Just picked up an old radio that blew me away tonight

[WSAC829]

I recently purchased a radio on eBay that i had wanted about 30 years ago but couldn't afford at the time, and they are getting harder to find these days. An Eagle Tomahawk. It's an AM/FM/SSB "10 meter" base station with bands A-J after conversion. This one is in pretty nice shape yet, and hasn't been butchered to death. These got mixed reviews back in the day, but man, i really like this thing. The RX quality is superb, and i got excellent audio reports from DX today after i slapped an old Superstar DM452 power/echo mic on it (the original stock mic is worthless). Little to no white noise or static on receive, and it can pick stations out of the weeds amazingly well. As a matter of fact tonight while using said Tomahawk on 38LSB after skip died off, i talked to Tomahawk, WI (ironic right?) which as the crow flies is 115 miles away from my house. Not on stock power of course. I had the little KL-203 behind it swinging roughly 85-100 watts. I generally never hear or talk to stations over 90 miles away locally. The fact that this radio is 30 years old and has no digital noise reduction didn't hamper my local long range QSO one bit. I'm simply amazed.

Anyway, really enjoying this old thing. I originally got it to add to my collection of now hard to find radios that i wanted at some point in time, but i may actually keep using it as my main base station for awhile. Not really sure why these (and its clones like the Cherokee CBS-1000) got such a bad rap. They look good, talk good, receive exceptionally well, and were made in the Philippines.

 

[slowmover]

I can’t help how good-looking they are. Nice that you found a winner. I was tempted by a Cherokee a few years back. Too many unknowns.


Pulled a bunch of loads out of Lineage in Steven’s Point south of you after delivery N of Milwaukee. Great shipper, well-organized. Always glad to scale afterwards at Plover to get groceries at Kwik Stop (Americas best C-store, by far). Next stop in TX or NM.



Never a stretch to stay ahead of problems on the route through La Crosse then west to Albert Lea, MN and start south as AM-19 in wide use. (Good radios given the usual truck difficulties). Beat feet to get the load and head west to escape traffic. Being in upper Midwest always justified every dollar of mobile radio rig expense as winter was snow/ice and summer was vacationer masses.


Might’ve taken a while longer to determine if that radio good/bad in quality for same number of contacts if you lived elsewhere.

.

 

[spongella]

The FCC's repeal of the 150 mile limit on CB comms was a great move. Here in NJ the CB band is open to Europe some days. Looks like a nice radio, enjoy it.

 

[K9KLC]

I recently purchased a radio on eBay that i had wanted about 30 years ago but couldn't afford at the time, and they are getting harder to find these days. An Eagle Tomahawk. It's an AM/FM/SSB "10 meter" base station with bands A-J after conversion. This one is in pretty nice shape yet, and hasn't been butchered to death. These got mixed reviews back in the day, but man, i really like this thing. The RX quality is superb, and i got excellent audio reports from DX today after i slapped an old Superstar DM452 power/echo mic on it (the original stock mic is worthless). Little to no white noise or static on receive, and it can pick stations out of the weeds amazingly well. As a matter of fact tonight while using said Tomahawk on 38LSB after skip died off, i talked to Tomahawk, WI (ironic right?) which as the crow flies is 115 miles away from my house. Not on stock power of course. I had the little KL-203 behind it swinging roughly 85-100 watts. I generally never hear or talk to stations over 90 miles away locally. The fact that this radio is 30 years old and has no digital noise reduction didn't hamper my local long range QSO one bit. I'm simply amazed.

Anyway, really enjoying this old thing. I originally got it to add to my collection of now hard to find radios that i wanted at some point in time, but i may actually keep using it as my main base station for awhile. Not really sure why these (and its clones like the Cherokee CBS-1000) got such a bad rap. They look good, talk good, receive exceptionally well, and were made in the Philippines.

View attachment 192803

View attachment 192804

That's a great radio. I didn't realize the Cherokee clone I guess I never saw one. Set up and ran some CBS-1000's when I had the shop and personally they worked pretty well I thought for back then and they were good looking radios. Congrats on the find!

 

[WSAC829]

I was tempted by a Cherokee a few years back. Too many unknowns.

I hear you. Very hard to find in good working condition that also didn’t have a bunch of hands in it after 3 decades of use.

I didn't realize the Cherokee clone

They were sold under quite a few names. Some had different options like FM or WX and differing button functions, but were otherwise the same. Here’s a few of the different brands of this radio:
Albrecht AE497 - Intek Multicom-497 - Dragon SS-497 - RoadForce-497 - Pro Star 497 - Commanche Warrior - Cherokee CBS-100 - Eagle Tomahawk. I believe the Cobra 2010 was based on this chassis as well.

