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What is your favorite Ham or CB Radio of all time?
- Thread starter Moleculo
- Start date
That's a tough question, especially when I got into radio in the 60s.
Favorite CB: E.F. Johnson Messenger 124 & Midland 13-880b. I liked the design of the radio, inside and out. It was a smart looking rig and had excellent adjacent channel rejection. I used the E.F. Johnson factory desk mic, whose color matched the base station, and received compliments on my audio. The Midland 13-880b, because it was the first radio I bought, that brought me into the world of SSB (terrible adj.ch.rej though). 40ch radio: Don Stoner's Stoner Pro40 - hands down!
Ham Radio: Yaesu FT-101E and Kenwood TS-50. I had that bad batch of e-caps replaced, as well as de-glued about 3 years ago and it'll still be working fine when I'll just be dust in the wind. I liked the way the FT-101 looked, as well as how easy it was to use. Rigs with tube finals could take more of a beating if the SWR was over 3:1, and with the optional external digital readout, I never got too close to the edge of each band. With the optional expansion boards, testing and repairing it was a lot easier. The FT-101 used price has remained consistent from one decade to another (usually around $400 +/- 10%). One weird cosmetic aspect was the heavy barely see thru plastic "peel off" faceplate protection that no one seemed to want to remove. I was doing a lot of buying and reselling equipment in the '90s and more than 50% of any version of those FT-101's still had the (now) gnarly looking plastic on the faceplate. Non smoker 101 plastic was just kinda dirty, with shrinkage around the edges, and a slight amount of yellowing. Ones where probably the first owner was a smoker looked bad - really bad. If I had to put a name on how bad it looked, the first thing that popped into my head was the title of a 1990s movie: "The Many Faces of Death". Next...
My first TS-50 was an excellent mobile radio. I had a shelf installed across the width of the windshield in my "deluxe" Chrysler mini-van (the one that had the captains chairs, along with 2 rows of folding seats behind them) with the TS-50 mounted just above, to the right side of my head. Besides having a great receiver, and excellent transmitter, that got me many unsolicited compliments on my transmit audio, it was pretty hard to screw up a setting while beep-beep-bopping down the road, thanks to it's minimalist approach of "less is better" design. ... A design that carried on with its simplistic menu. The only thing I didn't care for on this radio was the VFO tuning knob. A little dimple on the knob would have made a world of difference to me. I "lost" that radio in a divorce, but buying another one was always in the back of my mind. I ran across one that wasn't beat up outside, and perfect inside. It had been re-capped, along with a few resistors replaced, aligned, and came in its factory box. My driving days dropped drastically a few years back, the van and its shelf were long gone, and now, when driving, there just isn't any room for this, or any permanent mount radio. I use it now for a week or so in the shack, otherwise, it resides in its box in the closet (along with some other friends to keep it company)...
Sorry 'bout the length of my answer, but my fingers wanted to talk, and the caffeine kicked in about the time I read this post. I won something a few months back and don't care to again (maybe next year when it's a FTdx-101), so if there's a list, scratch my name off of it for this one.
73
Woody
I have owned several over the years, and would never part with the one I have...best mobile Kenwood ever made, hands down.
I have three Midland 13-885 and one 13-880b and these, and especially the 13-885, has a very special value for me because it it was my first SSB transceiver. Every time I switch them on all the memories comes as they were yesterday! Well ... the 13-885 was my favorite CB as well as Lafayette HE20T and of course the good looking - only AM - base station Midland 13-877.
There’s just no feeling like sitting in front of one of these and reaching for the mic. Especially on a winter’s night with the room lights turned down low. 
I know exactly what you mean. No LED's with countless colors, just the beautiful lighting from incandescent bulbs which makes ones brain more happy and gives peace in mind. I do not mind adding some smell from varm tubes. I started with tube radios and I do have some of them in my shack as well as tube (4-1000A) amplifiers.There’s just no feeling like sitting in front of one of these and reaching for the mic. Especially on a winter’s night with the room lights turned down low.
Thread bump. I was going to start another one on this series but found your post.
Had a set (FR-101D/FL-101, FR-101S/FT-201) around 2005-2007. Sold them to a ham in Indiana. Next set I acquired piece by piece starting in 2015 and continuing to last year.
Included are the FL-101 w/ speech processor, FR-101S and both "D" models (one with green VFD and one with red LED readouts). All the receivers are fitted with every available option including the band crystals. The S and the red D have had 18 and 24MHz bands fitted and the transmitter has them in its two Aux slots. The FL-101 was modified following an FT-101 article on AMWindow and gets very gracious reports. It's run with a Shure 450.
My only gripe with the receiver is the lack of ability to switch to a narrow SSB filter and the lack of a Rejection Tuning control. The former was solved by the acquisition of several spare IF Units and a bunch of different filters. I can mix and match the boards for the type of operating I want to do on a given day.
The Rejection Tuning issue will be solved by the replacement of the rig's Atten switch with a control that features a ganged switch/potentiometer unit. Circuitry will be placed under the chassis so the concept of swappable IF Units can be retained. No hacking required - except for the extra paddle at that area the radio will look stock. Yaesu SHOULD have included the feature but didn't. Sigh.
This station is operated in memory of my late friend Stan, who I elmered into the amateur ranks. Such a setup was his second "real" amateur station and while he purchased much more contemporary equipment prior to becoming an SK he always loved his Twins.