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Ultimate CB Base Station

I made a friend in high school that was running a little Radio Shack mobile, wall wart power supply and a Fire Stick II tunable tip attached to the rain gutter of his house. As long as the big boys were not on the air he sounded good and had no problems talking and getting out.

It was very much a QRP sort of situation.
 
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Sonar said:
I believe loosecannon posted pictures and a description of what he did to his madison. It was his madis0on that gave me the idea to modify mine. ....
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http://www.worldwidedx.com/threads/custom-president-madison-pics.67494/
Is this the link you're trying to put up?

I've seen you mentioned wanting to sell that Madison you have here in the past, I think you should think long and hard before doing so. Looking at some of your posts here regarding that and other Madisons I think you'll regret selling it if you did.




PS: What's wrong with you guys? With the exception of LeapFrog no one here is telling us about their beer fridges, you can't have a station without a beer fridge. :whistle:
 
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StrangeBrew said:
http://www.worldwidedx.com/threads/custom-president-madison-pics.67494/
Is this the link you're trying to put up?

I've seen you mentioned wanting to sell that Madison you have here in the past, I think you should think long and hard before doing so. Looking at some of your posts here regarding that and other Madisons I think you'll regret selling it if you did.




PS: What's wrong with you guys? With the exception of LeapFrog no one here is telling us about their beer fridges, you can't have a station without a beer fridge. :whistle:
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I flip flop a lot. Even with the 2 small issues my madison has, it works great. My thought was to have loosecannon repair those issues then sell it. Since those issues are going to be addressed shortly I will most likely enjoy that radio for many years to come. It was loosecannons initial posting of his Madison that made me want to have one that was just like it. LOL! Of course my madison Falls Way short the one that LooseCannon built, it's still exactly the one that I wanted. All I had at that point was a lightly used unmolested 3rd Generation Madison sitting at the bottom of my closet. It's usually the frustration of not being able to repair my own equipment that sets me off on the "I'm going to sell it rant."
I've been lucky enough up until this point to have a good Tech to repair this equipment when it breaks down. It is the only reason I don't sell everything I own. This old equipment no matter how well they are restored and or repaired seem to always pop up with these little issues here in there. I do understand it's normal for our hobby equipment to break down. I've read postings about equipment less than a year old having issues. It doesn't make me feel so bad that this equipment occasionally needs to be sent out. I hope that Loose Cannon will take some photos of the inside of that rig while he has it. Once I get it back there's absolutely no reason for me to remove the screws on that cover. As always I'm being verbose and will end by saying, your advice is absolutely appreciated, and I will be keeping it. I know that within 10 minutes of that Rig leaving my hands (even if I were to get a good price for it) I would regret it. Thanks again. 73 s
 
Riverman71 said:
Wish I'd never sold any of my radios from the 60s and 70s.
Or my cars. :(
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Hindsight always seems to get the best of us. I have definitely decided not to let that happen in this case. I am not only going to keep what I have I'm going to try to get what I would like to use restored. I had an experience recently that has given me some new insight to the small things that I enjoy. And operating CB Radio and the equipment that goes along with it (especially the old tube stuff) is something I truly enjoy. Even though I can't restore and or repair my own equipment I am truly lucky enough to know 8a couple of people who are very capable of keeping this equipment alive. Of course it would be nice if I could do that type of work myself, but it is what it is. I haven't been on the air in sometime but I'm looking forward to firing up my station shortly. Hopefully over the weekend I'll get an hour or two on air. I am also lucky enough to live in an area where there are still quite a few CB radio enthusiastic. There's always someone out there locally to enjoy a pleasant qso with. happy holidays and God bless all of my forum friends. 73's
 
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Sonar said:
Hindsight always seems to get the best of us. I have definitely decided not to let that happen in this case. I am not only going to keep what I have I'm going to try to get what I would like to use restored. I had an experience recently that has given me some new insight to the small things that I enjoy. And operating CB Radio and the equipment that goes along with it (especially the old tube stuff) is something I truly enjoy. Even though I can't restore and or repair my own equipment I am truly lucky enough to know 8a couple of people who are very capable of keeping this equipment alive. Of course it would be nice if I could do that type of work myself, but it is what it is. I haven't been on the air in sometime but I'm looking forward to firing up my station shortly. Hopefully over the weekend I'll get an hour or two on air. I am also lucky enough to live in an area where there are still quite a few CB radio enthusiastic. There's always someone out there locally to enjoy a pleasant qso with. happy holidays and God bless all of my forum friends. 73's
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I agree 100%
 
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Riverman71 said:
Wish I'd never sold any of my radios from the 60s and 70s.
Or my cars. :(
Click to expand...
I'll be sending out this week. I'm already looking forward to getting it back. I'm sending a few other items. One is going to be that MFJ 828. I'm looking forward to finally finding out weather it doesn't work because of stray RF in my shack or it's just a piece of junk. I'm hoping it works for loosecannon. It'll be something I could and will sell (if it works like MFJ said when I sent it to them for repair.) I use and own 2 autek WM1's. I'm very happy with the autek meters. I'll keep you informed. Thanks for everything. 73's
 
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Anyone on a budget should keep older SSB CB in mind. If you get one cheap and recap them and add a 1-2 pill amp with name brand transistors Macom, Toshiba, MRF etc.....You can have a fantastic sounding station on the cheap.

For Instance the Radioshack TRC-435 I think it is if you align them, increase the modulation, put a nice mic on them leave them at 4 watts and put a 1-2 transistor amp like a 2XMRF455, 454, 2SC2290, 2SD1466,2SC2879 or a 1x3 etc......You can have a fantastic sounding station.

Anything a Cobra 2000 can do on-air audio wise a Cobra 148, Uniden Madison, Uniden or Cybernet built TRC, Cybernet, GE SSB or like radio can do even better especially if it is an early 858 chassis that has had it's caps replaced and common issues fixed. If you shop around and wait for a deal it might take a year or two of bidding but you can get a lot of radio fairly cheaply if you let the ones people over bid on pass you buy.

Most vintage CB's if you switch out the caps in the audio area and add an eq in line you can really get some nice audio. If it is SSB you need to be careful about putting too much cap in the audio chain and really go to an eg and electret mic so you can have AM audio that is great but still have good SSB. If you put too much cap in to get the AM audio to sound great with just a dynamic mic you end up killing SSB performance.

If the stock finals are working do not waste time trying different finals or mosfets. If it is working leave it alone and get a cheap 1-2 pill amp. Even a single MRF454 or 2SC2879 will perform better and be more durable than even dual mosfets.
 
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2RT307 said:
I'm going to go with my old friend "Night Prowler's" setup. Tram D201A, Silver Eagle D104, Phantom 13 tube amp, Wilson Shooting Star, and Taylor .64 wave Grand Slammer ground plane.

73,
Brett
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Those Taylor's .64 would kick the Hygain Penatrators around all day they were he best. You have the killer set up listed
 
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