Why are mobile CB radios stuck in the 70s?

[Sinkhole]

I am curious why you think Mobile CB radios are still stuck in the 70s aesthetically. I can not for the life of me figure out why CB/10 meter seems to be the only set of radios that have not evolved. I understand marketing, demand, and price points, but for God's sake most of today's radio look and feel very much the same as something you would have bought brand new in 1978. There are of course exceptions and there have been attempts to modernize a few models, but the vast majority of radios are still chrome-adorned boxes with simple LCD displays and chrome knobs. I feel President has the most modern-looking set of radios, but still lacks in some areas. Where are our OLED or TFT displays, dimmable backlighting, properly backlit buttons, and clean designs meant to blend in with modern vehicles?
I guess as a mobile electronics installer I am kind of spoiled by other devices in the 12volt industry. All the modern, and not-so-modern conveniences that are built into so many devices. Let's look at dimming as an example. Dimming in car stereos has been around for at least 40+ years. A simple dimmer circuit is cheap and easy to make. Even the most basic super cheap single din FM/FM car stereos have dimmer circuits, whether those are menu driven or have a single trigger wire that ties to the illumination circuit of your vehicle, or both together. Some of these CB radios are so bright at night that they light up the entire cabin. Why are there so few radios with Dimmers?
Why don't we have any models with OLED, TFT, or even high-resolution LCD? They are clean, easy to read, and almost infinitely configurable meaning you can use one screen of many models, regardless of the feature set on a particular model. My wife's $10 Pulse Oximeter has a color OLED for God's sake.
I guess what I am getting at is I'd like to see something like an 11-meter Lincoln II + with AM/FM/SSB/NOAA and a color OLED, TFT, or high-resolution LCD display.

 

[AudioShockwav]

#1
Money.
This is a small market compared to consumer Stereos that are in every car on the road right from the factory.
So, what we think is a small price increase say 2 or 3 dollars over several hundred radios is a chunk of profit to the pencil head in the office that has never used a radio to talk on.
#2
The targeted market is many guys that are used to old style radios, there are also many users in this market that hate menu driven radios period.
This is not limited to cb/exports, there are plenty of hams that hate them as well.
Radios are getting smaller, something that is needed in today's compact cars.
There are not a huge number of builders of these radios, RCI and Quxiang make most of them, and they are tooled up for what they make now.

It kinda is what it is.
When Ranger redesigned the 2950, Bill Good suggested even more changes that fell on deaf ears because the sales department said " why? "
They buy them as they are.

73
Jeff

 

[Crawdad]

70s is still $elling.............

 

[KneeBiter]

70s is still $elling.............

What's better than the 70s?????

 

[groundwire]

So you like the stupid Christmas tree lights radios that change colors, look like a ufo, have echo and other worthless features, break and malfunction on you in 3 months, have unreadable blue meter/channel Lights and are 90% plastic? That's a modern radio in case you haven't noticed. I will take old school radios any day. New radios are ridiculous.

 

[Crawdad]

I had that poster.......................Farrah, her hair, and her headlights.

 

[ForestRunner98]

Sorry the 80’s were better!!!!

 

[Sinkhole]

So you like the stupid Christmas tree lights radios that change colors, look like a ufo, have echo and other worthless features, break and malfunction on you in 3 months, have unreadable blue meter/channel Lights and are 90% plastic? That's a modern radio incase you haven't noticed. I will take old school radios any day. New radios are ridiculous.

Actually to the contrary. I have never run echo in my life. I also feel that is ridiculous. But it sounds like you just described every Styker or Connex radio ever made as far as lights, meters, and such. I am referring to something with a clean layout more like a Kenwood VM-900 or NX-5000, Just in 11 meter, rather than a Christmas tree, as you put it, like a Styker 955 or Connex 3400

 

[M0GVZ]

I am curious why you think Mobile CB radios are still stuck in the 70s aesthetically. I can not for the life of me figure out why CB/10 meter seems to be the only set of radios that have not evolved. I understand marketing, demand, and price points, but for God's sake most of today's radio look and feel very much the same as something you would have bought brand new in 1978.

You must be talking about the US market. Over here in Euroland....

