Not sure what I got here.

[Soldaun]

I've been wanting to put put a CB Radio on my truck for about a month and a half now and my step dad found a CB Radio at a garage sale. I looked at it and it's a brand I've never heard of and I would like to know if it's a decent one. It's a Land Command by SBE Model LCMS-4.

Thanks-

 

[Wire Weasel]

Yeah buddy, SBE is one of the makers that was around in the '70's and '80's during CB's heyday. Pretty good stuff. Probably has sideband on it as well as AM. Try it out and see it it works. Should be worth over $100 if good condition.

Is this a base station? I looked on ebay and there were several Land Commands on there and they were bases. If so, it could possibly fit in a vehicle but would be kindof big but could be done. Does it have a black/red 12 volt power cord coming out the back?

Post us some pics!

Good luck

 

[Soldaun]

Sweet, thanks for letting me know. I don't know exactly how to hook it up, but my step dad's brother knows CB's and he lives like 15 mins away, I'll have him do it. I'm uploading pics to my email, will post in a few minutes.

Also is came with an antenna and the logo says "AS" as you can tell and on the back it says "stripes of Quality" Anyone know anything about it?

It has a red and black cable, but it says 13.8V, I don't know what this means but it gives me the option between LSB, AM, and USB, that mean anything to me?

 

[Wire Weasel]

Well there ya go, neat-o

It's a mobile alright. 12v and 13.8V is the same

Yeah I think all SBE's were sidebanders...afterall, SBE stands for Sideband Engineering

Only drawback is that it may be only 23 channel rather than the later 40. Will still have ch 19 for highway use. Guess you won't know until you plug it in and turn it on.

USB/LSB is upper and lower sideband. It's just different operating modes for talking on the same channel. Back in the 23 channel days, ch's 16 and 17 were commonly used for sideband. when the 40 channels came along, the sidebanders moved up to channels 37,38 & 39 mostly.

On sideband you have to "tune the stations in" using that knob marked "clarifier."

When you get it hooked up, make sure your installer checks the antenna to make sure there is no SWR or that they are low. Antennas for transmitting must be tuned for the frequencies they are operating on. I would not assume anything about a used antenna like this. Simple to check it. You guy should have an SWR meter.

If you end up not liking this radio, you can offer it for sale right here on this site.

Fairly rare radio. I've never seen this model.

Good luck!!

 

[Soldaun]

On the back it says 40 channels. Apparently when my step dad went to the garage sale the guy pulled the Radio right out of the truck, should it already be tuned then? I also found out he bought a hand held CB so that's what the second antenna is for in the picture. The brand on the hand-held is Maxxon and it says "27-MCB" on the front.

 

[Wire Weasel]

Sweet !

And of course your guy should test the radio out before bothering to install it in your vehicle. Would kind of be a waste of time to install and then find out it doesn't work or something.

Hope all is well. Let us know

 

[W5LZ]

The "AS" antenna is an 'Antenna Specialist', no idea which model. The other antenna is a window clip mount antenna, don't know anything about it, except that you probably won't like it's performance.
The 'AS' line was a pretty good, reliable antenna in it's day. Most were base loaded as that one is, probably the forerunner of most antennas like it.
I can certainly remember the 'SBE' company, they also were the forerunners of a lot of common features with radios of today. No direct experience with them though. Considering typical garage sale prices, if it works at all, you got the better end of that deal! Even if it doesn't work, but hasn't been really trashed, you came out ahead.
- 'Doc

 

[Soldaun]

Well we got both the hand-held, the mobile CB and both antenna's for 5 buck. The guy at the garage sale just had his brother pass away so he was selling some of his stuff, and the radio was in his brothers truck so he sold it from what I was told.

I'm going to hook the CB up in a few hours when some hardware stores open up so I can buy some wire connectors and run the power to the 12V cigarette lighter since it only turns on when the key is turned over.

 

[Beetle]

You might have better luck running the power leads directly to the battery, with fuses as close to the battery as possible.

 

[Soldaun]

I got everything hooked up and I can hear people clearly, I just need a better antenna and I'm set.

 

[4-M]

Not all SBE radios are sideband.I used to have a Trinadad base in the seventys that was A.M. only

 

[Beetle]

Not all SBE radios are sideband.I used to have a Trinadad base in the seventys that was A.M. only

Well, that's pretty much the same as Double Sideband Full Carrier, so maybe that counts...?

 

[loosecannon]

soldaun,

that radio looks like it has a slide mount attached to it.

dont use it, they are crap and will hurt the performance of the radio.

just remove it, and run the connections for power and antenna right to the back of the radio.

if you end up with lots of noise and static in your receive with the radio plugged in to the cigarette lighter; going directly to the battery with the positive wire (fused at the battery to prevent fires), and running the ground wire to the nearest place on the chassis that you can find.

good luck,
LC

 

[Soldaun]

there's a few base stations around me that I can hear very clearly and I live about 2 miles from the highway and there's only a small portion of the highway is open enough to get a signal to my house. Once I get my truck fixed (tranny problems) one of the first things I'm gonna do is go on the highway and turn her on to see what she does.

 

[skipper1]

The skinner antenna looks like a radio shack base loaded whip. I have several of those antennas and they work very well and are easy to get a low SWR with them. I have talked all over the USA with one of them.

skipper1

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102661