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Colt Excalibur & Kraco These Base Radios Any Good?


I'm not sure about the Kraco radios, but I have had both the domestic and export version of the Colt Excalibur. They were both good radios. Not as good as say a Cobra 2000, but just as good as any of the Midland or Ham International stuff...

The Excalibur (domestic version) has 40 channels and AM/SSB.

The Excalibur (export version) has 120, 200, or 240 channels depending on the version, and AM/FM/SSB. It might have CW, but I don't remember. The clarifier is open.

I bought mine about 1982, and it came set up to use 220Vac as that is what the Europeans use for their main house plug-in voltage. Europe was a large market for the radio as CB was very popular there at the time.

That's about all I remember...
 
its a knockoff of a galaxy ssb, not a 2517. they had a very large number of power supply failures. the regulator would go sending 21v through the board and toasting nearly everything it came across. after the ssb came in the 80's. it was updated to the galaxy ssb melaka and than in the mid 90's became the galaxy melaka (little diff revision of the board and no ssb printed in the name).

its common practice to see the older galaxy and clones (using the early 3600 board) being powered by an external power supply. this was to avoid the mentioned problem.

i would buy one if it were cheap (last one i bought was $55), anything more and you can buy a better radio
 
I bought mine about 1982, and it came set up to use 220Vac as that is what the Europeans use for their main house plug-in voltage.

Wow ! I'm glad we don't have 220 in all our plugs !
 
park said:
I bought mine about 1982, and it came set up to use 220Vac as that is what the Europeans use for their main house plug-in voltage.

Wow ! I'm glad we don't have 220 in all our plugs !
Click to expand...

I LIVE IN THE U.K & OUR HOUSEHOLD VOLTAGE IS 240V, HOW
DOES THIS AFFECT THE PERFORMANCE OF A RADIO???? :?
 
in a higher current draw situation 220 will deliver more stable power. on a radio i dont think you will see much of a difference.

on a larger tube style amp mabey 20-30%.
 
Hi Dirty Harry,

It didn't affect the operation of my Excalibur at all. It's just that most of our small appliances run on 120 Vac, and so that's what most of the plugs in our houses supply. 220 Vac is used mainly for large stuff such as large air conditioners, electric stoves, etc.

So, back when I got my radio, I just ran it on a separate DC power supply instead of going to the expense of having a 220 Vac receptacle installed in my living room.

I'm not sure why Groner Sales (the distributor I bought the radio from) didn't get the 120 Vac version for us US CBers. I suppose that he must have got a "deal" on them, though, as I only gave about $150.00 or so for mine new-in-the-box. That was really cheap for an export SSB base back then. The export Stalker bases were well over $300.00, for example.
 
theres no comparison between a cybernet board colt/marko excalibur or ham international jumbo when compared to uniden radios like the 2000gtl stalker20 madison,
they had underrated power supplys that went up in smoke causing people to use external supplys, the whole cybernet range of ssb radios is nowhere even close to the sound/receiver performnace of a uniden based ssb radio,
i would very much doubt that the radios you have and like have the same cybernet internals that we had over here,
loved by some for their looks disliked by almost everybody for their poor performance,
the galaxy saturn lookalikes are far superior internally.
 
I agree, there's not much that will beat the old Uniden chassis stuff. However, for a 14 year old kid mowing lawns for "radio money" in 1982, the Excalibur wasn't such a bad option.

Knowing what I know now, though, I would have bought a Cobra 148 or Grant for about the same money and used it with a power supply for a base station. However, I really liked the looks of the "big shiny radio with handles!" Ahhh, sometimes going on looks alone with little regard for performance will get a person in trouble with a lot of things, though... :P

The radio wasn't all that bad, but like you said, it was a dog compared to the quality Uniden stuff.
 
if that's the 'LOOK' you're after, get a general stonewall jackson. the more current galaxy mainboard is superior to 25 year old galaxy and even older pre-galaxy boards.
 
davegrantsr said:
if that's the 'LOOK' you're after, get a general stonewall jackson. the more current galaxy mainboard is superior to 25 year old galaxy and even older pre-galaxy boards.
Click to expand...

I have heard that the General Stonewall Jackson base radio also has some power supply issues ??
 
its because of its power output. same as the 2990's and 2995's. disable the baby amp (or buy a galaxy 2517 is the same without the amp) and run an external amp. they work very well at stock power levels (100 or so) but once you peak them they really strain the power supplys.
 
either don't peak the stonewall past 30 watts carrier/125-135 watts PEP, which is plenty, or, upgrade the power supply section. i was brought one to convert to 11m several years back, it was keying 75/swinging 225 with CRAPPY audio. a good going over of the PS, refresh of the butchered modulation circuitry, and de-tune to 50 carrier/175 PEP and it had a SMOKING signal. an SP1A was installed with an awful lot of tweaking before it finally allowed audio without a major(general?) squeal. a 526t barely open a click or 2, for DX, or just plain long distance, and there really is nothing in the 350 watt or less category that can compete with it. it can be heard on 27.025 'round the northeast corner nightly. it drives an 8 pill davemade on a 20 volt power supply.....really well :wink: .
 

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