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Old 5th Sep 2020, 11:42 am   #1
Julesomega
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Default CB Rig collectors

There must be a few of us here, but you could only ever reach a tiny fraction of all the countless rigs manufactured all the licencing classes around the world, so the next best thing seems to be a virtual collection. I harvest pics off eBay and archive them under various major categories based on the licence conditions they met. My particular favourite is the early crystal-synthesised types made for the early USA 23-channel allocation.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 11:48 am   #2
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Quote:
Originally Posted by Julesomega View Post
My particular favourite is the early crystal-synthesised types made for the early USA 23-channel allocation
My ambition is one day to find all I have and display them on a shelf - I Must dig out one or two and post some pics of the crystal banks. ISTR there was usually an unused position on the 24-way channel switch which could be pressed into service for your own 'personal' freeband channel
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 11:59 am   #3
crackle
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

You can buy replacement front decals.
Here is an example.
Mike
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 12:27 pm   #4
Superscope
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Hi Julian,

Well, I'm not a collector of CB Radios but I do still have
my Sommerkamp TS-5680 DX 80 Channel AM Handheld.

A Rare Rig even in it's Day, so thought you might like to see
this one.

Built to the same standards as Amatuar Radio Equipment
of the Day rather than CB.
I never did see another one.

Solid Alloy Front Plate (Might be SS) and Chassis
and real Leather Case.

Still working flawlessly last time I put it on the Marconi Test Set.



Ian
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 2:03 pm   #5
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Ooh yes, very nice. Those Swiss made nice radios

Not sure what country had 80-channel allocation. Another thing to collect is historic channel allocations. ISTR that the Netherlands started with an 11-chan allocation
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 2:10 pm   #6
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

You could just "borrow" the picture from the advert rather than post an actual link - that's what I usually do and state clearly that it's a "borrowed" picture from the 'net.

Old CB radios have now become a vintage item from a time of happy memories gone by. When the AM ones first started being used in the UK, I resisted acquiring one for a long time, even though friends, neighbours and work colleagues were all getting them. I eventually succumbed and asked someone to get me one, it was only a year or so before FM on the staggered frequencies became legal in the UK. So I was a bit late to the 'party', but it was still the 'AM' days and, if I'm honest, I wish I'd been among those first few to have one, and if I hadn't resisted it for so long I could have been in with those few, When I did eventually get one it was already quite busy on the channels.

I can honestly say that there was a lot of fun to be had back in those days. There were the parties, the girls - yes, it was all true, and if you were a young(ish) single guy, well, I'll say no more! I'd previously played in a band and I can honestly say that unbelievably (for me anyway) it was easier to attract the ladies on CB radio than it ever was in the band, so VERY happy days I have to say! Well it ain't like that any more. The girls are all gone and we've all grown up and got MUCH older. There's a handful of middle aged and older blokes on now, with the odd younger person. A lot of them seem to be ex and current bikers and some of them are what you might call 'big' characters.

There's one very big fellow not too far away from me in the nearby city, who's what you might call a collector. He's severely disabled, having lost a leg in a motorbike accident many years ago. I've never met him, but apparently his house if full of CB radios - someone said that in his downstairs toilet, the 'rigs' were piled up from floor to ceiling on each side with just enough space to stand at the loo, but I suspect that this might be a slight exaggeration. He has plenty of spare cash due to all the disability allowances he receives and as he can't go out, he spends money on nothing else other than CB radios. What I find quite amusing, although it's annoying to some people as well, is that he seems to deliberately buy radios to stop other people getting hold of them. I remember one particular case where a friend of mine's brother was selling a particular radio and one or two people were interested in it, but this chap heard about it and jumped on his disability scooter and shot straight round to the house with cash and bought the radio under everyone else. He buys radios that he doesn't need or even want and I gather that sometimes he doesn't even try them to check that they work and just stashes them away. He just recently bought his sixth Ham Jumbo base station. He doesn't have, or know how to use a computer, so he doesn't use ebay, it's all the local sets that the hoovers up - it's quite funny really. However, he doesn't get all of them, I seem to have somehow acquired a slightly unwanted collection due to being given various sets for helping folk out with radio problems over the last few years. I've even got an old Ham Jumbo that somehow escaped from his collection that I got off someone as a non runner, and the only reason this radio broke free is that he had to part with it in a deal to get something else that he really wanted from someone. I know for a fact that he regrets letting this radio go and that he'd jump at the chance of getting his hands on it once again - all very strange!

