"PART III"

[THE TIMES THEY WERE A CHANGING]

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Before I get too far along let's not forget two other important categories: Microphones, and Walkie-Talkies, which were also involved in this turbulent period of change and growth within 11 meters! The most popular Microphone Mfg's were:

• Turner, Turner/CONRAC, Turner/Telex
• Astatic

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"TURNER"

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Turner, was Cedar Rapids' leading mortician in 1925, and from there they went on to being one of the most popular microphone manufacturers in the world! (Ya never know where you'll end up). The B-E-S-T information you'll find on Turner is on a site exclusively dedicated to the "Turner Story", by Eric Braun. You can also access his website via the CB GAZETTE website, and believe me, you won't be disappointed by what Eric has put together.

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While there were many different models, the most popular format was what you would see in a 250, 251, Plus 2, etc. and if you take notice, they OEM'd that style out to many, many other CB Radio companies. Turner also offered a Plus 2 mobile microphone which was unique in it's design as well. While popular under the Turner brand, these weren't OEM'd as much as the Turner base station microphone were (a few come to mind like Regency, and Kris). And a brief note about "Style", while Turner made several wonderfual changes in their microphones throughout the 70's, Astatic pretty much relied on the D-104 for their flagship desk microphone, sometimes varying from silver to gold (as in the "Golden Eagle" D104 Anniversary edition). But enough about Astatic, let's get back to Turner.

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Turner offered a radically new design for a desktop microphone with the Tuner Plus 3 (base and mobile), which offered not just a pre-amp, but speech compression. It was a popular seller to say the least, and when SSB came into it's own it was only natural that they offer a model marketed to the owners of Single Sideband Base Stations - The Turner Super Sidekick, which had the same footprint as the Plus 3 with a few changes:

• Gone was the grey finish, and in it's place black, with the exception of the microphone head which was shiney Chrome
• They dropped the speech compressor for a preamplier (not sure why)

This was the first desk microphone I wired to my Midland 13-880B and I received many compliments on the audio (it's still a favorite of mine, and I try to keep as many as possible on hand, just in case.....). As you can see, Turner kept up with the times with new designs, including the Turner Expander 500 with VU meter, tone and amplification controls, whereas Astatic's D104 remained cast in stone. And speaking of Astatic, we'll look at what they offered during this "Time of Change" in my next installment. But for more classic Turner try the CB Gazette's TURNER web page.

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WOODY

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