First Cb Base Station

[kk9h]

Mine was a Knightkit C-22 that I built when I was 12 in 1964. My father sent in the FCC license form and we received KLK1943 back. I especially enjoyed the tunable receiver that allowed me to listen in on all 23 channels. Several of my friends also put CB radios on the air and we had a great time with them. Ch. 17 was our channel and definitely it was our own early form of social networking.

 

[mitbr]

Fanon Courier Conqueror II CB​

was mine in my teens hooked up to Radio Shack horizontal 3 element beam on a fence post turned by hand in 1976.
Tim

 

[chief21]

First CB base was a Lafayette HE-20c (circa 1963) paired with one of those tall AS antennas.

 

[W2JGA]

RS TRC-435.

 

[Token]

Those golden eagles were a top notch CB in their day. The TR switch cut B+ to the reciever so it didn't instantly mute. Key up and a short feedback gave those radios a very distinctive sound.
The desk mic was a D-104, gold plated with an eagle logo on the grill, best looking/sounding mic ever created.

The bit about the Astatic Golden Eagle microphone and the Golden Eagle radio depends on the year, Mark of radio, and (more importantly) options.

The original Browning Golden Eagle CB, the Golden Eagle Mk II, and the Golden Eagle Mk III came with the brown, Browning Labs supplied, Electro Voice made, "banana" mic, and the GE Mk IV CB came with the Turner +3 style Browning 776 mic.

Starting in 1969 Browning Labs offered an optional GD-104 golden D-104 with the Mk II. I have been told that GD-104 remained an option for the rest of production, but it is fairly uncommon today.

In 1976 Astatic started doing a series of D-104 (T-UG9) microphones for the American Bicentennial, a silver mic and a gold mic (20k gold plated), both with eagle and shield on the back of the mic element. These were called the Silver Eagle and the Golden Eagle. People grabbed the the gold ones up and naturally started using them with Golden Eagle radios. I have been told 10000 numbered gold mics were done (I have no reference to corroborate that number, but do know production was limited and each one serialized), but the Silver Eagle continued in production for many years. The Silver Eagle later became available with the T-UP9 (bottom push bar) stand.

This (late 1975 / early 1976) was the same year the short lived Golden Eagle Mk IV 23 channel radio came out, but those microphones continued to be made for several years, and covered all the production years for the Golden Eagle Mk IV 40 ch, and both versions (Browning Labs and post Browning Labs) Golden Eagle Mk IVA's

It turned out it was generally a bit cheaper to buy the regular Astatic Golden Eagle microphone than to buy the Browning Labs specific GD-104 mic, so most people went with the less expensive option.

Years later, 1993, a "Diamond Eagle" microphone was done to celebrate 60 years of Astatic. This was a brass (not gold) Eagle microphone, that is gold colored, with a diamond chip above the Eagle on the back plate. But of course this was long after Browning was no longer doing CBs.

T!

 

[Token]

In 1976 Astatic started doing a series of D-104 (T-UG9) microphones for the American Bicentennial, a silver mic and a gold mic (20k gold plated), both with eagle and shield on the back of the mic element. These were called the Silver Eagle and the Golden Eagle. People grabbed the the gold ones up and naturally started using them with Golden Eagle radios. I have been told 10000 numbered gold mics were done (I have no reference to corroborate that number, but do know production was limited and each one serialized), but the Silver Eagle continued in production for many years. The Silver Eagle later became available with the T-UP9 (bottom push bar) stand.

Following up on the possible number of Golden Eagle mics made. Unfortunately, I did not get as far as I wanted.

I have 3 original Astatic Bicentennial Golden Eagles microphones, two still in box (have been used, but currently stored in their boxes) with all original paperwork. The paperwork does not say how many were made or were planned to be made. So I looked at the serial numbers, and again, no help The lowest of the three has a serial number in the 23,XXX area, and the highest of the three is in the 26,XXX area, slightly less than 3000 between my three samples, but I have no idea where my samples fall in the production run. The number of 26,XXX may indicate at least 26 thousand were made, or it just may mean that they continued the serial numbers from other microphone runs.

T!

 

[W8UU]

Radio Shack Realistic TRC-30A, Turner +3 desk mic, and a Starduster antenna.
Great set-up for me.
I eventually had the base modified for some of the additional channels above 23.
The radio was a real workhorse for an entry-level barefoot base.
Decent receive and transmit. I did have some adjacent channel splatter from a nearby base running a linear.
The TRC-30A "Navaho" was my one and only CB base station.

 

[Token]

Sorry to the OP, I got off on the tangent about Golden Eagle microphones and never answered the question of the thread, what was your first CB base station?

Mine was a Hammarlund HQ-105TR. Some might look at that and think, "Hammarlund HQ radios were receivers, not transmitters". And, you would be right, most of the time.

However the HQ-105TR was a HQ-100 general coverage receiver that Hammarlund had added a single channel 5 Watt input AM transmitter to. It came from Hammarlund with a CB crystal installed and was legal to use on either CB or ham 10 meters. There was an option (and mine had it) of an external 8 channel crystal holder and push button channel selector.

Years later they did about the same thing with the HQ-205. I think that one was an HQ-200 receiver painted a different color (205 goldish while 200 was Hammarlund grey) and with a 6 crystal CB transmitter added.

I still have my HQ-105TR, and it works fine. But I have never owned the HQ-205, and they are exceedingly rare today.

T!