"THE DAY I FOUND OUT THERE WASN'T A CB SANTA...."

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Back in the olden days of my CB life, I was pretty stupid about some things as many 13 year olds are, but I didn't think I was when it came to CB's. I subscribed S9 Magazine as well as CB Magazine; Bought buyers guides; and listened to various locals on their rigs (sometimes as they argued which one was better), and, I thought I was pretty well informed about each rig and their specs, but it wasn't until a few years later that I learned the horrible truth - many rigs were identical!

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Yes, much like today, where different companies had similar (if not identical) looking rigs and the same board inside, tube rigs were cookie cutter as well. When I learned this fact and realized the only difference was the cosmetics and name brand, I felt like I'd been scammed during those first couple years. I felt even worse for the guys who were 4 times my age arguing about whose radio was better, when in reality they were the same!

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Take (for instance) the Cobra 98, and then compare it to the Allied A2567, and tell me they aren't twins??

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Or, the most common clone of all - The Courier 23. I've seen at least a half dozen rigs which, if glanced at quickly, might be mistaken for the same rig. Some of these were Big name brands, while others were brands you may have never heard from, and the funny part was how the price would vary from one rig to another.

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This just wasn't inclusive to Tube rigs mind you but Solid-State units as well. A good example is SBE's Console and Cobra's 131 -

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I was a B-I-G SBE fan at the time and was crushed to learn that the Cobra 131 was the same rig. I guess it had something to do with the fact that so many people owned Cobra's as compared to SBE ("Sideband Engineers"), but to a somewhat naive youth, it just blew me away.

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Comparing the two base stations you can see that they more or less reversed the front panel, but the knobs, controls, clock, etc. - was all there! Now to make this even more of a shock, I found out that each Mfg. had a matching mobile, and that the base station was basically that same mobile, in a big box with a power supply! Talk about "Trust No One...."

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Not all rig's had twins, but once the knowledge was known, it was kinda hard to ignore, much less hard to keep that info to yourself. I didn't want to be the one to ruin another operators CB world! Today of course, the same thing goes on, and I hear the same arguments between operators claiming their rig is better than the others, and sometimes I'm almost tempted to tell them the facts of life, but then I realize a). They wouldn't believe me and b). I don't want to be the "GRINCH" .

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"THE MAIL BAG"

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I'm still digging through old e-mails, and found a brief email from Paula, waaaaay back from August 16th!

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Hello, I want to Thank You for the considerable amount of time that you have given for this invaluable information.
You can't find this type of excellent info anywhere.
The walkie talkie page is really nice.
Thank You again.
Paula

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Hi Paula! Thanks for taking time out to drop me a quick note. I'm glad you like the Walkie-Talkie section - I'm a BIG Walkie-Talkie fan and wanted to create a page that would make other Walkie-Talkie fans happy.

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Regards,

Woody

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'Nuff Said,

Woody

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