So collectors can be a bit of a pest (and that's not just with the CB radios being discussed here). They hoover up all the available items that other people could genuinely make good use of and stop them from ever acquiring them for a reasonable price. I suppose it's good if you're hard up for cash and want to sell something and you don't care that it's going to disappear into a black hole, at least you'll get your money and an easy sale. It's probably all that this chap has left in his life and it makes him happy, so I suppose that you can't really fault him for that - he's probably what you'd call a "radio hoarder"!

As for displaying your collection of CB radios - I read of a chap who has his collection displayed in glass fronted cabinets, with them all connected to a 12 volt supply, no aerials connected and they apparently look very attractive with all the S meters and lights lit up.

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Old 5th Sep 2020, 2:28 pm   #7
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

So how common is this one? A mobile set but we used them in a case with a battery compartment, AA cells, and a centre-loaded telescopic aerial. All standard accessories for it at the time. We actually used them in dingies with outboard motors going through surf in West Africa, totally the wrong set for the job but it was what we were given.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 2:58 pm   #8
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

I've got a similar, but later version of the above in the form of the Midland Portapack (or Portapak). These run off AA cells, but removed from their carrying case, they slip nicely down the side of a seat in the car and can be powered from the lighter socket. Being designed for 4 watts from a battery pack, they deliver slightly more from a car supply. The speaker being in the mic handset is also very convenient.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 3:01 pm   #9
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Quote:
Originally Posted by Julesomega View Post
My particular favourite is the early crystal-synthesised types made for the early USA 23-channel allocation.
There was someone on one of these 23 channel AM base stations in the village when I first came on the air - can't remember what make it was.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 3:06 pm   #10
G4YVM David
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Why did all CB rigs have a PA setting (public address, not power amp)?

D
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 3:11 pm   #11
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

I seem to think that very question regarding the PA setting was mentioned in another recent thread, but I can't remember what was said about it. It does make a very handy switch for switching an extra 'modification' in and out...and the hole for the socket on the back for yet another 'extra' switch without damaging or altering the cosmetics of the radio!

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Old 5th Sep 2020, 3:21 pm   #12
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

The users used to put a water proof speaker in the engine bay of there cars so that they could shout at drivers that fail to use direction indicators and so on.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 3:21 pm   #13
G4YVM David
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D'oh...my own question id forgotten about.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 3:23 pm   #14
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Was it you, David? I couldn't remember who it was, just that it had been asked before
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 4:05 pm   #15
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Quote:
Originally Posted by Techman View Post
You could just "borrow" the picture from the advert rather than post an actual link - that's what I usually do and state clearly that it's a "borrowed" picture from the 'net.
or just mention that you've seen one online. Members are all aware of eBay and if interested will quite likely have seen it already.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 5:02 pm   #16
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Ref post #8

Ah yes!

The Midland 77-805 Port-a-Pak.

With it's 1.5m Center loaded Telescopic Antenna!

Still a very sort after CB Radio.
Very nicely built.

I picked one up at an Amateur Radio Rally a few years back.

It still gets fired up occasionally for Car to Car use if I'm out
with friends.
Not with the Telescopic antenna I should add.
Imagine that sticking out the Sunroof !

There is not much CB activity down this way.
I do occasionally have a scan around.



