Who makes the good Cobra 148 GTL?

[hammer0630]

80's 90's

Back in the mid to late 80's I had a 148 don't remember now where it was made I bought it new back then for to use as a base station any way I just got back into CB again a couple of months ago and bought another 148 for my base station they are great radio's! Now these days I really don't know what the hottest radio's are but if you are going to use it on the standard 40 channels I don't think you can go wrong with the 148. By the way it's rare but I did manage to get my 148 made in approx. 1991 (Malaysia) unused in the box for $70.00 I run it with a amp it's turned down to one watt and swings to twelve watts no lie. I did clip one audio limiter if thats the reason and I run it with the stock mic and you would swear that it's had some kind of audio work done to it and I am running a D-104 mic wide open but with out any squealing.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter$]

Original units are actually from the mid-1970's

The original 148GTL was actually introduced in the mid-1970's. Yes, they have a white power connector and side 5-pin mic connector. My grandfather left me a nicely modified one when he died in 1978....I'm guessing it was at least several years old by then, so likely one of the first built. Maybe we can dig him up and re-constitute him so we can ask...ha ha. It's made in Taiwan. S/N: 83003217

Has a slider switch coordinated with 4 different color LED's in the meter so you know where you are sitting based upon the color. Unit covers from ~26.4 Mhz up to ~28.2 Mhz. Has the open clairifier mod, so voicelock adjusts both transmit and receive frequency. No internal power mods (it's legal output), as a separate 75/150/225 watt linear amp takes care of that when working winter DX on the SSB (above ch 40, but below 28 Mhz)

Yes, the electrolytic caps will go dry and need replaced someday, but no problems with my rig yet. Nevertheless, replacing the caps is worthwhile to restore a rig with such build quality. Hell, my computer motherboard I'm using to send this message had all new caps soldered on several years ago, and that's a lot more disposable than a vintage 148GTL.

Unsure about quality of the later Cobra units, but the earliest ones like mine were awesome.

Since I use my 148GTL as a base station, I wish there was an easy mod to convert to a standard 4-pin mic jack so I can use a nice base mic, I hate that 5-pin mic design. Any tips????

Coupled with an automatic antenna tuner (I run an LDG Electronics AT-11) set up for remote-tune (where the tuner sits in a box right under the antenna), a good SSB frequency counter (I run an Optoelectronics SSB-220), plus a few watts of heat into a simple ground-independent half-wave big-stick vertical antenna, and that old 148GTL will kick one hell of a signal in skip conditions! My farthest hit from here near Cleveland, Ohio is over to Macedonia in eastern Europe! We have antenna restrictions here, so the big-stick mounted at ground level is all I can get away with.

Overall, I would re-solder all the electrolytic caps any day to have another one of these oldest units!

INTERESTING ... In trying to date my 148GTL this OLD thread came up .... Still dont know from what year it came but the serial # 23005025 Taiwan ... must be an old one??

 

[999]

INTERESTING ... In trying to date my 148GTL this OLD thread came up .... Still dont know from what year it came but the serial # 23005025 Taiwan ... must be an old one??

1982
The first digit is the year of manufacture.

 

[999]

This is one that I sold recently.

 

[999]

 

[nomadradio]

Finding a date code on the PLL chip will narrow down whether this is a 1978 radio or a 1988 production. Same problem for a serial number with the first digit "9". Production moved to the Philippines some time during 1989 IIRC.

73

 

[999]

Finding a date code on the PLL chip will narrow down whether this is a 1978 radio or a 1988 production. Same problem for a serial number with the first digit "9". Production moved to the Philippines some time during 1989 IIRC.

73

That's easy. By 1988 production had moved to the Philippines.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter$]

Cool ... good to know ... Thanks guys, I came across this radio in a second hand store in Laramie WY picked it up for 20.00. business was boomin at the time back in 13 so I shipped it of to Snake Radio for a recap as he had done a real good job on a Uniden Grant XL for me a couple years earlier. I like this Cobra was waiting for a load in Douglas and ended up BSin with a fella in Atlanta GA that afternoon for about 20 minutes ... skip was good to me that day.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter$]

Finding a date code on the PLL chip will narrow down whether this is a 1978 radio or a 1988 production. Same problem for a serial number with the first digit "9". Production moved to the Philippines some time during 1989 IIRC.

73

Excellent ... Absolutely right ... just looked this afternoon says 82 on both. I'm learnin some of the fine details

 

[Switch Kit]

INTERESTING ... In trying to date my 148GTL this OLD thread came up .... Still dont know from what year it came but the serial # 23005025 Taiwan ... must be an old one??

1978 same as the PC-409 Uniden boards ! (Also President Grants from the same makers ) Tiwan R.O.C although some had the 858 PLL and then came the 8719 PLL ..........5 years later the boards were put into the mighty Cobra 2000 GTL's ! from 1983 to 1993 , they had a good 10 year run especially since the disco cb radio craze started to mellow out somewhat . All three 2000s were made like the others , Tiwan , Phillipines and Maylasia , My personal favorite cb radio of my times anyway . The Soundtrackers were a crying shame ! and you really couldn't do much with them and they drifted bad on SSB , they could be passable on AM , Such a great radio and that's what Cobra did to them . Shameful ! I know Maylasia's were like 1990 to around 93 ...........the party was over ! (they may have went a few years longer)

 

[9C1Driver]

Switch, Cobra must have said hold my beer and watch this. The newest version of the 148 could be worse then the soundtrackers were.

 

[BayouRadioAmplifier]

old origional post here. popular radio. I am new in WW DX website.
I recently was given a broken and modified 148 B made in China.
I got it working all stock now. them fat microphones go bad,
and speaker audio goes through the microphone switch, which
is lousy. audio cuts out.
I have the schematic for this radio if needed.

OK, lets see how my post looks...

 

[loosecannon]

the 148 b is a completely different radio on the inside and has a PLL02A PLL chip in it.
it bears no resemblance to the 148GTL.
LC