View Full Version : Why the hate
halfwatt959
02-10-2014, 02:57 PM
Any idea why almost everyone hates on the old 23ch radios? From my experience, wich aint much I admit, they usualy have beter recieve than the newer 40s. Where I am most people dont want anything to do with them and yet they very seldom talk between 24 and 40. Just wondering if its just because they are old or obselete or what? I guess the other 17channels are just nice to have even if ya never use them. What do yall think? What, if any are your favorite 23s?
the caveman
02-10-2014, 06:10 PM
There is nothing wrong with the old 23's. I have a browning LTD I saved from a yard sale and it is a nice radio. Might be my first base radio. The 23 channelers are tough radios. Some are a little fragile or have downsides but the 23 channelers are good radios.
Tallman
02-10-2014, 07:56 PM
Most people don't know that you can modify the boards and actually have a 46 channel radio.
There is a site called cbtricks.com that has a lot of the modifications listed.
solarradio351
02-19-2014, 04:14 PM
Love the old gear most is made to last not to sell you bits to keep it going !
Cbtricks is wicked all the oldies with some pll's can do amazing things... lescom kits I like best check them out ! ....351... down under..
Tallman
02-20-2014, 12:28 AM
The old gear I like most is the tube mobile amplifiers. They sound is so much cleaner.
Silverado 996
02-20-2014, 07:27 AM
I've never used a 23 channel radio, but I know people who have. What I don't understand is... with technology today you would think they could easily duplicate "old school technology".. Why cant they make the new 148's better than the old 148 GTL or even better the GTLDX? The new 148's aren't close to what those were, same thing with the 29's and the Cobra 2000's. We cant for get the TRC Realistic Radios and other old school kings of the air. ...Tube amps are very clean a nice sounding, just like the old guitar tube amps. I wish Cobra would bring back the 200 GTL DX, its a nice 10 meter radio that would do more than 100 watts on SSB and with the 11 meter mod it would do 70 watts or so on am, but it had a few problems...instead of correcting it issues like everything else they stop making them. That's sad because it had serious potential. I say bring back the vintage radios with an updated look. I don't like seeing post with people crapping on the old vintage rigs, those rigs and technology are the reason why we talk on the radios we have today, am I right? There's a certain member in here back in the day ran a mid 70's model sears SSB radio and dual 102" whips would flat out shoot skip like a mofo, barefoot. Here's a link on the 200 GTL that was made for a few years, just in case you've never seen one. I would like to own one, but people are asking too much $$ for my wallet. over $350 ebay
http://cbradiomagazine.com/Feb%202007/Cobra%20200%20GTL%20DX%20Review.htm
Tallman
02-20-2014, 09:10 AM
Yeah, I know the guy you are talking about. $200.00 truck, $400.00 worth of radio gear. The whips were mounted so high on that ugly truck it would thump overpasses at 13' unless he was speeding. Not only did it skip like crazy it was a good late night SSB talker. All of the co-phase harness home made too.
By the way I bought another radio just like that one! Yep that was me with the ugly truck.
Tallman
02-20-2014, 09:23 AM
The main reason the new radios are the way they are is they are cheaper to make. Surface mount requires very little labor on the part of humans. Put a bare circuit board with solder paste applied and the machine does the rest. Just keep the parts loaded and the machine will run all day long and will never put a part in the wrong location. Once all of the parts are in place you just put the circuit board on a conveyor into an oven and the soldering is done. Humans still do most of the top assembly.
Silverado 996
02-20-2014, 02:27 PM
Yeah but that $200 dollar truck had a heck of a stereo in it also!
I took the cover off my 29lxle and looked at the solder joints and started giggling. They looked like my solder joints I did in the 6th grade. Its a wonder the damn thing works, but it does.
Roadrunner
03-28-2014, 02:31 PM
I actually like some of the "old school" 23-ch radios. They are cheap & easy to experiment with & unless you just can't live without ch-38 on SSB, you really aren't missing too much above ch-23.
solarradio351
03-28-2014, 03:57 PM
THAT'S ME..... I NNNEEEEDDD CH 38..... LOL
351 said that !
mjd420nova
03-28-2014, 09:29 PM
THe old Lafayette SSB-25 and SSB-50 were a good base and mobile pair. It wasn't untill the units went to a phase locked loop to set the frequencies that other channels and sliders were able to be easily modified. The first SSB cahnnel was 16 LSB and then 27.325 MCS (not yet channel 32) was good for international skip. Where you mount a whip and how high makes a big difference in propagation but SWR too.
solarradio351
03-28-2014, 11:29 PM
My first was a 18ch cb....
I have an 1975 14 channel JIL it has the old 11 NZ channel set up, the problem is i can splatter other channels on the 40 channel system because of its wide KC spacing
Tallman
05-23-2014, 10:25 PM
Yeah but that $200 dollar truck had a heck of a stereo in it also!
It had a Kraco PBS-90 and a cheap 8 track with am/fm. Would run you out of the truck at half volume. And this was way before the loud stereo systems of today. That was back in 1977. That ugly old truck had over $600.00 of electronics installed in it. My favorite tune to play on that system was Pink Floyd album that had the tune that started out with "We don't need no thought control." That truck was just plain "RUDE."
It had a Kraco PBS-90 and a cheap 8 track with am/fm. Would run you out of the truck at half volume. And this was way before the loud stereo systems of today. That was back in 1977. That ugly old truck had over $600.00 of electronics installed in it. My favorite tune to play on that system was Pink Floyd album that had the tune that started out with "We don't need no thought control." That truck was just plain "RUDE."
The Wall.
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NY714
05-25-2014, 12:23 AM
Any idea why almost everyone hates on the old 23ch radios? From my experience, wich aint much I admit, they usualy have beter recieve than the newer 40s. Where I am most people dont want anything to do with them and yet they very seldom talk between 24 and 40. Just wondering if its just because they are old or obselete or what? I guess the other 17channels are just nice to have even if ya never use them. What do yall think? What, if any are your favorite 23s?
Alot of older people still like the 23 channels but in my personal opinion all the skip is on 26,28,31, and 38 LSB. So in reality they are out of style unless you have a specific group of people who still talk AM on channels under 23. They work awesome and alot have tubes inside and have awesome audio but most of talking is sideband above 23 and/or skip also above 23 on AM. They are excellent radio's other than that. Most people are even using the freeband now, above channel 40 and below channel 1, but not as to go on to 10/12 meter.
mjd420nova
05-25-2014, 11:33 AM
Initially, the operating frequency was optained with two crystals, some found that swapping them out gave different frequencies than the alloted channels. That's when the first users found 27.325 (now channel 32) and it became an international skip contact frequency and were urged to move contacts off to other quiet channels. The western Pacific, down under and the coastal states all had daily contacts during solar peaks. Then the Phase locked loop can into being and the method of selecting channels became a logic function and was easy to reprogram. About that time, the mid 70's, the market began importing Japanese "ham" radios that had 11 meters built in. Swan, Drake, Yaesu and others made some very nice gear with solid state receivers and tube finals. A nice clean 300 W PEP and audio circuits that retained fidelity on transmit.
Gerowen
05-27-2014, 12:56 AM
I haven't read all of the replies yet, but I would say most people stay away from the old 23 channel radios because a lot of them lost their FCC certification because of how bad they are to bleed over when compared to newer radios.
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