K-PO Panther

Brilliant little radio much better value than the midland and feels a lot better quality well recommended thank you

The cb radio arrived as expected and was of good quality.

For what this radio costs, you will save by the fact you'll never need to buy 10x AA batteries for this CB, or remember where your spacer batteries are. This really is a very nice rig.

The manual misses one very important fact: In UK mode (indicated "U" on the screen during power-on), the radio can switch to the EU band (indicated by AM), but, confusingly, on FM only. This is weird, as the screen indicates "AM" when on the EU band in UK mode (it's most definitely FM though). In EU mode, one can switch between FM and Actual AM in the usual way. To get AM on EU mode from UK block, you have to switch off, change to EU mode, then switch on again. This loses any configuration you set in UK mode, but that's not a problem for me.

The major pull factor for me was the fact the batteries are compatible with the BP232 batteries from that popular PMR manufacturer. This is *really* useful, and something rig makers should bear in mind for future radios.

The radio has menu-driven Sq which is very sensitive, but surprisingly resilient to noise. It picked up a recent lift on 11m whilst indoors, on the rubber duck, in a low-lying building. This has NEVER happened to me before, and it really shows what modern technology can do when applied to CB. There is a dedicated Sq-defeat button, which (whilst it doesn't lock) allows you to hear what's going on and set the volume.

One Thing I Don't Understand:

The charge socket for the battery is centre NEGATIVE. If you build an extra charge cable, make sure you remember that.

What I particularly like:

Easily available BP-232 type battery which should be available for many years yet;

Compatibility with BP-232 chargers (if you're careful to move the rubber socket cap out the way);

Solid plastic PTT button. The PTT button gets used a lot, and rubber ones wear out after a while. This solid plastic one should last.

TNC antenna socket. For CB handheld antennas this offers much more structural support, although for anything else I normally prefer BNC.

Seperate covers for ext. mic and speaker. This means you can plug a speaker in without uncovering the mic socket.

What I would have done differently:

I would have used slightly thicker rubber for the buttons, but that's just me;

I would have made the charge socket centre positive...;

I would have added CTCSS/DCS.

Summary:

A really nice radio, seemingly very well made. Has the usual procedures associated with multi-standard rigs, but works exactly as intended when you work it out. Uses commonly available BP-232 style batteries. Very sensitive to signals, and manages to resist a lot of local QRM (PV inverters, etc). Nice, basic, optional roger beep. Enough to signal the end of a call in noisy conditions without being silly.

I decided to buy from Thunderpole because It's a technical hobby, so it's useful to have retailers that actually know what they're doing as opposed to faceless packaging robots.

Good hand held radio. We live in very hilly land and the K-Po does quite well, line of sight it is very good with very clear readability. As a secondary means of contact, it works well, but if you have hills or trees, it would be better not to use this as a primary means of communications.

The K-PO Panther Handheld cb, What a great piece of equiptment, excellent product.
Thunderpole is definitely the place to go for all you cb electrical goods and all The staff are very easy to talk to and they always go the extra mile to help.
A BIG thanks to Andy for sorting out All my problems.
Simon.