My Chinese Cobra 148gtl Mods for those people that asked.

[@randydunaway2590]

Big CB radio sounds like you’re an excellent technician. I have the same Chinese Cobra148 and a 1994, 148 made in Malaysia and I love them. Both cobra was the best and they they still are for the CB radio hobbyist .🐍🐍

[@bigcbradio]

Thanks Sir..

[@zukispur5493]

Stonker 9s kick sand into cobras faces.

[@bigcbradio]

Stonker? you mean Stryker? or Magnum S9? You lost me... But there are lots of good radios out there and they all have their good n' bad points. I will guess you own a Stonker 9s???

[@zukispur5493]

@@bigcbradio stonker" as in stalker 9.

[@zukispur5493]

@@bigcbradio I use a Belcom LS 102L. A Lafayette AFS 805 mk2. A cobra 148 GTL DX. A Westland 707. A president Lincoln mk1. A midland 7001. A stalker 9. A alinco DX 10 and a fidelity 2000.

[@SignalSmoker]

It's nice to see some positives about this rig for a change. Who knows if somewhere down the line I might pick one up- I would run it in my truck, but not my old 148 as she's semi-retired.

[@bigcbradio]

Believe me when I tell you I am one of those old guys who talks shit and says "everything was made better in the old days" but there are always a few exceptions to the rules. What I have heard thru the years was that these newer Chinese radios were junk, smaller resistors, thinner circuit board, weaker transistors, etc... and for many years I would only buy the old 5 pin side mic radios, but over time I did acquire a few Chinese ones and I finally decided to mod them, test them, etc, and what found was that I could actually get better results from the newer Chinese ones. I have modded the Sound Trackers, the Night Watches, Weather Band, etc, all with Great Results and No Failures. I think many of the problems that people have with radios failing is the repair shop that tries to squeeze every last watt out of a radio and stressing components. It may not seem like it in my videos, but I am not trying to get every last watt out. I try to get stable operation on sideband and great modulation on AM. Utilizing NPC Mods and Reduced Carriers actually keeps everything running cool and does not stress the voltage regulator, output transistors, or an external amplifier. And as far as smaller resistors, etc... All of the new radios use even smaller, almost microscopic transistors, resistors, and capacitors, (surface mount) and some of these newer radios such as the Anytone 6666 are great radios right out of the box. In conclusion, it works out for me, especially when someone wants to sell me cheap or give me their junk Chinese version.... LOL

[@SignalSmoker]

@@bigcbradio I have not worked on any smt products yet. I don't know if I have the patience for it at my age. i learned how to solder in 1973. Maybe with some practice... So I like your approach- not squeezing all the power out, I would trust you with these modifications. You are doing it the proper way. It's the way I would do it. Let the amp blow up. Take care and be good

[@bigcbradio]

@@SignalSmoker Hopefully we don't blow any amplifiers either !

[@johnnyphillips9735]

I know that this is an old video but i think it's an awesome version

[@bigcbradio]

Thanks, and Thanks for watching!

[@paulgrodkowski3412]

Right on!😀

[@bigcbradio]

Thanks

[@paulgrodkowski3412]

@@bigcbradio Hey there, I am just typing out quickly to ask and verify that fees, charges, money, or interest are not being applied to either you or me when discussing the Chinese Cobra 148 gtl mods video. As far as I can see I am viewing the video on or in KZbin Google but I am not sure if it where you intended it to be and if you posted it to Google or KZbin. I can sort of remember a time when a neighbor had a Cobra 148 GTL 40 channel AM USB LSB mobile CB radio and it was quite interesting to look at it. I was considering to acquire it buy buying it but when I was back at the store I did not see it. FYI, I am hoping to be find a COBRA 148 GTL CB radio and mount it in car. Do not hesitate to reply to comments. I hope that we can communicate with each other here in the comments now and in the future..... Sometimes I am motivated and very impressed by CB radios especially the Cobra 148 gtl and very much would like to learn about them. I would like to know how the Cobra 148 GTL works and what it does and why it does what it does. Another thing! I am curious as to why CB radios exist and what is there purpose for existing. I believe but am not sure that in the 1970's there was something called the "CB radio craze" and lots of people were talking over CB radios especially lots of truck drivers and the truckers channel is channel nineteen and the call channel on CB radio is channel eleven! I very much would like to comment with you @bigcbradio or anyone else who would like to join in the conversation about the CB radios. As always i want all of this to be free of charge, no money to be charged to me or others as a fee or interest calculated or per cent on me or others here. Thank you!😀

