Picked up this big hunk of....

[Turbo T]

....a box....for free. Yep it's an old Pearce Simpson Simba. Big sucker too. Came with the desk top mic. I don't see much posted on PS radios (were they really an "odd" brand???), but I did read back in the 70's these were top of the line, with a $400 + price tag to match.

Took it home and gave it a good cleaning. A test revealed all is working albeit a few scratchy rheostats, even the clock still works. There was a toggle switch hanging out the back of it. I found out when activated it gives you ch. 22A.

I was considering giving it a P&T but it appears a modulation increase = removing a diode....not my cup of tea on this rig. Think I'll just enjoy her as she is.

I'm still trying to figure when she may have been built....the FCC cert card on the rear expired Jan of '76...I can't recall how many years the CB license was good for but I would think it was stuck on the rear when the radio was new....I'm thinking this could be possibly built in 1971 or 1972. If anyone knows how to tell, hit me up.

 

[W5LZ]

I wouldn't say they were 'odd', but you didn't seen/hear many of them. Mainly because of the price. Nothing wrong with a P&T if it's done correctly, but that doesn't mean squeezing every drop of snot out of it, modifying the circuits etc. If you plan on keeping it then do whatever you want. If you think you might re-sell it at some time, I think I'd put it back 'stock'. Let 'them' do any modifying.
- 'Doc

 

[Wire Weasel]

Nice score for free ! Still fetch good money on ebay. Over $100 easy. And the desk mic should be pretty rare. That is even a better find. You might could get $100 for just that from a collector.

 

[2RT307]

Very cool find! The Pearce Simpsons were very good rigs, and demanded a pretty high price. Not very "common" to find out there compared to Cobras, Realistic, Midland, etc. I stumbled across a Panther years ago, and it still works great. These old radios were not power monsters even when tuned. Your best best is to keep it a simple tune and run an amp with it if you want more oomph. The only bad thing is, with SSB you hardly ever find anyone running on 16 or 17, which is where all the locals in my area used to talk SSB when there were only 23 channels. Hard to find a buddy to carry on a SSB conversation with when you don't have 36-40. I changed out a crystal to get those channels, since I never talk on channel 1,2,3, or whatever it was... I don't remember exactly. There are also ways to add a crystal box (expensive), or a VFO (expensive) if you can find one that matches.

As good of shape that one is in, I'd probably leave it stock! lol

73,
RT307

 

[midnight special]

ya wanting to know when it was made? according to the licsense tag it expired in 1976, the licsense was only for 5 years then. so any time before that i guess. that was a real popular radio make about 74 75 76 77. if you check out the s9 magazines on the cb informer site you might find ads for it. and can tell more about date then.

 

[Turbo T]

So far the earliest ad I have found on this radio is from a June 1972 edition of Popular Mechanics. I know on the older Cobra radios, the first digit of the serial number, indicates the year built. I was kind of hoping the Pearce Simpson radios might have followed the same thing but guess not?

 

[2RT307]

Stumbled across this on youtube:

Simba - YouTube

Interesting vid, anyway. I'm still thinking as close to original as your rig is, it probably should stay that way.

73,
RT307

 

[Turbo T]

Don't worry, I have no intentions of modding this radio. I'm even debating on if I want to leave the ch. 22A mod on (that the last owner did) or remove it.

One thing I did learn tonight....doing a radio check, I was informed it sounded like shit on the air. After dialing back the mic gain to 1/2 (from full) I got a better report, but was told it didn't sound strong. The radio dead keys at 4 watts and swings to 10 on AM. (I didn't check sideband) The mic has a fresh 9 volt in it.

I used another radio as the receiving end and the Simba sounded distorted, yet on a second radio it sounded fine. Not sure why it would sound better on one radio and not the other....?

 

[2RT307]

Don't worry, I have no intentions of modding this radio. I'm even debating on if I want to leave the ch. 22A mod on (that the last owner did) or remove it.

One thing I did learn tonight....doing a radio check, I was informed it sounded like shit on the air. After dialing back the mic gain to 1/2 (from full) I got a better report, but was told it didn't sound strong. The radio dead keys at 4 watts and swings to 10 on AM. (I didn't check sideband) The mic has a fresh 9 volt in it.

I used another radio as the receiving end and the Simba sounded distorted, yet on a second radio it sounded fine. Not sure why it would sound better on one radio and not the other....?

You could be transmitting off frequency. Do you have a freq counter? Some rigs receivers seem to be "wider" than others, and that is a possibility for the rig sounding better on one receiver than the other.

73,
RT307

 

[Turbo T]

No I do not have a freq counter. The funny thing is, the radio I am using as a "receive" is a Kenwood TS-2000.....which is a $1700 ham radio. It's the TS-2000 that half of my radios sound distorted on.

However I can use any of my other radios as the test receiver and then all the radios sound fine.

 

[The Mad Scientist]

I have found this to be a common issue. The Kenwood has a high quality receiver as compared to any cb radio and thus will sound different.

It's like comparing grapes to watermelons. I would suggest using another cb radio for a "test" reciever.

 

[Shockwave]

No I do not have a freq counter. The funny thing is, the radio I am using as a "receive" is a Kenwood TS-2000.....which is a $1700 ham radio. It's the TS-2000 that half of my radios sound distorted on.

However I can use any of my other radios as the test receiver and then all the radios sound fine.

Always make sure the noise blanker on an HF rig is turned off when monitoring strong signals. They typically cause strong signals to sound very distorted.