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Thread: A couple more classics

  1. #11
    'Grumpy old bastid' kb2vxa's Avatar
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    I just went over the pictures again, this time with my eyes open and noticed the SBE Sidebander II. My father had one in his car, but with only a few slopbucketeers on channel 16 neither of us took much interest in it. Eh, I on the base used something with a little more faar in the waar. NO, that Johnson desk kilowatt was over in Brooklyn and his handle was Windjammer. "Take gas! Take the pipe! Take the GAS PIPE!"
    "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."
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    73 de Warren KB2VXA
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  2. #12
    Whacker Knot WØTKX's Avatar
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    One of my favorite CB rigs was the SBE Brute.

    Why? Because I was into small cars before it was popular.
    From my Opel Mantas to Toyota Celicas, nice radio.



    I did minor mods to it, mild asymmetrical modulation, and 14 watts carrier.
    So, 25 watts "swing" clean as a whistle, because "boots" really sucked.

    Later, I got a Johnson Messenger 23ch 352 SSB. I found another one about 6 years ago.
    Not modded yet, I know what to do. Just a nice RX out of the box. One of the best.
    Last edited by WØTKX; 02-05-2021 at 07:57 PM.
    "Where would we be without the agitators of the world to attach the electrodes
    of knowledge to the nipples of ignorance?" ~ Professor "Dick" Soloman



  3. #13
    'Grumpy old bastid' kb2vxa's Avatar
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    From Lakewood, NJ to Lakewood, CO, did you listen to it in another CB with a male voice not yours transmitting? The male voice is asymmetrical to begin with, and anything over 120% positive modulation distorts in an ordinary diode detector. I know, chicken banders are distortion happy with their "power mics" cranked to 11, if it's not raspy to the point of being unintelligible they tell you it's not loud enough. I've always been a purist whenever I Stereoized (modified) a transmitter for our little band of AM Gangstas. Oh BTW, AM Gangstas use AM Gangsta mics like my Altec, that's why AM stands for Angel Music.

    Altec mic.jpg
    "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."
    Neil deGrasse Tyson

    73 de Warren KB2VXA
    Station powered by atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas.

  4. #14
    Whacker Knot WØTKX's Avatar
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    Warren, I did it wrong. Of course.













    Meh.
    "Where would we be without the agitators of the world to attach the electrodes
    of knowledge to the nipples of ignorance?" ~ Professor "Dick" Soloman



  5. #15
    'Grumpy old bastid' kb2vxa's Avatar
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    If you were an AM Gangsta working on a boat anchor CW/AM ham transmitter you did it wrong. My bad, I forgot we're in the CB forum. Since you were working on a CB radiddeo the rule is "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, doo waa doo waa doo waa.". Just turn the Turner +2 up to 11 and let the cheese grater sound fill their ears and they'll be happy.
    "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."
    Neil deGrasse Tyson

    73 de Warren KB2VXA
    Station powered by atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas.

  6. #16
    Lord of the Flies kb2crk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kb2vxa View Post
    If you were an AM Gangsta working on a boat anchor CW/AM ham transmitter you did it wrong. My bad, I forgot we're in the CB forum. Since you were working on a CB radiddeo the rule is "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, doo waa doo waa doo waa.". Just turn the Turner +2 up to 11 and let the cheese grater sound fill their ears and they'll be happy.
    Turner Expander 500 was more fun. My dad had a SBE brute in the car, tiny for its day


    a yankee living in the hind end of the bible belt
    some people are like slinkys, not really good for anything, but still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

  7. #17
    'Grumpy old bastid' kb2vxa's Avatar
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    I suppose you could expand your horizons modifying it like I did an Astatic TUG-9 stand I used with a 10-DA head for FM and everyday SSB and a D-104 head for SSB DX with an Icom IC706Mk2G. I reconfigured the preamp for 12V phantom power and an attenuator on the output that gave a wider and finer gain control as not to overload the Icom. Rather than using the mic jack that had its own preamp and provided 8V 10mA phantom power for the stock electret hand mic easily blown using a preamp (as W2SJW found out trying to put a Motorola desk mic on it) I handed the job to Frankenstein Laboratories they wired it up to the adapter for the digital input on the rear chassis skirt. KB2VXA was Frankenstein Laboratories when I still had a workplace, a division of Altec Communications, a sideline run by Scott W2SJW.