[@Maine307]

looks awesome! how many hours do you think you put into it for the set up? for me personaly, my thiking is that i do what i feel is right and right to my wanting. I can truly appreciate your thinking and mods. great talent!

[@bigcbradio]

I don't remember, just an afternoon project. I have a large collection of radios, microphones, etc... and it's hard to remember all the details about them. I gave up trying to remember and started taping notes to all of them, because once I'm done working on them and play with them a while, sometimes they sit for years. I should also mention that there are some great radios out there now days that don't cost that much and kind of makes it pointless to tune up these old ones once you take into account the time it takes. But I do have fun messing with them.

[@ralphcintronnjr9869]

I love the Chinese 148 have 2 of them my favorite is the sound tracker gtl .they put the variable on RF gain goes from 1/2 watt to 2 1/2 watts but only swings 7 Watts on a.m and 10 watts on SSB. What is the most I could get on a.m and SSB on this radio

[@bigcbradio]

you should be able to get 13-16 watts on AM and SSB using a PEP meter, if you are using an average/rms meter then your 7-10 watts sound about correct

[@14KiloWhisky]

Do you have ept3600 board in your cb radio? Or it's just for Euro market? 😉

[@bigcbradio]

That board was in a lot of radios, but I have so many radios I am sure I have that board in one of my Galaxy radios.

[@JustinRuth-km4wz]

That radio is now hacked

[@bigcbradio]

Tell me you don't know anything about radios without telling me you don't know anything about radios... HaHaHa. All you can do is tell people to get on frequency. Maybe you should get a Hamster cage and stay in there.

[@ralphcintronnjr9869]

How far down on the lower frequencies,and how high on uppers . would love send u my china 148

[@bigcbradio]

been a while since I used it, but because it is just a switch mod, it only goes down about 15 and up an extra 4 or 5

[@ronwade2206]

Dad had dozens of SAMS manuals on CB Radios, he fixed hundreds of them back to original transmit parameters when people would "tweek" them. Now China is still making these but calling them 10 meter rigs.😂

[@bigcbradio]

I tweek em good, to the Max! LOL original parameters were dictated by the FCC. No Good!

[@bigcbradio]

BTW, Nice Violin, hope you are doing well

[@ButcherRobert]

How much is for all the mods this radio has

[@bigcbradio]

If you are asking how much I charge, I don't have a shop and I only work on my own radios. If you just wanna know how much I spent on it, just a couple dollars for a few capacitors, and around $25 for the echo board and an afternoon of my time.

[@ButcherRobert]

Ok but if I provide the radio how much would you charge me I know you ain’t no shop

[@bigcbradio]

I'm sorry, I don't work on other people radios. Any decent shop should be able to do the mods if you show them the video if those are the mods you want. I just mod my own radios for fun. Honestly sometimes the amount of time I spend on them would make it cheaper to buy a new high quality radio instead.

[@ironhead320]

Nice

[@bigcbradio]

Thanks again Pete!

[@ironhead320]

@@bigcbradio are these mods listed online

[@bigcbradio]

There are many mods online, but not exactly the way I do them. I did not invent any of the mods, I just take what I have learned from the web and modify them to make them perform the way I like. For example, the variable dead key. The way I see everyone online do it, you end up with a knob that for the first half of it rotation has Zero watts, then the last half of rotation swings pretty fast from Zero to about 8 watts. I choose to create a resistor network that allows the knob to use its full rotation smoothly from 1 to 4 watts. Another example is, instead of drilling a hole and adding a switch to have extra frequencies, I use the tone switch. and when it comes to modulation mods, power mods, and audio mods, I do a lot of testing and adjusting of component values to try and make sure I end up with mods that sound good and function good. Here is a website that has some pretty good mods for Cobra 2000's and are almost the same as 148's www.silicon212.org/CB/c2000.htm

[@ironhead320]

@@bigcbradio I don't like.holes drill in radios I'll check it out thanks

[@bigcbradio]

I don't like holes either, that's why I try to use existing knobs and switches. If you see any of my radios with holes in them, it's because I bought them that way.

