Rack Mount CB's Again

[Dawn]

I posted on this topic about a year ago. Nothing really constructive replied in the first posting. I've have a local group growing from 10FM to SSB using Sears/JCPennys units that I've converted after buying a bulk of USB/AM tripler crystals from a supplier to get a decent price. I'm going to expand to early Uniden chassis, but they hardly have the selectivity at the expense of broadbandness and have a RS and Courier SSB converted using surplus crystals for proof of concept with a lot of range you can't get from these amazingly tight Hitachi chassis that are literally commercial grade.

While we're channelized and using the LSB position to add a 5khz increment with these units, several of the group have bought HTX-10's and clones after a positive experience with the Hitachi units. Actually some prefer the Hitachi units after buying a frequency agile unit for local use.

So, I keep getting inquiries about a base unit. Unlike CB'er's, most amateurs don't want to use a mobile for a base. I see these Saturns and others going at good prices. While not like the RCI's that have the frequency agility and power, they are relagated to channelization which of these is well documented and repairable? Those units that were originally 10M to get around export, information would be appreciated.

 

[Token]

The rack mount base CB’s were kind of an interesting bread. I have owned quite a few in the past for one reason or another. Still have a couple around.

The first ones I remember seeing were the HAM International Jumbo series. I think I picked up a Jumbo new in either 1982 or 83. The Jumbo 2 and Jumbo 3 came out later, I am thinking the 3 was out by late 83? The Jumbo had a less common board in it, not using the Uniden / Cobra types of boards. I never had a Jumbo 2 or 3 but heard they used the same boards as the Super Stars and Galaxy radios did.

Super Star export radios eventually became Galaxy, and Galaxy ended up doing the Galaxy Saturn, Saturn II, Saturn Turbo, and Saturn DX2517. At some point in there it spawned Ranger with the Ranger TR-696 and RCI-2980 / 2980WX / 2985 DX / 2995 DX.

Some of these radios were “export” only, some had US CB versions as well as export, and some were sold as 10M radios.

Several are well documented on the CB Tricks page (CBTricks Radio Information Section ), and a few others on the CBRadio.nl page ( www.cbradio.nl: Pictures and Specifications of CB and Export Radios ).

I have converted several to run on 10M in the past (20 years or so ago), including one modified to do repeater offsets for the FM segment of the band.

T!