What year was my radio built

[tuner]

Just looking for info on how to figure out what year a Cobra 148 GTL or a Cobra 2000 GTL was built by looking at the serial number. The 2000 I am asking about is 73000653 and has a black 12 volt plug on it. Any help would be awesome , thanks very much

 

[Beetle]

How old is it?

 

[tuner]

Lol

 

[43Echo695]

What year..

Cobra themselves couldn't tell me the year my 2000 was built.

See my post from a while back 'Cobra 2000 carbon dating' or something like that.

73's

 

[Grinder74]

I read somewhere that it goes by the first digit, 1987. Not positive if that is correct though.

 

[Turbo T]

Same thing I've read/heard. First digit is the year of manufacture. I don't know if they were building Cobra 2000's in 1987....but they were for sure in 1977....

 

[tuner]

Thanks guys

 

[Shockwave]

1977 was the first year for 40 channel radios and the typical SSB chassis of the year was using the D-858 PLL chip. The MB8719 PLL chip that the 148 and 2000 used in the first generation had not come out yet. That chassis came out in the 1980's. The quickest way to tell the year is to look at the PLL chip itself. The manufacturer of the chip used standard 4 digit date codes. This is usually one of the last numbers on the chip and will say something like 8842. In that case the chip was made during the 42nd week of 1988. The radio was probably made the same year or perhaps the next since Cobra was using new stock.

 

[tuner]

Awesome ! Thank you very much !

 

[Turbo T]

The quickest way to tell the year is to look at the PLL chip itself. The manufacturer of the chip used standard 4 digit date codes. This is usually one of the last numbers on the chip and will say something like 8842. In that case the chip was made during the 42nd week of 1988. The radio was probably made the same year or perhaps the next since Cobra was using new stock.

Does this apply to other makes of CB's as well, not just Cobras?

 

[Shockwave]

Does this apply to other makes of CB's as well, not just Cobras?

Yes.

 

[Grinder74]

Were they all built in one country? If so what years were built where? This would narrow it down a bit.

 

[ExitThirteen]

1981-1988 were made in Taiwan.
1989-1994 were made in the Philippines.
1995-1999 were made in Malaysia.
2000-current are made in China.

I might be a year off on the Malaysia and China ones, but they are close.

That's a general rundown of Cobra 148's. The 2000's were made from 1981 to 1991/1992ish, if memory serves.


~Cheers~

 

[tuner]

More great info thanks very much