 75-822 Review (CB Radio Review)

This is an unbiased Midland 75-822 Review. We discussed every single thing one could look for in a CB radio of it’s type.

If you like taking road trips with your friends, family or even alone, you’d know by now that having a two-way radio is important. Those who have used the Midland 75-822 CB radio have only nice things to say about it.

That is to say, it appears to have all the important qualities one expects from a communication gadget suitable for a road trip. And what are these features?

Off the top of my head, without going into specifics, that should be reliability and consistency. Nobody digs a gadget whose functions goes south at the precise moment they are needed to perform.

Let’s dive into our own Midland 75-822 review and find out what parts of all that talk about the device from off-roaders and lovers of the outdoors are true and what parts ain’t.

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Review of the Midland 75-822 CB-Way Radio

The first thing you’d notice about the device when you take it out of the box is how compact it is. You would note the pitch black color and the included rubber antenna you have to attach to the radio.

Its performance, though, is something you’d only discover after taking it for a spin.

Here we go:

Uncomplicated, simple-to-use radio

Midland put in great effort to make sure the learning curve of the Midland 75-822 is a gentle slope. If you have ever used a CB radio before, using this is like reacquainting yourself with something familiar.

Because of the relatively large backlit LCD display, utilizing it at any time of the day won’t be a problem. You can read what is on the screen easily whether it is day or night.

The radio comes with a keypad lock feature. This ensures you are able to store your preferred settings in the memory.

Attaching or removing the flexible antenna is quite easy with the BNC connectors and hands-free usage is possible if you connect a compatible headset through the built-in jack.

Features Of Midland 75-822

Power/Range/Antenna – Let me start off by informing you that if you expect a great range from this 4 watt CB radio with the provided antenna, you would be very disappointed.

That issue can easily be resolved by using an external antenna mounted on your vehicle if you are traveling. It is fortunate it is quite easy to purchase good antennas with BNC connectors.

Without the external antenna, you would be lucky to get up to 3 miles range. The external antenna whips that range up to a 10 miles radius as long as there are no obstructions. That should be an incentive to purchase the external antenna.

And remember that with external antennas, the guiding principle remains the same: it is going to give you more range the longer it is all things being equal.

Active Channels/Auto scan – The auto channel scan seems to be a mandatory feature on modern 2-way radios. It would have been a real disappointment if it wasn’t included here.

Imagine the convenience of driving and leaving it on to automatically search for active channels? This is something you can’t do manually if you are driving; it stops on active channels for about 5 seconds to let you know what it has found.

And once you get a fix on active channels, you can store up to five of them in the memory. The next time you switch on the radio, you won’t have to look for the channels; it takes you back to the last channel before you switched off.

Auto scanning active channels aside, you’d also love the 40 channels available to users. Among the channels are 10 NOAA weather channels which are indispensable to anybody who wishes to spend a lot of time on the road.

You also get a dedicated channel (Channel 9) for emergencies and a different one (19) dedicated to information. As a bonus, you could monitor the emergency channels simultaneously with a different channel. In effect, dual channel-monitoring is available to you with the press of a few buttons.

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Battery – The unit is powered by 6 AA batteries. And to get the best out of your battery, it comes with a battery life saver. You would love it that Midland were thoughtful enough to provide separate packs for rechargeable and alkaline batteries.

Also included as part of the package when you open the box is a mobile adapter to plug in your vehicle’s cigarette port to power the radio. Simply remove the battery pack and attach the adapter when you want to use it.

The mobile adapter has another function: you could use it to attach a standard PL259 antenna via the SO239 socket on the mobile adapter.

Static and white noise – You know how some radios require that you strain before you can hear some messages at certain times? Midland made an effort to eliminate this problem with the squelch control and Automatic Noise Limiter (ANL).

The squelch control and ANL ensures the absence of background noise and strong signal once you are hooked on to a channel no matter the location.

READ: Best Walkie Talkies for Emergencies (SHTF Gear)

Is the Midland 75-822 perfect?

No.

You could say Midland went the extra mile and some more to make this the ultimate travel 2-way radio. And considering the price tag and compactness, they should be commended.

But, as they say, nothing is perfect.

One noticeable shortcoming is the antenna. It is rather small and you won’t get a decent range with it. It swells Midland made it possible to detach it and use a better antenna.

Again, the antenna is practically useless if you are using the battery adapter to power the unit; you’d to attach an external antenna to make the radio useful ad a communication device.

This is deliberate from Midland, but it would have been nice to provide separate ports for the antenna and battery adapter respectively.

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Pros

• Versatile
• Easy to use
• Great sound quality
• Reception is okay
• Compact, portable and very mobile
• Works with external antenna
• Has a solid built
• Compatible with vehicles and motorcycles

Cons

• The attached antenna is of poor quality
• It doesn’t work with the battery adapter attached

Summary of features and Specification of Midland 75-822 CB-Way Radio

Weight: O. 4 lbs

Color: Black

Channels: 40

Frequency Band: 26.965 – 27.405 MHz

Batteries: 6 AA batteries

Power: 4 watts

Selectivity: 50 dB

Connectors: BNC antenna

Audio power output: 450 mW

Conclusion

The Midland 75-822 CB Radio is adequate for your communication needs while on the road if all you need is a simple, compact unit that you can easily rig to your truck, RV, or motorcycle.

It is easy to use and gives immediate access to emergency channels in case you need them while in some out of the way place.

It has all the basic features to expect. For instance, it is possible to monitor two channels simultaneously including the emergency channel; auto scan active channels; 40 available channels including 10 NOAA channels and one channel for information; and much more.