Are Philippine radios special?

[psycho]

As a collector in the hobby at the time, it was fun to search out the "Philly" (Philippines) made Cobra CBs. Got a "Philly" made Cobra 25, 29 and 148. Still missing the "Philly" made Cobra 2K GTL in the collection.

I believe Superhawk on ebay can set you up with a "seller refurbished" one for $750 plus $100 shipping.

 

[psycho]

well i for one never saw any Uniden radios with better quality than the ones made in Taiwan back in the 70's.

i don't bother to debate this with anyone anymore, as everyone seems to have their preference, and they are all good radios.

I like Taiwan radios the best myself, if for no other reason than that's when CB was state of the art, had the most money invested in it, and the quality really mattered because no one yet knew just how crappy they could be made and still work.
LC

I own all three and the only problem I had after obtaining these NOS radios was that the Taiwan models are the oldest and I needed to recap it since the speaker was blowing due to DC getting to the speaker.....so I replaced all the electrolytic caps. They all perform the same from my experience.
The Taiwan Cobra 25, 29 radios are the best AM Cobra radios.

 

[Onelasttime]

It was the last time they where worth owning from a durability, quality control and design stand point. Each move made by Uniden was one more step down in quality to reduce production cost and maximize profits! So nothing magical. The Cobra's made in Japan and Taiwan where the finest ones ever made. I own a Uniden made in Philippines it is almost as good as the Japan built ones just smaller components especially the resistors. That is just my $.02!

 

[StrangeBrew]

It was the last time they where worth owning from a durability, quality control and design stand point. ....

This is the way I understood it, the older ones were considered better and the Philippines radios were considered the last of the good ones. It was after leaving the Philippines that the decline began but they weren't any better than those that came before, the point where they left the Philippines could be considered the tipping point.

Personally I've had good luck with all the older ones.

 

[Oatmeal]

I have a Cobra 148gtl here that was built in the Philippines, back in 1989, it is in good shape, 1st one I have owned in this good of shape, like this one, have owned a few Cobra radios old like this one and traded them off.....are they better than the ones built today, think mostly the quality parts used in radios back then is what people looks at, and they take about any mod you would want to use in one, but the one I have it needs looked at...

That Uniden someone has that's old, I'd have it fixed, there a good sounding radio on the airways ...

Me, I prefer the old school radios myself...

 

[Road Squawker]

Ummm . . . Thicker board traces and better QC in its day.
Re-cap, clean, and adjust. Should be a winnah!

... and if ya got real lucky, it came with a hand painted bottle of San Magoo.

o... Anong Surap!

 

[rabbiporkchop]

I never even knew there were transcievers made in the Philippines..

You would have known if you were around 30 years ago. Not so much today.

 

[Tallman]

Of course they are special, built by the hands of Virgin Temple Dancers.

 

[kaos513]

I say phillipine & tiawan radios where good back in the days

 

[S&W357]

Of course they are special, built by the hands of Virgin Temple Dancers.

Now that right there is funny!

 

[Staybolt]

As a collector in the hobby at the time, it was fun to search out the "Philly" (Philippines) made Cobra CBs. Got a "Philly" made Cobra 25, 29 and 148. Still missing the "Philly" made Cobra 2K GTL in the collection.

I have a "philly" 2000 gtl.

 

[Staybolt]

Ill take a philly built radio any day. They just talk and work better.

 

[Straightshooter58]

the older stuff from PI worked great...the newer black box stuff.not so good..

 

[6meter]

Interesting topic. I was aware that production shifted between countries and also that there were different version of radios like the Madison and Grant.

So I checked some radios I have and they were produced all over the place. My Cobra 148GTL was made in the Philippines. So then I checked some other radios sitting on a shelf and a Uniden Grant doesn't list a country on the serial / FCC badge. A Robyn SB520D was made in Japan.

Also looked at a couple of 10 meter radios. A pair of HTX-10's were made in the Philippines. While an earlier HTX-100 doesn't show a country.

 

[Onelasttime]

Let's get real! When the Cobra 148GTL started shipping from China they where a disaster. I can not imagine it was any better for the Unidens. Look at how the RCI2950 went down hill with each move from Taiwan to Malaysia and then to China! When HRO was the only game in town and they where $400+ radio's their reputation was sterling. Once Sommer Kamp and the Copper Refurb's hit the market and the CB Butchers aka "Technicians in Name Only"got their hands on them it was all down hill!

So sometimes the reputation is based on the quality of production location and sometimes it has a lot to do with who the market it is and who is working on them! I see it a combination of factors not just 1. Clearly though it is much easier to make an already great product even better than it is to turn a sows ear into a silk purse!