Stupid things seen or heard at a CB shop

[fourstringburn]

2510 specific faults: *see note at end
B+ always on the final
Low level AM modulation by unbalancing the balanced modulator.
Well known but easily fixed audio feedback loop.
Deaf as a board compared to even a Cobra 25GTL
Regulators in the PLL/mezzanine board fail, occasionally taking the PLL with them.
What over voltage protection?
Back light cooks the mounting
Display failures due to a bad ribbon connector or the display.
The display will freeze and never be the same. Likewise the display will cook and fail completely.
Microphones were junk. Element, switches and cord were all failure points. Otherwise when it was working it sounded great.
What a convoluted tuning procedure to get the carrier oscillators(s) the same distance from filter center that could be as much as 500 cycles out of spec.
Chassis ground is board ground is logic ground is ground. Ground a chassis screw and apply a hot lead .
This necessarily made eliminating vehicle noise a one sided deal. Kill it at the source or not at all.
Buttons, switches, potentiometers, potentiometer switches all sourced as cheap as possible and none available on the common market for years. When they did come available they were the same crap or worse than originally installed.
The rear accessory plug was junk.
Simply by design the phase noise of the synthesizer and its broadbanded nature on receive limited the selectivity and sensitivity.

My one working 2510 has the B+ relay switched.
The major electrolytics replaced/upgraded
The audio feedback diode/resistor
The filter deserves its own post.
All the front panel switches and potentiometers have been replaced at least once.
It's on its third display
Rit is now a Tit
ECG 340 is the predrive
Q101 the first RF is now a low noise FET (3SK35?) This took a complete redesign that again is a whole subject to itself.
So is the 2510 and its ilk junk? No, with the above qualifications.

My subjective opinion is that the design was solid but compromised first by its broadband nature and then by the button sorters, bean counters, and cost accounting pencil pushers. Where ever a penny could be shaved it was. Simply by offering a more robust component list and more durable display it could have been a benchmark radio. Instead it exists in myth, legend and lore as a unique but flawed offering to a narrow niche market . That alone may be the single most important limitation of the radio.
*Even I am going to miss a few annoying faults and fixes.
I thought the message was clear enough without diving further into minutia ...

That's seems like a complete and detailed list. At least a couple of those things mentioned applies to the HR2600 that I'm aware of. A lot of this can be said for many of the export radio's out there.

Then again, was this radio ever marketed to be as good as a true HF rig?

I read on this forum where others have said CB radios are better on the CB band than exports and exports fall short of being near a true HF radio. I believe there is a lot of truth to that.

 

[kopcicle]

That's seems like a complete and detailed list. At least a couple of those things mentioned applies to the HR2600 that I'm aware of. A lot of this can be said for many of the export radio's out there.

Then again, was this radio ever marketed to be as good as a true HF rig?

I read on this forum where others have said CB radios are better on the CB band than exports and exports fall short of being near a true HF radio. I believe there is a lot of truth to that.

I'd stop short of a lot of truth...
It really does have to be viewed on a case by case, radio by radio basis.
Kenwoods almost universally sound great. Some modification to 11m is straight forward and others nearly destroy the radio just to get it on 11m. Then again it depends on if the modification is done by a competent individual or a hack with secret CB opened to the appropriate page.
I've put 148GTL's on 10m. I defy anyone to tell the difference between them and a HF radio.
A correctly adjusted Ft-101E is just another radio on 11m
There really is no blanket statement that covers all the possibilities. The proof is in ineligibility, spectral purity, and harmonic suppression, as it is in any radio. All else is rhetoric for keyboard warriors and the unwashed masses.

 

[rabbiporkchop]

Mismatched transistors? What mismatched transistors? The 2510 (that is what we are talking about here) used a single ended chain of 2SC1973, 2SC2166, MRF477.
So again, mismatched transistors?

If we're talking about the 2510 then you're correct and I'd say it's one of the best exports ever made even though the display sucks.

 

[Turbo T]

I had a truck driver try and tell me that having echo boosted modulation.

And the 18 feet of coax being required for perfect swr.

 

[rabbiporkchop]

I had a truck driver try and tell me that having echo boosted modulation.

And the 18 feet of coax being required for perfect swr.

Turning the Echo board off does slightly reduce modulation and you would see that on an oscilloscope. It's not a drastic difference but the echo board is part of the audio chain.

