Rating of the best car radios of 2021

If the radio stations of the usual layout do not fit in your car in any way (or you just want the presence of a radio station in the cabin to stand out as little as possible), then it makes sense to look at the models for flush mounting, which do not have a single control on the front panel: they are all transferred to PTT.

The body of the radio station is extremely compact (almost comparable to a cigarette pack), there will be no problems with its placement. Even if you stick the transceiver unit really far: the kit includes a two-meter extension cable for the “tricky” PTT cable. Do not forget to connect an external speaker — such a possibility is provided, but the built-in one can only be described as «to be». But on the other hand, there is an informative screen on the tangent, and a scattering of buttons, the purpose of which is not particularly clear without instructions.

The management is really dumb. The central button on the top side simultaneously serves to turn the power on and off, select channels and control the squelch (15 levels), and you will have to remember when to press the button for a long time, when briefly, when twice. The radio station has a built-in scanner (with a priority scanning mode at will), a monitoring mode, an automatic noise suppressor (if you don’t want to use a manual one), a quick switch to the Russian frequency grid is provided (in total, six grids of 40 channels are programmed, there are 240 in total). Channels can be “locked” on CTCSS (for example, when moving in an organized column) to cut off “foreign” signals from attention.

The receiver is a superheterodyne, double-conversion receiver, which is quite interesting for this price. Its sensitivity is claimed to be 0.5uV with a signal-to-noise ratio of 20dB on FM, 10dB on AM. An 8-watt FM/AM transmitter has a frequency stability of plus or minus 600 Hz and an FM deviation of 2 kHz.

But, alas, Megajet in everyday life was renamed Megazhut not in vain: the station should immediately be brought to mind. In particular, adjust the settings for manual and automatic “noise reduction”, since this does not require soldering — there are tuning resistors on the board of the latest revisions, work with modulation (here you will have to solder SMD components) and so on. Everything is elementary located on a variety of sites — from specialized amateur radio to the same Drive2, since the station is popular and well studied by handy users.

Continues the rating of the best car radios TurboSky CB-3. The extreme minimalism of the «user interface» of this station will immediately jar the radio geeks, but it was not made for them — but for a person who just needs to select a channel and listen / speak, extra buttons or settings are more likely to harm.

The radio station is inherently a typical inexpensive SiBishka with an output power of up to 15 W in frequency modulation mode (8 W — amplitude) and a dual-mode noise suppressor (manual / automatic). The voice activated transmission has two settings: microphone sensitivity (9 levels) and transmission off delay (also 9 levels). An external speaker connection is provided, which is definitely not superfluous: the built-in speech intelligibility can not really boast.

There is no built-in SWR meter, which will cause understandable problems if you install it yourself. But there is a scanner, the ability to listen to two channels and non-volatile memory, so they didn’t cut the “stuffing” at all: a standard amateur level. The selectivity and sensitivity of the receiver, the quality of the transmitter modulation are also, unfortunately, «amateur» — as is often the case for such money, the station «blows» more watts into the antenna than it really makes sense.

The warranty for the radio station is normal — 2 years. However, some stores even increase it, subject to the simultaneous purchase and installation of an antenna from the same company.

However, TurboSky’s minimalism is not yet the most radical: Alan has even fewer controls. Which is logical, given its «mobility» — the station is extremely compact and, in fact, does not imply a stationary installation, it is even powered by a cigarette lighter. But because of this, her power is also moderate: 4 watts (with the help of a soldering iron, it can be “inflated” to about 6 watts). The station has a «Russian» grid for 40 channels, scrolled through the «up and down» buttons. A quick transition to «emergency» channels (9 and 19) is provided by a separate toggle switch, which in the central position returns the station to channel mode. What can be called an ergonomic miscalculation for a mobile radio station — you never know how it will hang out in the cabin, you can inadvertently leave the channel for the emergency gang, accidentally hitting the toggle switch.

The station itself, by the way, was produced in two very different versions inside — with hinged mounting and on SMD components, the «second generation» can be distinguished by a full-fledged PTT connector. However, the SMD version is far from ideal, primarily in the quality of frequency modulation (amplitude, on the contrary, is quite acceptable). Fortunately, the station is being finalized simply, and there is enough information on this topic with detailed photos — even search engines, when requesting “Alan 100 Plus”, immediately offer “Alan 100 Plus revision”.

Another good car radio with VHF capability is the Yaesu FTM-3200DR. In the two-meter frequency range, this radio station can operate with a power of up to 65 watts, so with the appropriate antenna you don’t have to worry about “range” — of course, with understandable VHF limitations. Moreover, you can work not only in “analogue”, but also in “digital” C4FM, and using the AMS mode, you don’t even need to know in advance how the correspondent station is going to work: the FTM-3200DR will automatically select analog or digital mode when the signal starts to receive.

The station has a good ability to work in a group: DGM mode allows you to automatically control whether other stations registered in the group are within the reception radius, allows you to display the approximate distance to each alias. This is convenient, for example, when organizing long-distance off-road forays, when the group travels “for reconnaissance” or goes along several routes — you can always see how far your friends are, and whether it makes any sense to try to shout to them. Noise cancellation is also digital, and works to a solid five.

The receiver is a double conversion superheterodyne with extended range from 136 to 174 MHz. Its sensitivity for the analog mode is 0.2 µV for wideband modulation and 0.22 µV for narrowband modulation, while working in the «digit» — also 0.22 µV.

Memory — 220 cells, 199 of them are recorded directly to frequencies, 10 more pairs are used to record the boundaries of the ranges, the last cell is allocated for the service channel. The radio also provides the ability to update the firmware via the service connector on the rear panel.