 

[slowmover]

What antenna system?

And

What audio speaker?


To round off the tested rig components.

https://www.bellscb.com/products/cbradios/cherokee/cbs1000.htm

Cherokee CBS-1000 AM/SSB base station

I've never seen one of these before, but i just bought it, basically new in the box, along with a Cobra 135 XLR (one of the rarer 40-channel sideband bases) with a Turner desk mic for $250. I am going to sell the Cobra and desk mic on ebay. I already have a nice old 135 XLR. I figure I might as...

forums.radioreference.com

New price, december 1996 in the US: $279.95

Related

That’s $580 today.

.

 

[kc2asb]

That's a great radio. I didn't realize the Cherokee clone I guess I never saw one. Set up and ran some CBS-1000's when I had the shop and personally they worked pretty well I thought for back then and they were good looking radios. Congrats on the find!

Congrats on a great score! I remember the Cherokee model being advertised in Pop Comm. Not many base stations made today, unfortunately.

 

[WSAC829]

What antenna system?

And

What audio speaker?

The antenna i use for my base station is the Sirio GPS27 18 foot aluminum 1/2 wave with 130 feet of LMR-400 coax on top of a 30 foot flag pole attached to the back of my garage.

I am using the built in speaker. I did modify the speaker slightly by adding a capacitor across the speaker terminals to create a “poor mans” hi-cut though.

 

[K9KLC]

am using the built in speaker. I did modify the speaker slightly by adding a capacitor across the speaker terminals to create a “poor mans” hi-cut though

Been a great mod for a LOT of years!! Glad to see people still doing things like this.

 

[WSAC829]

Been a great mod for a LOT of years!!

Yep, it sure is. It’s almost a “must’ when dealing with older radios. Sure cleans up the high pitched hiss and it helps quite a bit on SSB as most rigs disable/bypass ANL in SSB mode.

 

[K9KLC]

Yep, it sure is. It’s almost a “must’ when dealing with older radios. Sure cleans up the high pitched hiss and it helps quite a bit on SSB as most rigs disable/bypass ANL in SSB mode.

It's a pleasure to run across someone with a clue. I've taken some pretty cheap speakers and a lot of OEM older speakers and made them sound pretty good using various sizes depending on the way the speaker sounded to begin with.

 

[WSAC829]

Back when i casually helped out our local tech back in the 90’s, the first 2 things he taught me was this poor mans hi-cut mod, and the poor mans talk-back where you put a resistor across the external speaker and PA jacks.

 

[K9KLC]

Back when i casually helped out our local tech back in the 90’s, the first 2 things he taught me was this poor mans hi-cut mod, and the poor mans talk-back where you put a resistor across the external speaker and PA jacks.

LOL Ah, the good ole days.

 

[slowmover]

The antenna i use for my base station is the Sirio GPS27 18 foot aluminum 1/2 wave with 130 feet of LMR-400 coax on top of a 30 foot flag pole attached to the back of my garage.

I am using the built in speaker. I did modify the speaker slightly by adding a capacitor across the speaker terminals to create a “poor mans” hi-cut though.

View attachment 192857

GALAXY 959 was the first radio I owned with the Hi-Cut feature. As I enjoy running mobile with SQ off (greatest extent) and maximum RF Gain (“capture”) the H-C was a great way to feed my external, powered DSP speaker giving a particular choice about the settings of those two controls. The curve (“sound” of the RX).

I’d say H-C ought to have been something standard — built-in — on ordinary 1989 radios.


— Given the antenna system, yeah, you ain’t kidding us about the Tomahawk. Thx for image.

I remember some of the criticism. I wonder now if that wasn’t sly work by competitors or fanbois of other brands.


I also like the size of the radio.
The famous Cobra ones were too big for my liking.

.

 

[WSAC829]

I’d say H-C ought to have been something standard — built-in — on ordinary 1989 radios.

Yeah, for as simple as it is to implement, it should have been. Oddly enough, the PCB on my Uniden 640e is stamped 1987 and that radio has hi-cut. Might have only been included on the “deluxe” models for certain manufacturers as i’ve owned many radios that are 20-30 years newer that didn’t offer that feature.

I also like the size of the radio.

Same. It’s quite compact for a base station, and unlike the Cherokee, the Tomahawk can be powered by 12v also for mobile use. Not that you’d want to, but having the option is nice, and if the onboard power supply ever goes bad, you have an alternate way to power it.