[@Wvbackinthebrush]

How did you volt the final?

[@bigcbradio]

You move one wire from a test pin (it's a test pin to set the bias) to the 12 volt rail. There are other things you need to change also, don't just volt the final. Hopefully you know that already. If all you do is volt the final, you're going to get some things HOT

[@Wvbackinthebrush]

@@bigcbradio how can I volt final in a cobra 29 ? Info is greatly appreciated Thanks

[@bigcbradio]

Only way I know of to Volt a Final on a Cobra 29 is to crank up the voltage on your power supply on your work bench/radio bench. If you are running your 29 in the mobile you really don't have an easy way to volt it. Now I will type up a small rant LOL... I don't like over volting any radio. (over volting a radio is not the same as volting a final) I keep my power supplies at 13.8 volts, unless I am making fun of bullshit CB shops that show customers their radios doing Big Power after they tune em up. I have a video making fun of that situation but unless you watch the whole video you may not get that it is a joke video. Basically at the end of the video I realize that the voltage on my power supply is too high (15v) and when I turn the voltage down I lose a lot of watts. 9 watts to be exact. The radio drops from 25 watts at 15v down to 16 watts at about 13v. Here is the video kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5yUlIN-mMx5hK8 My radio in that video actually has a ton of modulation, and it is a great radio that I tuned up long ago. I was just making fun of some shops that run their power supply voltages high to trick customers. And Yes, I have witnessed this many times, especially by a local radio shop here in Southern California. I have tuned many radios for people I met on the radio, then later they tell me that that had their radios re-tuned/beefed up/tweaked by this shop and then then brag to me about their extra watts, but when I have them stop by to confirm the watts, the watts aren't there. I literally have to take their radios in to the bench, put em on the power supply and crank it up to 15 volts to show them the watts they were told their radio does. It's sad that some businesses are that greedy as to be dishonest. If you have read this far, the best mod in my opinion is right here cbradiomagazine.com/cobra-29-ltd-super-modulation-modification/ Choose a resistor that keeps your deadkey above 1 watt. I have done dozens of these 29s and below 1 watt almost always ruins the audio. With all that being said, what is it you are trying to accomplish? Do you have an idea of what you would like the deadkey to be? Or what max power you are trying to get? Are you driving an amplifier? or just strait to the antenna? Is it a mobile installation? If you can answer me those 5 questions would help with my recommendations for your 29. Since conditions haven't been good here for a couple days to make a skip video and you have asked about volting, I will take out one of my Cobra 29s today and make a video of the power output at different power supply voltages. I bet some people will be surprised at the results. So after all that, just let me know about those 5 answers and I will try to give you some good advice.

[@Wvbackinthebrush]

@@bigcbradio Thanks the info is greatly appreciated.. I just have a few cobra 29s laying around I am planning on doing the DK mod to run on amp. Was just trying to get the peak power up. I'll be looking forward too the video.

[@bigcbradio]

@@Wvbackinthebrush I just posted a video of a Uniden PC76 (same thing as 29) and show the capacitor and resistor mod, and what it looks like on a meter and on the scope, and what it does at different voltages. This mod will almost always get you great audio reports, but it really does make the radio a splatter box. A good sounding splatter box LOL. You will have to play with the resistor values on the mod to get your deadkey on the amp the way you want, or do a variable deadkey mod to the radio also. The other option to adjust the deadkey is if your amp has a low/mid/high power switch. All that switch does is use resistors also. Try to get the output on the amp to swing similar to the swing you are getting out of the radio. For example, if you radio swings 2-15 watts, set the deadkey so the amp is 20 watts swinging to 150 watts.... 2-15 = 20-150.... etc... I am just about to post a short follow up video also.