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ANYONE ON THE FORUM EVER HAD ONE OF THESE?

Mike you certainly MADE MY DAY!!! I started this topic a while back and I am REALLY interested in these particular radios I have actually decided to go through and start thinning out the 11 meter radio stuff I have and dont use I will however set one of these ARF-2001 up on one of my Amatuer benches for the local gossip I was just sitting here thinking about these radios as I was polishing up the wifes Yaesu 857D (y)

I do have a few questions though I was wondering today what PLL chip they used in these rigs? And if its also true that there were 2 models one with Frequency display and the other with just the standard digital clock and I was told they were sold with ASTATIC D104 microphones???

All in all they sure are a great radio and as Ive said they seem to have been way ahead of there time. What was average cost on these? I only ask due to some of the exagerated info out on the net Ive encountered and obviously you would know the truth. I was on 80 meters oneday a few weeks ago and we were talking about the Cobra 2000GTL and President Madisons ETC and I was going to bring the AFR-2001 up and never did sidetracked I guess I was curious as to if any of the older fellas that were on the band in the group had ever had one or what they knew about them.

I dont know why I want one so bad I dont use half the stuff I have now I just think that the ARF was a neet radio and as I said ahead of its time. Thanks for joining the forum family and taking the time to fill us in on whats the scoop is or was on these truly cool radios. Feel free to share more and hang out with us Thanks again......Tony
 
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Hi Tony and everyone!

The ARF 2001 was supplied with the D104 mic with all units. Most of the mics were painted gray to match the 2001. We did ship some that were nickel and there was a few demos that had gold plated D-104's.

The 2001 originally hit the market in October 79 at about $1100 each. the price dropped to $998 for a while then we sold some of the last hundred or so during 1980 and 81 at around $500 each. The last ones were the best as they had all the latest mods and I tuned them myself....of course!

The Pll was a Motorola MC145106 or a MM55126. I would be surprised if any of these were available anymore. Maybe someone has a few.

The first units had only a clock. I developed the freq counter a bit later and it was a retrofit to replace the clock.

Hope that answered your latest questions. have a great day!

Mike Sepich
 
That sure did answer the questions I had and to know its not he told me she told me info and that its true makes it all the more better. Im sure theres alot of people that had these questions Its great you take the time to answer these questions with factual answers. Now as far as the radio if I were to find one I imagine its a lost cause finding the replacement frequency display anymore??
 
arf

Hi Mike thanks for the threads, nice reading. I have a couple questions and gripes. First, I have 1 ARF left. It has a Plexiglas see-thru top and an old sticker in the back that says "factory demonstrator export. not for sale in USA". It also has 3 channel switches hidden in the handle and has a "factory warranty seal" over all the cans. Any history on this one?
Grips:
.25 AM sensitivity is good, but not great for a CB radio. Brownings and Trams have .1 and Tram even advertised at least .1 or better on some radios. Also, Browning's and Trams also have great selectivity and rejection which the ARF does NOT. It seems to me that no CB'er likes single conversion AM on the crowded CB band. Why on this top end radio was that done? CPI did the same. Thanks a lot and I do LOVE the transmit on these. Better than Asymmetrical and DSBRC to me.
 
tramdr said:
It has a Plexiglas see-thru top and an old sticker in the back that says "factory demonstrator export. not for sale in USA". It also has 3 channel switches hidden in the handle and has a "factory warranty seal" over all the cans. Any history on this one
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

nice to see a designer of top end cb gear dropping by,you might want to think about telling ranger rci or uniden how to include the am sil function in their radios,sounds like a real good idea for ssb use,not to mention hinting to them about the advantages of added speech processing,instead of all this bluetooth,talkback and echo shite they keep putting in new radios.be nice to have useful functions added instead of gizmos trying to attract the computer/nerd/nugget type people into radio.

i'm also curious about the "factory demonstrator export,not for sale in usa version" i think had you maketed that in europe (especially here in the uk) back in the early 80's you would have sold loads more,especially with 26-28 mhz coverage and fm added.you might still be selling them as the quality of export radios here has fallen dramatically since those days.

the cobra 2000 gtl or the president washington would have been your only serious competition and neither made it here in any numbers,still find it hard to believe cobra didn't market a 2000 gtl here with the pb010ab export board in it,would have been a massive seller if the amount of cobra 148 gtl dx mk2's in operation here to this day is anything to go by.

i notice no-one has mentioned the amount of filtering in the final tx stages of the arf2001,a rarity in cb's indeed.Can't help wondering had they been available here how many ssb operators would have been saved from being busted due to causing rfi back then,ironically me included,lol.

would love to hear more on the story of this exceptional looking radio which could have been elevated to legendary status like the cobra 148 gtl dx had it been widebanded enough for worldwide export sales.
 
arf 2001

I did sell my ARF 2001 export demonstrator (everything has a price) lol. After being ARF-less for a while, I bought another with the frequency counter and has original box. It works except the counter just free-runs. Anyone have any manuals or schematics for the COUNTER? Also it has non factory channel expansion. Any info on that either? Peace.
 
I have an ARF 2001 W/freq count & a Microscan VFO on it I got off eBay in June 2012 I bought the last of the factory parts in 04 after they had changed hands a few times so there wasn't a lot left. In 1990 I got my first Arf with org mic but no books and the lens on the lighted switches were broken. I looked up ARF and called them to see if I could get books and switches. I got to talk to the engineer that designed the radio and we wound up having a 4 hr. conversion he got me copies of the owner and service manuals and 4 lenses like I needed and sent them to me. I learned a lot about the radio from him and its history and how it came to be in the first place. This has been a big help in keeping the one's that I’ve owned going over the yrs. Dave

P.S. I would have to disagree on the receive I have not had any problems with mine to date and checking it againest other radio's have found that it was better on receive.
 
One of the COOLEST CB radios ever made!!!!!
I have another CB gem that was made the same time the 2001 was made; its a Robyn SB 540D. I need to find someone to work on it though... But id love to get it working again!!!
 
ARF 2001

Well lets see where we start. If you want a really big neat looking, hard to find radio then this is the rig for you. If your looking for a radio with a good receiver and good transmitt you might want to look at something else. I did alot of research on these things over the years and they are nothing but big, pretty pieces of junk. The front end on them are as bad as it gets. You can get a much better proforming radio for alot less money. If you want something to say to people...Hey look what I got get one. If ya want to enjoy using it good look with that.:glare:
 

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