Ian
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 6:20 pm   #17
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Not with the Telescopic antenna I should add.
Imagine that sticking out the Sunroof !
You won't believe this, but that's exactly what I did with mine when I first used it in the car

A few years ago when I decided to drag the old radio gear back out and try it out, I only had a 'homebrew' wire antenna in a tree. It wasn't long before I was offered a 'proper' antenna free if I wanted to go and collect it. Phone numbers and addresses weren't exchanged in public over the air, so having got a rough location, I put the Midland Portapack (or as you probably correctly call it "Port-a-Pak") in the car, and when I got to the chaps rough location, I opened the sun roof and stuck the antenna out through the top, then, with the roof almost closed to just keep it in place, he was then able to direct me to his exact location by radio contact. If I take it in the car now, I use an old mag mount, which, as it happens, was given to me by the same chap at the time when I picked up that antenna.

The antenna was up for a year or two, then I took it down for several years, but put it back up again when all the extra 'lockdown' activity struck up - and I've been given yet more radio related junk

Here's the antenna - which most will recognise as the good old 'Silver Rod'...well at least the birds seem to like it and they do work exceptionally well - the antennas I mean, not the birds
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 6:51 pm   #18
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Excellent.

Funny enough, I bought the exact same Antenna
last year and only got round to putting it up last Month.

Might not be an Genuine Silver Rod though, I don't
think they are still made, but it's identicle to the
Antenna you posted in the Photo.

Anyway, better not pull this Thread off Topic.



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Old 5th Sep 2020, 7:09 pm   #19
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

I'm not a collector but I used to repair a lot of CBs in my student days. I have kept hold of a few nice export CBs, mainly purchased when they were cheap to buy. Most are boxed, unmodified and some are as new. I haven't unpacked them to look at them for many years but I think I have the following:

I think I have two or three of the classic Cobra 148GTL-DX mk1 all as new unmodified and boxed.

I have two of the mk2 Cobra 148GTL-DX versions both unmodified and boxed and one is as new.

One Superstar 360FM mk2 unmodified and boxed and in very good condition.

Somewhere I have a Uniden 2830 10m 'CB' that still had the accessories sealed in plastic. It has an early serial number and it looks and feels brand new. I also have the later mk2 version in the form of the President Lincoln. This radio is original and in excellent condition but not quite as good as the other examples above.

I think I have a scruffy Major M588 up in the loft and also a Fidelity 2001FM UK FM CB somewhere.
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Old 5th Sep 2020, 10:41 pm   #20
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

I have a collection comprised almost entirely of UK radios from the early to mid eighties, most Japanese made, several with the same chassis inside.

Most are FM CB/27/81 radios, a few are FM CEPT types from the period when we were given the European / 'Mid' band but the specification and type approval were for that band only, so you had to have a separate radio for each band. Later on, things moved on and there was yet another specification allowing both UK 27MHz bands in one radio.

Probably not a complete list, but

Binatone 5-Star (CB/27/81, Cybernet 134 chassis) *
Rotel 220 (CB/27/81, Cybernet 134 chassis)
York 863 (CB/27/81, Cybernet 134 chassis)
Cybernet 1000 (CB/27/81, Cybernet 135 chassis)
Uniden 400 (CEPT)
Midland 77-104 (CEPT version) *
Midland 77-092 (CB/27/81) *

Realistic TRC1001 Handheld (4W / 40 channels) *
Realistic TRC1002 Handheld (1.5W / 2 crystalled channels)
Harvard 020 Handheld (~100mW / 2 crystalled channels) *

* Owned from new

The Harvard looks like it could be a toy but in fact it is a 'proper' transceiver with a multistage transmitter and a single-conversion superhet receiver, so I managed some surprisingly good contacts on it in the days when there were a lot of people on.

I'm sure there are more in the collection. I keep them all in running order and I usually select one of the above to take with me on my regular summer jaunt up to the north west (Scottish) highlands, because up there I'm so far north west that the south east UK falls within normal sporadic 'E' skip distance, so I quite often find myself talking to people down that way from the Isle of Mull or the Isle of Skye. Most are astonished to hear that I am running four watts, which always makes me wonder what they must be running (and why?).

In addition to those in the 'collection' I have two more 'modern' radios, a Midland 38 and a Midland 48. Both conveniently have the CB/27/81 band and the EU band in one legal radio and they are a bit smaller than the classic eighties radios so I usually take one of those as backup as well.
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