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Cobra 26...

Simbalage22

Active Member
Jul 8, 2010
180
1
26
40
Detroit MI
Any know how to mod this? weird radio I picked up.. Older 23 channel radio says cobra 26 on the face, but Dynascan type 29a.. Plugged it in to maco (where my base is) and with no power someone said I stepped on someone with this untouched oldie.. however that was 2am when few were on.. I knew it was old. Appearently has 2 finals, and crystals... Can I add 40 to it.. what about freeband on this? Any info as this is my new toy
 

never seen one, you said it has a few crystals in it? if s you could add as many frequencys as you wanted by changing one of the 23 frequency crystals for one that you had ground. you can find some crystals for cheap but most of the freeband crystals will have to be custon cut. you could buy a new radio after buying one or two custom crystals.

you may also be able to add a vfo like a siltronics 90 or palomar. that usually goes in place of channel 23 and will give you unlimited coverage up to about 27.830mhz. cost is high on those as well, again you could get a new radio for what they get for one of those vfo's. they were outlawed in the 70's so obviously you need to find one used.

no wonder you walked over somone, those ol 23 channel radios were 5 watt wonders. they downgraded to 4 watt with the advent of the 40 channel band. good conversation peice but limited in practice.

you had people on at 2am? wow there are a total of 3 cbers in my town. me, the guy who used to run the cb shop, and his brother. they are one once in a blue moon. if i want to talk i have to use lsb on 38 when the conditions are right, thats why i god my ham licence origionally. there is always a band open sometime.
 
never seen one, you said it has a few crystals in it? if s you could add as many frequencys as you wanted by changing one of the 23 frequency crystals for one that you had ground. you can find some crystals for cheap but most of the freeband crystals will have to be custon cut. you could buy a new radio after buying one or two custom crystals.

you may also be able to add a vfo like a siltronics 90 or palomar. that usually goes in place of channel 23 and will give you unlimited coverage up to about 27.830mhz. cost is high on those as well, again you could get a new radio for what they get for one of those vfo's. they were outlawed in the 70's so obviously you need to find one used.

no wonder you walked over somone, those ol 23 channel radios were 5 watt wonders. they downgraded to 4 watt with the advent of the 40 channel band. good conversation peice but limited in practice.

you had people on at 2am? wow there are a total of 3 cbers in my town. me, the guy who used to run the cb shop, and his brother. they are one once in a blue moon. if i want to talk i have to use lsb on 38 when the conditions are right, thats why i god my ham licence origionally. there is always a band open sometime.

Yea there is always something going on on 19.. us night owls.. I have a few crystals... Would like to tune this radio and put it on the shelf for collectors as no one heard of a cobra 26 and google has nothing... back says 29a.. Weird.. Going to buy a 148 but just wanted to see (With this radio) if it would be easy to mod
 
Cobra 26 Pix 1

Can you post a few pictures? Inside n out?


73
Jeff

here they go.. Why did they put a picture size limit on uploads? the last time I uploaded cobra images they were HUGE to see the whole board!

page 1
 

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Just a few crystals I have

Here are a few crystals I have that came from a learjet, I am sure there is more

37.800mhz
37.650mhz
37.700mhz
101.80mhz
10.615mhz

there was more just cant find them at the current time.. it had

14 and I got some for a midland too
 
getting crystals cut these days is very difficult, as most manufacturers wont take small orders anymore.
also remember that there are other specs involved with a crystal besides the freq. load capacitance for example.

that radio does not have two finals in it, those two transistors in the rear are your audio amplifier. back before ICs were cheap, they used two transistors in a push pull configuration almost exclusively.

the final is that flying saucer looking transistor on the side, and the driver is mounted in front of it to that piece of heatsink.

any time you are looking for info on an old radio, you can check here: Secret CB and see if secret CB has any notes on it.
look in the back of volume 28 for an index.

i think that radio would be known as a cobra 29.
at least i have heard of one of those before.
cobra 26 sounds weird. wonder if the faceplate guy had dyslexia. OLO
LC
 
getting crystals cut these days is very difficult, as most manufacturers wont take small orders anymore.
also remember that there are other specs involved with a crystal besides the freq. load capacitance for example.

that radio does not have two finals in it, those two transistors in the rear are your audio amplifier. back before ICs were cheap, they used two transistors in a push pull configuration almost exclusively.

the final is that flying saucer looking transistor on the side, and the driver is mounted in front of it to that piece of heatsink.

any time you are looking for info on an old radio, you can check here: Secret CB and see if secret CB has any notes on it.
look in the back of volume 28 for an index.

i think that radio would be known as a cobra 29.
at least i have heard of one of those before.
cobra 26 sounds weird. wonder if the faceplate guy had dyslexia. OLO
LC

I dont know.. The 29 had a red and blue light in the corner and 3 switches.. I can see looking inside the bezel has the cutouts for all of that just was not installed, thus making this different then the 29... no one has seen one before LOL Thanx for the info
Only thing I hate about the cb pages is too many "ooops we goofed" then you dont find out till volumes later.

Forgetting freeband, I'd like to put 40 channels and use this.. Its buit nice... I see then replacement knobs in the cb secret catalog, but that was issued in the 80's
 

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Why so?

A buddy of mine has/had one sitting in his garage.

Are you sure its a cobra 26? There is no mods, or info on this.. As the inside has all the room for what the 29 has this one doesnt. She said her husband used to work for dynascan and he brought it home when they were in production, so thats probably a limited make the 26 models.. very interesting piece... 15 bucks I got a speaker, WEAK OLDDDDDDDDDD 1 amp 12v power supply, and this.. So @ 5 bucks not a bad find at all... NTM its clean and powerful so I am not touching it, might if I get the 40ch switch somewhere, but as of now its a collector item for me
 

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