Another Cobra 29 Thread

Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by GoldDot40, Jul 20, 2018.

  1. GoldDot40

    GoldDot40 Light Load Member

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    Jul 20, 2018
    Athens, GA
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    Gentlemen, I read through as many threads on this topic until my head hurt and didn't really find anything that would be a resolution for my problem.

    Cobra 29 classic. Bought it new 6 months ago. Coupled with a 4' Fire Stik antenna. Right out of the box, I opened the unit and turned up the VR4 setting...nothing else. I am local/semi regional so I don't really "need" an all out peak and tune. I installed it, set the SWR and everything was great. Worked flawlessly until...

    A few weeks ago, the internal speaker quit. I contacted Cobra and they said to simply send it back for a warranty repair. I opened it back up and turned the VR4 back to the factory setting so it wouldn't be obvious it had been "tampered with". I sent if to them and a week later, I get it back. Not too shabby of a turn around.

    The repair form said "wire broken; wire repaired". I opened it back up and turned the VR4 and noticed a couple of things. #1, they added a ground wire from one of the spots of the circuit board to the chassis. #2 I noticed L14 had been tampered with. I had not previously touched it. It had a coating over it, I assume so that a factory tech could easily tell if it was bothered. The coating was clearly peeled back some so that whoever could adjust on it.

    So, I put it back in my truck this morning. I switched it to CAL on channels 1 and 40 and lined the needle up with the arrow. Switched up to SWR and immediately noticed the needle never moved. Before the repair, the needle would jump to almost 2.0. Switched up to S/RF and keyed the mic. Needle jumps all the way over into the red as normal...HOWEVER, the red ANT light comes on when I key the mic now.

    It transmits and recieves just fine. The needle jumps normally while receiving. I called out for a radio check when I got up the road a ways and got a "loud and clear" reply. The ANT light never has come on before. Nothing else on the truck has been changed or altered since I took it out and sent it off for repair. It worked just fine before...as it does now. The only thing different is that ANT comes on now and it didn't before.

    Should I send it back to Cobra? Or should I check something on the truck?
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2018
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  3. Night Stalker10

    Night Stalker10 Road Train Member

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    It's best to have someone with an antenna analyzer check your antenna system, or at least use an external SWR meter. The radios internal SWR meter isn't very accurate as a rule, although it can get you in the ball park. They may have adjusted the SWR pot vr6 inside the radio. So if your antenna really is somewhere around 2.0 like you posted, this may cause the antenna lite to come on. It sounds like they adjusted your RF power output (L14) for some reason. The wax is used to keep the core from moving due to vibration. Strange that they added a ground wire to the chassis, I don't think I've ever heard of a factory doing that before.
     
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  4. poppapump1332

    poppapump1332 Road Train Member

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    what's an srw?or do you mean swr?Shouldve just got an external speaker and had a shop tune and peak it.At least but an swr meter and check it.
     
  5. rabbiporkchop

    rabbiporkchop Road Train Member

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    Factory service will outperform most "tune and peak" jobs.
     
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  6. wolverine11

    wolverine11 Road Train Member

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    Sounds to me like they sent you a different radio that had been messed with, cant imagine a service/warrenty department would make other adjustments in addition to fixing the problem that it was sent back for. Someone probably bought it at a Loves, messed with it, returned it, made its way back to cobra and they sent it back out.
     
  7. wolverine11

    wolverine11 Road Train Member

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    Send it back and ask for full refund and buy a Bearcat 980 which are on sale at Pilot/Flying J for $129.00 until the end of August.
     
  8. jessejamesdallas

    jessejamesdallas Road Train Member

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    You didn't send the radio back to the factory, trust me...."Factory is in China!"
    You just sent the radio to some CB Shop that is a authorized "Cobra" repair shop is all...which in a nut-shell means nothing...(eBay member "superhawkwss6" claims to be a authorized Cobra shop...)

    They probably thought they were doing you a favor adjusting L14 and the ground wire could be just something they think the radio needs...possibly it could be something that stops lip-shock when your lip touches the metal screen on some aftermarket Mic's...(which is usually caused by a poorly grounded system) ...just a guess tho.

    like said earlier by others, get a external SWR/Power Meter and see whats going on. One thing with the Cobra's that will set that light off is too low of DK won't let the radio calibrate right and touch off the light....The shop you sent the radio to may have lowered the RF Power thinking your running a Amp.
     
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  9. shogun

    shogun Road Train Member

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    Is that why they sound like muffled garbage straight out of the box? I’ve used three techs in my life and never had any issues with their work. My friend locally who has been fixing radios since the 1980s, Ray in West Memphis and a guy named Mike in West Memphis who is now dead.

    And my Radioactive Generally Lee, the man who was supposed to be such a hack, volted finals and all, has only had the typical cold solder joint issue that exports have. Everything in that radio is original since 2007 and has gotten me the most compliments of all my radios combined.
     
  10. GoldDot40

    GoldDot40 Light Load Member

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    Jul 20, 2018
    Athens, GA
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    No it's the same radio I sent. I actually used a permanent marker to make a subtle dot on the internal speaker. I was curious if they would actually need to change it. So unless they swapped the entire circuit board...this is the same outer shell, face plate. The speaker was the same meaning the issue was with something else.
     
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  11. GoldDot40

    GoldDot40 Light Load Member

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    Jul 20, 2018
    Athens, GA
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    For what it's worth, the address I sent it to is their corporate office address. The return address was the same when I recieved it. Had an employee name and number on the repair form. Maybe they sent it out to be repaired...but it passed through the corporate office to/from.
     
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