This page was last Updated on: Saturday, July 16th, 2020 at 14:17 P.M. PST

Page is Historical Documentation Only!
I see this question all the time in Newsgroups and in Yahoo! Groups. I even got asked this question a few times on eBay when I sell one of these specific radios "What do you mean by Transitional?".... President Electronics was a manufacturer of CB Radios and was bought by Uniden America. In the process of this buy out in America, some of the radios produced were cross breeds. These radios were labeled with the President name and had Uniden boards, or were labeled Uniden and had some of the accents of the President line. Below is an explanation of the differences for the Uniden/President Washington, Madison and Grant.

This is a President Grant from the original line of President Radios. It housed a board that had a Relay for switching between TX and RX. It also used the 399 channel capable PLL labeled as the upD858. On the outside we can see it has three push buttons on the front and is labeled President Grant. What we really cant see is the mic jack, it is a 4 pin mic jack.

Now this is a President Grant from the transitional period of Uniden. It housed a board that had electronic switching for the TX and RX. It also had a 192 channel capable MB8719 PLL. What we cant see is the mic jack, instead of 4 pin, this radio had a 5 pin mic jack. The obvious sign that it is a Uniden made radio is the 4 push buttons on the front.

And this radio labeled Uniden Grant is the same as the transitional President Grant, just labeled Uniden. It has the same Board, PLL, 4 Push Buttons and 5 Pin mic jack.

This is the Original President Madison. It, much like the Grant, had a Relay and the upD858 PLL. The one thing everyone really notices different about the Uniden and President Madison is the Clocks. President Had the Rotory Clock. The President Madison also had a 4 Pin mic jack. This one does not have the AWI LED like the one below... Also notice it only has 3 LED's below the channel selector.

This is the second generation of the President Madison. This one has all the features of the first generation as well as all the same inner workings and PLL, but has the added Channel 9 Button and LED. The PA feature was put on the Squelch Knob which you turn fully counter clockwise to turn it on with a click.

Now this one is a twist... This is one of the two different Transitional Madisons. This one is Labeled Uniden, but it has the rotory clock which is leftover from the president days. There have been reports of Madison's labeled as President with a Digital Clock, but I have not seen one yet. If I do see one, I will save the picture and update this page. The Obvious is the fact this radio is labeled Uniden and the mic jack is a 5 pin. This radio also has the MB8719 PLL and the board is the exact same as a Cobra 2000 GTL. Note it doesn't say President under the channel display either.

This one is the newest of the fleet. A properly labeled Uniden Madison with the digital clock. It, like the transitional one, has the 5 pin mic jack and the MB8719 PLL with the same board.

Here is an original President Washington. This radio had a relay for TX & RX switching. It also, like the old Grant and Madison, had a upD858 PLL. The obvious sign this is an original President is the 2 Push Buttons and a 4 pin mic jack.
images/PresidentWashingtonOld.jpg">

Now these transitional Washingtons were similar to the transitional Grants. A push button was added on this radio to make a total of three and it also has a 5 pin mic jack. This radio has the same as the grant on the inside which has the MB8719 PLL with electronic TX & RX switching. As you can see in the picture, the "Phone" jack has a knob in its place. The knob was added by the owner and is for echo, it is not an original part of the radio, so dont let that be a feature you look for...

This is the final version of the transition for the Washington. This radio is identical to the transitional radio, other than the properly labeled Uniden tag above the channel selector. They also moved the label of "Washington" to the speaker cover instead of under the channel selector. This radio also has the MB8719 PLL with the 5 pin mic jack and the third push button.

Now that I have explained this as best as I could think of, I hope it actually helps someone out there that does not know the difference. I use this info when I buy and sell on eBay, so when I buy one, I know what to expect when I receive it. Remember, the transitional radios are cross breeds. If I find any more info about differences between the three generations, I will be sure to post it. I was also told that on most of the transitional radios, the serial number was still being stamped on the cabinet of the radio, the Unidens had an aluminum plate that contained the serial number with the FCC Data, so that could be another sign to look for, I just dont know what period of the transitional radios they stopped stamping the cabinet.

This site and its entire contents are Copyright �2020 West Coast Radio All Right Reserved.