Cobra 29

Actually that can be with any hobby. Nothing is cheap anymore.

 

I bought the cobra 25 (its the radio in my avatar’s picture) for $2 at good will. I think it was made in 1997, it has the side mic connector. I checked it out and it actually worked, so i stripped it down and cleaned it up. I did put a new face plate on it, and painted the covers. Yes there was some labor and time involved, but it was a labor of love. The caps were fine so i didn’t replace them. Did a tx/rx alignment and it works great, and looks like a new radio. Like Ridge said, there’s nothing wrong with an older radio, (as long as they hadn’t been hacked up and abused too much). Of course if it’s non repairable and you didn’t spend too much for it, it can be a nice parts radio. I own 2 more ltd 25’s i bought off of fleebay for a decent price and they work fine. Unfortunately as noted by slowmover, cb= constant buying, boy if that isn’t the truth. Lol.

 

Are you talking as far as range? Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the radio, but your antenna setup?

 

Then I would have to agree with @Night Stalker10 about the Classic 29ltd. My boss bought the newer 29lx for all our trucks, but I asked him if I could keep my classic, and he said yes. As far as I can tell, my radio is holding up better than everyone else's lx.

 

Its not just new radios from the truck stops. Its true with cb radios from a cb shop. For example, in order to bring down the cost of a radio, the manufactures are using 1/8th watt resistors instead of 1/4 or 1/2 watt. Uniden had built a very nice filter in the IF section, it was on a seperate small circuit board and did a great job. Thats one of the reason people loved the madison & cobra 2000. Now the filter is in a smal plastic box with a couple of components inside because its cheaper. Plus by reducing the size of the parts they can make the size of the radio smaller. Not to say the radios don’t work as well, but the recievers aren’t as quiet as they use to be. Plus quality control over seas isn’t as good as it use to be, especially in china.

 

I haven't seen 1/4 or 1/2 watt resistors in radios since the 60's.

 

Oh okay, i thought they used them through the 70’s too, but i wasn’t sure.

 

No problem, a lot of people think that the size matters but it really doesn't, tolerance matters.