I have no idea why the 148 gtl dx holds such legendary status here,the superstar 360 fm is exactly the same radio but has nowhere near the cult following the 148's have.we use about 60% usb here and about 40% nowdays on ukfm,which i wouldn't wish on anyone,the hiss from an fm receiver is brain damage.AM use all but died out back in 82-83 just after the uk government legalised FM,previous to that imported AM sets from the states were the mainstay of uk cb.
i would imagine the 148 gtl dx became legendary back in 80-81 when the solar peak was fantastic and people made contacts worldwide on them.the mk2 version was also extremely easy to modify for super low and super high band,which allowed use on 26.285 and meant it could cover all 40 ukfm channels too.they were also extremely good compared to everything else available at the time for adjacent channel rejection which made them very popular here when cb was at its peak.
there was never a problem here with taiwan made 148 gtl dx's blowing finals unless some f@ckwit upped the alc or am carrier power,set for standard 4w am/12w ssb they run for years,as they used the mitsubishi 2sc2312 final.theres plenty here still have the original final in them 3 decades later,
in saying that i have two philippine made equivalents and they are also excellent radios.as far as i know there was no pb010 chassis made in malaysia so i can't comment on their build quality,although i've seen plenty other chassis out of malaysia and none are as good as either taiwan or philippine made radios.
taiwan made jacksons were superb radios too.
the early 148 gtl dx wasn't as good as the later pb010 version,i always wondered why they never made a pb010 base station,like the cobra 2000 gtl or president madison,would have sold loads here.
nothing wrong with the Taiwan 148's other than some had problems with the finals over the years. Taiwan's are the oldest of the bunch but not as desiarable as the phillipene's models. to many buyers. beter than the malay versions at least.
why do the dx's have such a following in the uk? they were never very popular on this side of the big pond.
i guess thats the difference between the us an uk, we use 99.9% am and the other .01% use lsb. they should have went fm from the beginning. im still trying to figure our why the 3600 series mainboards were so popular over here. they were all but usless on ssb.
comparing a dx to a non dx is apples to bananas. the name and perhaps the pll (early) is the only thing that interchanges between the two.
