So in 1982 Clear Channel Released the AR Series of Radio 34yrs ltr..

[Onelasttime]

So 1982 34 years ago the AR series came out. I remember the AR3500 but I am not sure if it was the first or if te AR3300 came out first.

So 34 years ago you could get 26Mhz-32Mhz with doing any of the crazy programming stuff to get wider. As I recall though you could easily get them on 12m. You could get it in 30w and 120w versions. You could get it with audio compression. You had continuous tuning none of this absolutely stupid band selection nonsense tied to 40 or 60 channel blocks. Individual control for each digit so no limits on how you adjusted the freq.. The transistors for the pre driver, driver and final no matter what the output where name brand bipolar transistors designed for RF.

Fast forward 34 years and what do we have? Not much more in some ways a lot less.

Receive is terrible due to small cheap overly wide crystal filters. Power is not much better since the first 100 watts is the biggest bang for your buck. The models today that still have bipolar transistors (only in an amp slapped onto the bottom of the chassis) have absolutely terrible cheap low beta bipolars and they tend to generate an insane amount of 3rd order harmonics. If you test them with out the 4 transistor amp they give a nice clean signal. Most export radio's today force you to go through long seemingly endless menu's to adjust things. They limit how you can access and tune the radio to where you want to be. Few shops are actually qualified and equipped to properly work on smd radio's. Most force you to use bands with channels in the 40-60 count per band. None of them have DSP, Clipping, Compression, receive noise is insane today the worst I can recall in my 43 years on this earth. Most of the chassis sizes are too large to be used in most modern vehicles that are not Chevy Full Size Trucks or SUV's. When you do get a small chassis they kill it with cheap flimsy controls that have too many functions and a really bad menu driven control interface.

So how do we as customers get the OEM's to listen? A radio from 18, 25, 34 years ago should not still be the best radio!!! SSB radio's with good crystal filtering should be the standard not mission impossible. Receive that has good filtering should be the standard. There is no limit on FCC type D radio's that says they can not have DSP, Clipping and Compression! There is nothing saying that the freq. response passed through the audio chain has to be as flat and dead sounding as it is. You do need more bandwidth and their is no reason you have to have harmonics either to have a few more freq.'s from human speech pass the audio chain. Better filtering and more sensitive receive and better rejection is good for the hobby.

I am not against free banding or for free banding and I am not for against the use of illegal power. I just think that as people as customers that spend money on a hobby we should have more voice. Instead I feel like this is 1950's Automotive Detroit and their are only 3 players in town and you will buy what ever we push out the door only with CB's and Export radio's. The CB market is terrible I do not think you can buy a decent FCC Type D radio at any price that is really a decent radio especially from Cobra and Uniden the SSB radio's have so much noise in them I do not know how anyone can use them with out having their ears bleed! The best ones are from Galaxy but even they drift so bad on SSB your like a dog chasing it's own tail!

If anyone comes up with a way to shoe horn a huge crystal filter into some of these newer nosier radio's do let me know!!

As much money as we spend on radio's and things to support the radio I think we should have more voice with the OEM's. I have never tried to actively have a group of hobbyist contact an oem in large number's to attempt to guide product development. If anyone knows how to go about this I would love to know. I do not think one or two random emails will get anyone's attention. I am getting tired of just being forced to buy what companies are pushing out the door. I am tired of fighting on ebay for vintage gear to use and to have as parts donors to keep old gear alive because the new gear sucks! I do not care if it is an export radio or a CB I just want loud clean audio on AM and SSB. I want sensitive quite receive with decent fidelity. I want rock solid SSB stability. Oh and controls that do not feel like a cheap Chinese Dollar Store plastic squirt gun!

Anyone intersted in attempting to get the attention of Uniden, Cobra, RCI, President??? I deal with parts OEM's out of Taiwan that make high end parts for me not related to electronics or radio at all. They are always eager to design new things, modify existing parts, upgrade materials etc....usually my cost is little for what is being done that I sometimes feel guilty like I am taking advantage of them. I do low volume custom made one of's for a lot of customer's. I know Taiwan is not mainland China but I have to imagine that some of these changes would be easy for them to make and even if a small aux board had to be added I doubt it would significantly add to the cost. One of the reasons companies like China is because they are very flexible in this regard. I have no connections in China now that I am not in automotive world.

So idea's welcome especially if you have had some measure of success with something like this in the past.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

For the amount of money some spend on a crappy export radio they would do far better to put that same amount of money or a little bit more into an amateur radio and have everything you ask for.

