• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
  • Click here to find out how to win free radios from Retevis!

Old school Cobra 139 23 CH

Zman

K9FON
Nov 26, 2009
984
114
0
50
I have a sweet old 139 23 CH that's been converted to 40 Ch via crystals to get it to CH 40.
Its not a power monster (10 watts on ssb) but I have been told that it is one of the loudest radios i use on SSB rivaling my other radio that put out twice as much. My question is HOW? :eek:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Missouri Swamp Rat

That come from a time when they just plain built better radios. I have my Cobra 138A and my Midland 13-893 radios that have the same board, and people just marvel at the audio quality and clarity on SSB, even the ham guys say it's easy listening. I think it's just in their construction, how things were put together. Both my radios have the mosfet mods done to them, so they do 17-18W SSB on the Bird meter.

Keep that radio. It's a good'n! (y)

~Cheers~
 
  • Like
Reactions: LeapFrog
The front of the radio looked the same, in fact it used the board/components in the case, the bottom of the radio had a low slung belly on it to accommodate the transformer of the power supply.
They simply took the 893 a stuffed a VERY compact 12 volt supply in it.
Back then that radio was almost $300 dollars retail depending on were you bought it.!!
Very solid radios.
Added a switch and a extra crystal and with the switch down it was Ch 1/2/3/4
With the switch up it was Ch 36/37/38/41, and it would roll 10 Kc easy to get the 00`s and the "RC" channels.
I traded it for a JC penny 6247 because I wanted all 40 channels.
To this day am not sure who got the better deal...Lol

73
Jeff
 

Attachments

  • midland13895_manual.jpg
    midland13895_manual.jpg
    53.3 KB · Views: 87
I have had alot of radios,

but run a browning ltd or my tram d60 only in my car,no amp and work the world on ssb...if i want to run on 10mtrs i run a rad shack 23 am/ssb for 10mtrs only...have a new rci2950dx and run it everynow and then,but those are my go to radios...i had a nice hr2510 and it was ok...like the new rci2950dx better,73 de n0zna in MIZZO
 
Oooooo Tram D 60! I have one as well as a Cobra 132 both converted to cover all 40. They can talk up a storm!!! Very loud but clean audio!!! I also have a Tram XL5 now that's a good one as well but it transmits off frequency so i don't use it much on SSB. The locals bitch about it.
 
I have mosfets in both my Midland and my Cobra 138, they talk real well, bumped up output on SSB from about 13-14W to 17-18W on my Bird 43A wattmeter. I need to get a Cobra 139 in great shape so I can put a mosfet in it, and put a couple crystals in... I'd run it as a base and probably never run anything else for a base again.


~Cheers~
 
Kinda depends on what channel you want. Simplest fix is to remove one crystal you won't use, like the channel 1 to 4 crystal (marked 8.1590) and installing the new one there. No extra wiring needed this way. The new crystal will deliver four new channels. It will skip one 10 kHz step betwen channel 3 and 4 on the dial, no matter which crystal is installed on that part of the channel switch. This is called the "RC" skip, and the radio does this to the fourth of every five-channel step, between 3 and 4, 7 and 8, 11 and 12, 15 and 16, 19 and 20. A 23-channel radio also skips two RC channels between 21 and 23. To fill in this skip pattern will take yet another crystal, a switch and added wiring to fill in this blank channel skip pattern.

To add channels 26, 27, 28 and 30, use 8.4590 MHz
Channels 31,32,33 and 35 will need 8.5090 MHz.
Channels 36-40, skipping 39 is 8.5590 MHz.
41 to 45 skipping 44 use 8.6090 MHz.

And that's the pattern for each 5-channel step above channel 45, add 50 kHz to that crystal frequency.

Consider the the higher (or lower) you go, the less transmit power and receive performance you'll get. The radio is aligned for channels 1 to 23, so making it perform way above 23 or below channel 1 will require alignment. It will still be a narrow-banded radio, so optimizing it for upper channels will reduce performance on channels 1 to 23.

Sure must sound like "Five miles to school in the snow barefoot and uphill both ways." Heck, that's what this mod felt like that radio was new.

73
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Woody-202 and doffo

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • @ kopcicle:
    If you know you know. Anyone have Sam's current #? He hasn't been on since Oct 1st. Someone let him know I'm looking.
  • dxBot:
    535A has left the room.
  • @ AmericanEagle575:
    Just wanted to say Good Morning to all my Fellow WDX members out there!!!!!