amplifier power claims -bogus!

The transmitters shown remind me of an incident some years ago when a friend of mine was given a Collins AM unit out of a broadcast station. They had upgraded to solid-state equipment and were simply giving the old 1000 watt unit away. All he had to do was haul it out. He asked me to help him get it out of the studio/old transmitter room. So, we arrived early and began to dismantle the big Collins. First the power supply came out of the bottom rack, then we carefully slid out the modulator unit, then the control panel, etc. Even with these few modules removed this thing was HEAV-VEE!! It wouldn't budge from its spot. We pried, we pushed, we pulled, we grunted, we sweated. After a couple of hours I asked Jim, my buddy, 'Hey, are you SURE this thing isn't bolted down?"

"Nah", he replied, "I helped Mr Long (the engineer) put the thing in in 1955, and it isn't bolted."

After 6 hours, we had not moved more than an inch, and I said, "Jim, we've got to have some help 'cuz this durn thing isn't going ANYWHERE!"

A bevy of hams arrived to help us around 5 PM, and we pushed, we shoved, we pulled, we grunted, we CUSSED. The blessed thing didn't move a-tall!

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY, JIM, THIS THING HAS GOT TO BE BOLTED DOWN, I'M GOING DOWN IN THE BASEMENT AND LOOK AT THE FLOOR!", one guy said.

Well I'll be.................................. That blasted thing WAS bolted down, and here I had been, trusting the fellow who helped install it, grunting, twisting and putting my back out trying to move this.......this......this THING, THIS HUGE monstrosity of a transmitter!
GOL-DURN your blasted time, Jim, I oughta.........................!

(The engineer had gone back at some point after it was installed and put bolts in it even tho it was so heavy it would barely move anyway!)

I give Jim a hard time of it to this day! Anything that goes wrong, or we are talking about it on the radio, we'll say to him, "Aw, Jim, it's just bolted to the floor"!

GF

 

Maybe I will look into it.

 

Yeah, who would've thunk a 1000 lbs of iron would be bolted to the durn floor? And I worked for 8 hours removing components and carefully setting them aside thinking the cabinet wouldn't be that hard to move! When I found out, I coulda "killed" my buddy! LMAO! I've never let him live it down, tho!

 

Chanel jumper, you bring up some good points. I wished I could have been around in the golden days of CB when so I hear, there was not as much interference and such that plague the 11 meters today.

My understanding is for some reason it became a "fad" in the 70's, everyone jumped aboard the band wagon illegally, and those who legally bought their licenses to talk became pissed. Then skip of the late 70's rolls in, add a few movies of the late 70's that used CB extensively and add in a CB novelty song by a country and western artist....I've heard it was impossible to talk past a few miles there in the late 70's and there was a constant howl over the radio of all the signals heterdyning together.

But as much as I like talking on radio, I have found unless the guy you're chatting with is nearby, or unless you're running more than 4 watts of power, it's hard to talk these days, and mot often than not there's not may on the CB anymore. Plus here lately the solar cycle has picked up and there's a lot of noise on all channels. Working DX on 38 LSB was so-so, I've made contacts but not that many. So I studied for ham, figuring maybe I'd like it better. I just recently acquired my technicians license for ham, so now I'm in the process of getting a Yaesu FT 7900 R radio, and I've already picked up a Tram 1180 antenna with a Browning base. If I end up liking it better, then i will pretty much leave CB behind, though i might pick up a cheap radio just for road trips.

 

There's a guy 20 + miles from me with a beam antenna. He can talk to me on my 1000 Wilson mobile antenna and Cobra 4 watt AM only radio clear as day as if he were standing right outside my vehicle.

I've heard some of the older radios like the Tram D201 and the Browning Golden Eagle had a sound quality unheard of on most any CB today.

You are right about SSB, I'm wanting to buy one more CB, an SSB rig. It'll, probably be the last CB I ever buy. Would like to find an older Cobra 148 GTL that's not had someone in hacking on it. I know...good luck on that one. Perhaps you can also shed some light on why some think they need to unlock their clarifier? I've owned both, and an unlocked clarifier seems to be more of a PITA than anything.

 

My understanding is for some reason it became a "fad" in the 70's, everyone jumped aboard the band wagon illegally, and those who legally bought their licenses to talk became pissed

At one time in the early 60's the license was free .....

 

"then you could find about 6 more unlicensed channels between the 40 legal channels"

They are Class C not class D but your right why did they not convert them at that time since RC had 52 and 72 mhz even then.

 

WOW! Found this site by googling the PA6050 to find out how old it was. I used to work for Sanyo Canada and still have both a PA6050, (one beside me at this moment), intending to put it back in use in my off grid application. I also have one of the PA6100 amps. They were awesome in their day and are still awesome today. Only downfall was a slight hiss audible at low volume, other than that, especially the PA6100 would shake the rear view mirror to a blur. Hahaha Many many hours on them both, neither has been in use now for probably 25 years, but I fully expect them both to fire up as usual. I'll just turn them on without working them for a while to give those old electrolytic capacitors a chance to repolerize etc. Will do that 2 or 3 times before I try driving it hard.
They still looks almost new, except for the mounting points on the 6100 being cracked from metal fatigue.
So nice to see there's still someone around who even knows these things existed
Peace. Wayne.