 

[Rescue]

I'm no expert I'm willing to learn but I've been burned a couple of times by walking in to CB shops. The shop in El Paso sold me a davemade with no pills. I had a guy leave my SWRs at 6.7 thank god I knew better. I had a SWP Gen Lee and I guess I was a lucky one because that radio lasted for years until I sold it had an Xforce box I ran with it and never had anything but awesome feedback with it. I've been talking on the radio over 20 years I enjoy it. I admit it wasn't until the internet that I started to really learn anything. My current system I'm sending to a forum member to get fixed up. My local CB shop didn't do a very good job. They refuse to do anything more than the most basic stuff. I'm not very confident in them either. Just because you walk in to a shop doesn't mean you're stupid. We all want the best when I was in high school I was part of a CB club called CB101 we were a bunch of kids we could barely afford gas to cruise so the local shop was where we went. Best tech that ever worked on one of my set ups was behind the truck stop in Tucson. I wish I knew what happened to him. Guys would start talking like they knew something and he'd just ignore them and make their radio perfect. I'm very trusting the member here is that kind of guy.

 

[kaos513]

I'm no expert I'm willing to learn but I've been burned a couple of times by walking in to CB shops. The shop in El Paso sold me a davemade with no pills. I had a guy leave my SWRs at 6.7 thank god I knew better. I had a SWP Gen Lee and I guess I was a lucky one because that radio lasted for years until I sold it had an Xforce box I ran with it and never had anything but awesome feedback with it. I've been talking on the radio over 20 years I enjoy it. I admit it wasn't until the internet that I started to really learn anything. My current system I'm sending to a forum member to get fixed up. My local CB shop didn't do a very good job. They refuse to do anything more than the most basic stuff. I'm not very confident in them either. Just because you walk in to a shop doesn't mean you're stupid. We all want the best when I was in high school I was part of a CB club called CB101 we were a bunch of kids we could barely afford gas to cruise so the local shop was where we went. Best tech that ever worked on one of my set ups was behind the truck stop in Tucson. I wish I knew what happened to him. Guys would start talking like they knew something and he'd just ignore them and make their radio perfect. I'm very trusting the member here is that kind of guy.

If we're talking about the 2510 then you're correct and I'd say it's one of the best exports ever made even though the display sucks.

one time i went to a cb shop truck stop, i sat down for like 5 mins and up front was a german shepeard that was the techs call buddy when someone walked into the shop lol

 

[rabbiporkchop]

I'm no expert I'm willing to learn but I've been burned a couple of times by walking in to CB shops. The shop in El Paso sold me a davemade with no pills. I had a guy leave my SWRs at 6.7 thank god I knew better. I had a SWP Gen Lee and I guess I was a lucky one because that radio lasted for years until I sold it had an Xforce box I ran with it and never had anything but awesome feedback with it. I've been talking on the radio over 20 years I enjoy it. I admit it wasn't until the internet that I started to really learn anything. My current system I'm sending to a forum member to get fixed up. My local CB shop didn't do a very good job. They refuse to do anything more than the most basic stuff. I'm not very confident in them either. Just because you walk in to a shop doesn't mean you're stupid. We all want the best when I was in high school I was part of a CB club called CB101 we were a bunch of kids we could barely afford gas to cruise so the local shop was where we went. Best tech that ever worked on one of my set ups was behind the truck stop in Tucson. I wish I knew what happened to him. Guys would start talking like they knew something and he'd just ignore them and make their radio perfect. I'm very trusting the member here is that kind of guy.

He is still there.
+15206640412

 

[Rescue]

He is still there.
+15206640412
View attachment 22238

Oh there is always someone there but that place opens and closes with new owners and techs all the time or it used to anyway. Hell that was 16 years ago. But I sure appreciate you looking

 

[Rescue]

one time i went to a cb shop truck stop, i sat down for like 5 mins and up front was a german shepeard that was the techs call buddy when someone walked into the shop lol

Was that Tiny's CB shop in New Mexico???

 

[W2EKG]

 

[W2EKG]

 

[W2EKG]

 

[kaos513]

Was that Tiny's CB shop in New Mexico???

was in brooklyn,ny when i was like 10

 

[Rescue]

Oh my unholy hell!!!! Are people actually doing this!? The stupidity of humans never lets you down for a laugh