Coming Review: Cobra 148GTL CB Radio

[Robb]

Just received word from Cobra Electronics.
They will be sending a Cobra 148GTL for the purpose of review in the next few weeks.

I've been very fond of Cobra radios in the past. I still have a Malaysian-made 148GTL that was produced 12 years ago. I think it will be interesting to compare the two. I also have a 29GTL made in the early 80's, a 142GTL made in the late 80's, and a 2000GTL of the same vintage. They have always been very clear talkers. They set the trend for CB's in the past. Fairly easy to trick out as well.

I will be including an upcoming interviewing with the company representative as soon as they give me a call...

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

nobody in my area has one that doesnt drift on SSB . they are a POS in my opinion .
sorry if i was too honest .

 

[IMD262]

I've tried a couple of the newer ones and have to agree with Booty.

 

[cbradiomagazine.com]

You're going to have a hard time putting a positive spin on a China made Cobra 148 GTL.

While the receive is still going to be good on them the output numbers are lower than the older models, modulation doesn't sound the same as the earlier models, and general build quality has gone downhill.

I've tried a couple of the newer China 148's and each one was dissapointing. I love the older 148's but the newer Chinese made models just seems to have lost something.

It's a little different story with the 29's. I prefer older Cobra 29's but the newer ones from China can still perform fairly well - the 148's are just a different animal though and something with them has gone downhill. It's a pity. Wish Cobra would take what they learned with the Cobra 200 GTL and go back to the drawing board again. Maybe the second time around they could really nail it.

 

[Robb]

There have been many claims about this radio. Mostly bad. There will be only what I can determine by what is in front of me as to how I feel about it overall after some on-air trial runs and some meter findings. As well as finding out what comes my way for this radio in my review, at some pont afterwards I will be looking into possible mods this radio is still capable of. I have heard so much about this radio, that I am going to attempt to understand the claims. I am curious to find out for myself and share it on the WWRF.

 

[mrgumby]

don't waste your time they are junk .if you talk am only you might be ok but for ssb ..smash it with a big ass hammer

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

put your superlative dictionary away for the 148 review

 

[NorthStar]

Robb,


Tell Ramon to find someone besides Giant to build these things !

 

[Robb]

Haven't received the radio yet.
Should be here in the next few days...

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

got the 148 yet ? if so got any initial impressions you can share ?

btw , thanks for the work and effort you put into the forum

 

[Switch Kit]

This is old news reviewed in the present ? ......This review is 10 years old and it hits the nail on the head.....I think within a few years Rob , that you have become a ginny pig for company reviews on there products ? pretty cool dude. I just kind of wonder what the qualifacations are for that ? Maybe it's one of those things on whom you know ? Hmmmm....IM guessing you must get to keep all these goodies as well ? Nice ! ......Go figure......life is good.


Now we have this new radio, the 148 GTL, It looks real pretty at night. I had a customer send me a 148 GTL for peaking and tuning for better receive and transmit. So before doing anything else, I hooked it up to my antenna to get some radio checks, well, AM was OK, nothing to write hone about but clear and clean.

Then I went to Sideband, now people say they can't "clarify" me in, What! So I tried some others on the band with the same results, can't clarify me! So I'm thinking maybe my oscillators are off frequency so I check them and find that they are a little off so I align them. This time is the same as the last, they can't clarify me!

So I really got concerned! After checking the oscilator frequencies I find that they change when I modulate! What the Hell! they are not supposed to change, they are supposed to be rock solid! I placed a volt meter on several test points and found that the voltage to the oscillators is changing with modulation! So I start looking for the reason for this and ran into the cause right away.

The new units don't have the MB3756 Voltage Regulator, They have decided to further cheapen the radio by doing away with it! and installed a 3 pin voltage regulator in its place with a series resistor on the 8 volt pin, on the input pin there is no voltage drop, on the output pin there is.
What this all boils down to is this, the radio is in my opinion now is somwhat "unstable" on sideband and I for one, would not own one! To my knowledge it could be inproved with some additional filtering and RF bypassing...........So there you have the old news , I don't think anything has changed within the last 10 years with those ? otherwise , we Forum lot lizards would have heard about it by now........but by all means , tell us more.

 

[mechanic]

Several questions....

Is the chassis designed so that it will not receive the old regulator? Is the old regulator even available? How about supplying the modulation with it's own 8 volt regulator? Is the radio worth the 40 bucks?

mechanic

 

[mrgumby]

how is the review going ??

 

[hotrod]

cobra should go back to having uniden build thier radiod like they did
back in the day when cobras were good.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

hey robb , did you ever get the 148 and if you did whats your impression of it so far ?