• 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!

Looking for a Cobra 50 AM/FM/Cassette/CB Shaft Style Radio setup

greenbean

New Member
Mar 16, 2024
5
6
3
67
I am looking for a Cobra 50 with AM/FM/Cassette/CB Shaft Style Radio setup (it might be a Cobra 50ltd 40 channel radio). Back in October 25, 2012, becareless06 posted one for sale. If you have one for sale or know where I might find one, please email me at 2rjbsr@gmail.com
 

I do vaguely remember a 23-channel indash combo called a 45 or 50, maybe?

Pretty sure we ditched the last of the parts radios of that kind. A couple of them brought $4.98 on fleabay. The ones that didn't sell went to the cruncher.

Finding a working sample you can make a daily driver will require a VERY recent rebuild, and I do mean REbuild.

If a customer failed to use the tape often enough during cold weather, the belts would develop a "bulge" spot and cause wacky trouble.

Making one of these a "daily driver" won't be simple.

73
 
Ah yes ! The all-in-one again. You can have a crap CB, a crap AM/FM radio, and a crap tape deck, all in the same box ! No thanks.
I understand, but I have a 'SENIOR' friend that had one back in the day and perhaps he wants to relive his youth ---- so I am doing my best to help him. Sometimes you don't ask why, you just say "okay I'll see what I can do", and that's me
 
You sent me down a rabbit hole. There were three models of AM/FM/CB from Cobra at about the time the 50 XLR was out. The 46XLR, which had no tape player, the 50 XLR, which you're already familiar with, and the 55 XLR, which seems to have been the same thing as the 50 XLR except it played 8 track tapes.

Not that any of that helps you to find one of the darn things, I just thought it was interesting.
 
You sent me down a rabbit hole. There were three models of AM/FM/CB from Cobra at about the time the 50 XLR was out. The 46XLR, which had no tape player, the 50 XLR, which you're already familiar with, and the 55 XLR, which seems to have been the same thing as the 50 XLR except it played 8 track tapes.

Not that any of that helps you to find one of the darn things, I just thought it was interesting.
Yeah, it's funny because I have been able to find a bunch of the 8 Track units, but not the cassette units
 
My recollection of the cassette version was that the player mechanism only engaged the takeup spool, not the supply spool. Upshot was that only a fairly high-grade cassette would even play without 'warble' to the playback speed. Without a spindle to hold it centered, the supply-side spool will bump against the inside rim of the cassette housing as it spins. A well-built cassette will still play out the tape smoothly. A cheap one was meant to rely on the tape player's spindle to let it unspool smoothly. The playback speed would warble if the friction of the spool against the cassette housing were bumpy at all.

73
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Greg T has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    EVAN/Crawdad :love: ...runna pile-up on 6m SSB(y) W4AXW in the air
    +1
  • @ Crawdad:
    One of the few times my tiny station gets heard on 6m!:D
  • @ Galanary:
    anyone out here familiar with the Icom IC-7300 mods