    There was a much smaller solid state 23 channel AM rig by Courier that was the best ever in its class bar none. It had an ordinary run of the mill transmitter, but what made it stand head and shoulders above the rest was a JFET front end. Back in the day Ramblin' Jack later WA2V (SK) and I hooked uo as a receiver alongside the Stereoized Johnson Valiant transmitter at Thunder Base in Beachwood. We had a stealth station with an antenna hidden in the tree behind the house. When turned on there was silence, with the volume full up there was an almost inaudible hiss, we thought it was DOA. We went around the channels, heard nothing, then suddenly a loud voice burst from the external speaker, it works. It was our old friend Bus Driver in Atlantic City calling us on our local monitoring channel, a QSO started. Soon High Pockets comes on accusing us of ghost talking, he had stacked 3el beams on a tower and a 100W and a Courier BL-100 amp. Such amps BTW sounded good, proper AB2 rather than Texas Star or Dave Made basement pill junk halfway into Class C. "Turn the beams on Atlantic City and say hello" we told him, he did, Bus Driver answered, he still didn't hear him. On came the amp, another answer, and another accusation of ghost talking. Bus driver cracked up, High pockets angry as a wet hornet stormed off, we continued our QSO.

    There were plenty of those slinkys on CB, when we found one the letters stood for Chop Busting since we couldn't push them down the stairs. The Slinky all band dipole was a myth as a Boy Scout Troupe ARC found out at an ARRL sponsored hamfester. With space severely limited in the building's open back porch they set one up on a clothesline and pulley arrangement, but like engineering marvels of that nature what looks good on paper never works in practice. Even with a matchbox feeding it with open wire line it was SWR City, living proof that Boy Scouts never fart in uniform.

    shitty ideas.jpg
    "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."
    Neil deGrasse Tyson

    73 de Warren KB2VXA
    Station powered by atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas.

  8. #18
    Administrator N8YX's Avatar
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    I got an Aries A-MB5RB (same as a Zetagi MB+5, Syncron MB-5000 and numerous other "OEM" badgings) from the auction site. Wired it up to the 1200 and it sounds about as good as I care to make a 4w Class D set sound, The mic has a gain and a transmit tone control (neither of which the TRS rigs incorporated) and a switch-selectable roger beep (ditto). You definitely want to run the tone at "full treble" in order to avoid distortion.

    Next up is a power switch replacement in the 1400.
    "Everyone wants to be an AM Gangsta until it's time to start doing AM Gangsta shit."

  9. #19
    'Grumpy old bastid' kb2vxa's Avatar
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    There you go, any less than 10 on the tone control will make for muddy sounding audio (it only cuts highs) and any less than 11, (turning the gain pot until the knob snaps off) they'll tell you that your audio is low. You think I'm kidding? It gets hysterical on 19 the trucker channel thanks to the truck stop "techs" and their golden screwdrivers, I straightened out more than one mess. BTW when the VU needle wraps around the pin leave it for bragging rights. Gotta love the roger beep, a knockoff repeater courtesy tone definitely needed on CB. When "da skp's runnin'" with all the noise it's impossible to tell when a transmission ends without it. ('->) I never did figure out why most ham repeaters use courtesy tones, WHAT courtesy? Commercial repeaters and a few ham repeaters don't have them, police repeaters and a few ham repeaters have no tails either.

    I always got glowing unsolicited audio reports because I used the right mic for the job and never a preamp where none was needed like the line input on the Icom. I used the Shure 404B lo Z dynamic hand mic on my 23 channel Laughingyet (Lafayette) solid state mobile, and the Shure 444 hi Z on the Courier 1M tube base rig. The before pictured Altec 150 ohm balanced mic with a UTC "Ouncer" matching transformer in the Shure PTT base was for my AM Gangsta setup, modified Heathkit twins, the "scratchy Apache" TX and Mohawk RX. 100W is the ideal power level, it gives an edge without attracting attention, and with good sounding audio (not that muddy leenyar sound) nobody notices. The other AM Gangstas in our little group used modified Johnson Valiants I never liked for a number of reasons, Artie "Windjammer" in Brooklyn used a a desk kilowatt with a Ranger exciter, now THAT really stood out, and so close to the FCC at 201 Varick Street too!

    Oh before I forget, the Demco Power Modulator preamp could have been used as a modulator and then some all by itself. Inside the box was a 12AX7 speech amp driving a 6BQ5 beam power pentode that operated Class A into a 5.2K load put out 5.7W @ 10% THD. The average Class D CB transmitter unmodified has at least that much distortion, AM broadcast transmitters are typically rated at 4% right at the edge of human perception.

    Shure 404B.jpg

    Shure 444.jpg

    Demco Power Modulator.jpg
    "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."
    Neil deGrasse Tyson

    73 de Warren KB2VXA
    Station powered by atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas.

  10. #20
    "Island Bartender" KG4CGC's Avatar
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    The classics are nice and I've never had anything as esoteric as what's being shown here.
    Got an old Philippines Uniden Washington and Cobra 140 GTL that needs the meter replaced.
    The 140 has a clarifier mod that's way over the top. 6kc in either direction.

    [edited to add] The Washington was a barn find restored from a somewhat corroded chassis and crud covered face. Looks like new.
    I wasn't responsible for the restoration.

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