 

[Mustang 131]

I'm afraid quality is really a thing of the past. As long as the manufactures are in a race to bottom line, we will lose. The only exception is when someone is actually more interested in the hobby then $$$. Good luck finding that.,I get your point. A 24-32 MHZ radio should run circles around a 160-6m radio...for the same price.

 

[BBB]

I really like the AR 3500 without the amp. Not many around anymore. They do very well for what they were designed. Picked this one up at a local Ham fest.

Since I operate several classic '60's & '70s radios, I too have noticed the increase in receiver noise as the Cobra 148F chassis design (RCI) was cloned over and over and over thru the years.

 

[mechanic]

I have three.... One is the 100 watt version but is more or less a basket case. Got it in a parts box free! The other two I bid on and won from Ebay, paid about 75 for each! Both work well but the dinged up one seems to have lost it's voltage regulator. Have not the time right now to dig into it.
Very fine radios, almost as good as the CPI and DAKs

 

[hotrod]

i have a 30 watt ar3500 . i wont ever part with it

 

[Turbo T]

My 2 cents on this....

I agree....on the chassis size. Yes, gone are the days of cars and trucks with ample space under the dash for even a large chassised CB. My own daily driver Toyota Tacoma has virtually NO where to mount a CB. I got lucky when I found the Anytone Smart CB, which is a very small radio, about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It's a clone of the Albrecht AE6110.

NOW....I know CB radio is nothing like it was in 1976. I know a bulk of CB users today are truck drivers, with ample room in their cabs for a big chassied Connex 3300. BUT what blows my mind (well, maybe not) is how the ham radio companies (Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood) all make radios with detachable heads, to allow you to mount the radio anywhere inside a vehicle, stow the body under the seat and talk, yet no CB companies offer this.

Why? Ok I know the CB boom is long over, but it's not as if truck drivers are the only ones who still use CB. To make a remote headed CB I don't think would be that daunting. Take a few clues from the ham world. The technology is already there, but CB has been ever so slow to evolve. Pop open a Connex 3300 or a newer Cobra 29 and you'll swear you're in 1978 again. It seems just a few short years ago they finally introduced a digital Cobra with scan capabilities.

Now you brought up how today's CB's don't have DSP, filtering, and all that good stuff. Very true. My thought is it's because they build them cheap to make them affordable. But wait...they're willing to shell out $$$$ for a built in amp, echo, roger beep, noise toys, chrome cases, backlit knobs....well, I guess I don't know what to say other than the die hard radio operators are the only ones who care about these items. My Yeticom Optima 3 had a built in IF filter on SSB that made a big difference in RX.

As for those transistors you mentioned that produce 3rd harmonics....sadly it's all about the power to some. They could care less about the antenna and coax, and even go as far as running poor quality of each. But power....nope can't skimp in this department, even if it means bleeding into other frequencies. As long as it makes that Dosy meter peg out in feel good watts area, all is good....in their eyes. It's like putting a 900 hp engine in an 82 Ford Mustang but still running the little 14 inch rims and little 195/75 tires out back. Oh but on a dyno it looks great....too bad the second you touch the gas pedal those rear tires will go up in smoke. Spinning aint winning, neither is wasting power in other areas of the band.

Now I know if you really wanted to, you could always buy something like an Icom 706MKIIG and "open" it up to do 11 meters, but unless you also plan to use it as a ham rig, it's silly; a used one runs you $500-600. But you get all those cool features like the filtering. So it's a toss up. Is it worth it to you just to use it on CB? For many it's not.

My biggest gripe though is the junk lead free solder they use now that has a tenancy to develop cracks. The radio will work great one day, not so the next. And some "techs" are afraid to touch anything with surface mount technology.

With that said, unless the CB starts back in heavy use again, I do not believe the manufacturers are going to put too much emphasis on trying to get CB on par with the technology incorporated into all other types of radio. Though it would be cool if CB's could come with PL tones, remote heads, and the filtering like you suggested.

 

[w9cll]

With that said, unless the CB starts back in heavy use again, I do not believe the manufacturers are going to put too much emphasis on trying to get CB on par with the technology incorporated into all other types of radio.

Here lies the rub, there is NO market for CB's anymore. There are NO quality mfg's and dusting of antenna mfg's left. All of this equals crap and that is what the 11 meter op is going to be feed till either they lose interest or move up.

 

[davegrantsr]

I have three....Very fine radios, almost as good as the CPI and DAKs

I have 5, had close to THIRTY functioning ar3500's as recently as this past spring....they can bring a pretty penny in decent, working shape!
As far as the DAK being a fine radio....it WAS as impressive LOOKING, if not more, then the browning & tram, but that cybernet board was definitely not the best receiving radio out there.