 

[towerdog]

I wish CB was stuck in the 70s. 100s of manufactures and models to choose from, some like chrome trucker bling CB's, some more something out of a spaceship. Innovation, select calling, hackable PLL chips, made in USA quality, hell if anyone ever did make a CB with a dimmer it was back in the 70s. As for computers, SDR, updatable firmware, well they can lock up, crash and be a pita to use. And quite a few radios have color LCD or TFT displays, often displaying a fake s-meter and they still try to make it look like a 1970s trucker special. Nothing against most computer controlled radios, hell my favorite current production radios are the Stryker 94 and the President Lincoln but I can understand why someone would want a simpler radio.

 

[TM86]

hell if anyone ever did make a CB with a dimmer it was back in the 70s

Cobra 138 XLR had a dimmer on it. Little tiny knob, but it was there.

 

[nomadradio]

Time was, every automatic clothes washer was operated by a motor-driven timer with a cam wheel inside that would click snap switches open and closed to select fill, drain, agitate, motor speed etc. There would be an audible "click" when a solenoid opened the water valve, and when it closed.

Reliable, and not too complicated. Easy to copy, but a little labor intensive to assemble.

There's a reason every clothes washer, every window air conditioner, coffee maker, clothes dryer now has a digital display of some kind and a panel of touch buttons in place of that big plastic knob. Silicon is cheaper than a plastic-and-metal mechanism. Software is cheaper to reproduce than hardware. Both the old and the new versions need those solenoids to operate valves and shift gears. The difference is using a computer chip in place of the mechanical setup. But the program that makes the new product run is called "firmware". Software you can't readily change.

You could blame it on automation, but that's only part of the story. Not only is surface-mount technology a bunch cheaper to build, but once the firmware is written and debugged, it costs nearly nothing to copy into each appliance's chip.

CB radio design will be stuck in the 70s until the last drivers old enough to use a CB retire or die off.

Or until the factories just can't get the old through-hole components to supply their assembly lines. Already you'll see surface-mount varactor diodes in Galaxy/Connex/Ranger radios that use the old circuit boards. Seems that type component has become tough to obtain in quantity built in the old package.

Reminds me of a remark attributed to Henry Ford. When asked why he didn't solicit opinions about his products from the public he said: "If I asked them what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse".

Any product's design is as much about the market it serves as it is about the technology inside it.

Kinda like a 1970s CB listed on Ebay as "RARE!". Nobody asks why it's rare 45 years later. Maybe because the market figured out it was a useless dog, stayed away and never bought very many of them. When someone asks about one of these, I'll point out the two reasons for rarity. First, it wasn't any good or second, it was too expensive at the time.

Evolution just lurches along, one leap at a time.

73

 

[sunbulls]

I used some heavy tube type mobile CB’s back in the 60’s, compact style SMT radios recently, and everything in-between. If you don’t think radios have evolved much both externally and internally, IMO you haven’t lived long enough.

 

[Rwb]

well menu driven radios,humm lemme think. OHHH EVER TRY MAKING A MENU CHANGE IN A MOVING BIG TRUCK,TRACTOR OR DOZER?
and dont say cause im old but itty bitty button pushes hit a bump n dammit wrong thing.
980 uniden in big truck is crapshoot. want to go to lsb? touch button hit bump n might go back to am. my galaxy 99v grip that knob n turn to the detent n your in lsb mode. or the weather mode or any other function.
we got buisness band radios in our tractors 2 are old school n easy to operate. the 3 new radios you just stop moving to set them
very very few things these ugly dull black faced new radios have that impresses me
im sure you prefer new design which is fine but for my application its not my cup o tea.
speaking of lasting my galaxy 99v has crossed the usa many many times.been in shop 1 time for a light that burned out. after all those miles n shaking its slowly growing weak. the 980 is giving lots of trouble n not many miles on it.actually 2 cause i got cb's in every truck we got and both980's are acting up.
ok im off my soap box n done

 

[Rwb]

Cobra 138 XLR had a dimmer on it. Little tiny knob, but it was there.

galaxys does on several models think my old grant does and my sears roadtalker has a dimmer