 

[curlyjo]

My friend at work just bought a AR3500 30 watt radio off ebay and is looking for a tech to match it to a Texas Star HD 350. The Radio Shop in Ontario CA will not touch it. He says it is very clean and seems to work. He also wants to pare it with one of his Astatic 575 M6 mic's. The radio is 8 pin. The mic is 4 pin. Anyone here know someone that can make it happen for him?

 

[hotrod]

My friend at work just bought a AR3500 30 watt radio off ebay and is looking for a tech to match it to a Texas Star HD 350. The Radio Shop in Ontario CA will not touch it. He says it is very clean and seems to work. He also wants to pare it with one of his Astatic 575 M6 mic's. The radio is 8 pin. The mic is 4 pin. Anyone here know someone that can make it happen for him?

on the mic he only needs 3 wires hooked up to work .. shield, tx, audio

 

[AudioShockwav]

Here lies the rub, there is NO market for CB's anymore. There are NO quality mfg's and dusting of antenna mfg's left. All of this equals crap and that is what the 11 meter op is going to be feed till either they lose interest or move up.

There is still a market, or they would not be building them. No manufacture is going to invest money building products that they can not sell.
It would be a stupid move to produce inventory just to sit in a warehouse and gather dust and yet they are still being produced.
They would not continue to build new versions if there was not money to be made.
President and other company's continues to introduce new models, Grant II, Grant II Premium, Lincoln II, Lincoln II Plus, The Jackson II, The Jackson II Classic and so on.
And the U.S. is not the only market for these radios, they also have sales across the globe.
Another telling thing is that the builders of these radios are actually listening to customers complaints and revising the radios to improve or fix issues that are cropping up.
If there were not a market, why would they invest the time to work out problems and release a new version for no one to buy?
I sometimes find it funny that people bitch that export radios have flaws from the factory and Ham rigs do not.
Bullshit.
There are user groups all over the internet that there sole purpose is to find solutions for problems that crop up in new $1000.00+ rigs from Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood and other manufactures.

73
Jeff

 

[Mudfoot]

Not to mention the spurious impure dastardly Chinese HT's.

 

[w9cll]

If there were not a market, why would they invest the time to work out problems and release a new version for no one to buy?
I sometimes find it funny that people bitch that export radios have flaws from the factory and Ham rigs do not.
Bullshit.
There are user groups all over the internet that there sole purpose is to find solutions for problems that crop up in new $1000.00+ rigs from Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood and other manufactures.

First I never said that ham rigs are without issues, we all know that is not the case. Second i will concede that yes they may still be a market but its not here in the states.

 

[222DBFL]

It seems to me that more and more free band SSB operators are going with HF radios these days as that is what they are made for. This is not to say that there are still many CB/SSB radios being used as well. Just hear more and more HF radios on SSB. And for the price of some of the export radios these days it is almost a no brainer to get an HF radio and find a used AM radio for that mode od operation. Yes CB sales aren't what they used to be as it's just too easy for the younger crowd to get a cell phone and talk anywhere they want at pretty well anytime. Only issue is when you don't have coverage which is also becoming a thing of the past as well. Believe me when I say that cell phone carriers are spending tremendous amounts of money on their networks. This is why we now don't get free cell phones much anymore if any at all. We the consumer pay full price for phones nowadays. This is due to the carriers spending a lot more money on their networks to have coverage pretty much everywhere. And if they don't have it somewhere there are solutions for that as well. Distributed antenna systems and also micro cells can be placed into hotels and any place you can tnink of these days. As well as your home.
It goes without saying that the cell phone was and still is the death of portable radios. Most that use them are the older crowd. And I am speaking of CB radios. Also most kids would rather have video games and a phone then to sit and play on a radio. Yes there are some that are still interested, but the vast majority have gone to using cell
phones as they can be totally connected to the internet and social media as well as have a device that will just about do anything a computer will do.
I am only 41 years old and I have 4 kids. If I were to ask my oldest 19 year old son to get into radio's he would laugh at me!! It's not because they aren't enjoyable, it's due to the ease of using a cell phone instead of having to setup and mess with a radio.
I truly hope we don't see the day when all radio comms become obsolete, but I believe the time is coming. Now you even have SDR radio systems that use your computer and cell phone to communicate. So in a nutshell, yes the sales of CB and export radios will continue to decrease. But I think it will still be a while before we see the day that they become completely obsolete. That is JMHO. I know there is always going to be some disagreement about this, but it's pretty simple to walk around and see how many people have cell phones versus portable radios.
Don't flame me gents as all I am doing is speaking the truth and we all know it!! Some are just afraid to say it!!!