Original 23 channel Cobra 29. CB's oldest continuously made model number.

[@TheRadioShop]

These were great radios back in the day. Good history lesson Mike. Not any electronics kept the same model number that I can think of.

[@foxman362]

I bought a cobra 139 a 40ch mod 2weeks ago off ebay..

[@foxman362]

foxman362 and utahlostdog on ch6 cb radio talking 11pm-1am aug7-8 2018 (1 of 3) kzbin.info/www/bejne/sH-pZKOLqdJkd6M this how cb talk should be like on the radio. :-)

[@foxman362]

I seen your channel the radio shop i been telling people about your channel even mikesradiorepiar over the cb in utah.

[@injoelsgarage3934]

Thank you Mike for your time and sharing. You are a fountain of knowledge. Joel

[@Tobinindustrial]

Hey Mike, I never knew the Cobra 29 was on such a long run. That is the first Cobra 29 23 channel I ever saw. i had a few 23 channels in my day and still have a 23 channel telephone type looking one yet. They were all built like tanks. Thank you for sharing the video.

[@dougmcartin3881]

You sure are right about the cost of radios then and now. If I remember correctly most of the radios of this type sold back in the mid to late 1970's for around $200 give or take. If you correct for inflation that would be around $800 today. You can buy a modern version Cobra 29 today at Walmart for $100. Always enjoy the tri[p down memory lane Mike. Thanks.

[@mikesradiorepair]

Yep, people forget how expensive radios were back then. I always laugh to myself when they complain about the cost of modern radios.

[@crazybobdj]

Thanks for another fantastic video! ...I swapped the 23.290 xtal (CH.1,2,3&4), for a 23.240. I now have 26.915 on channel 1. The noise blanker works pretty good too!

[@mikesradiorepair]

Its easy to get the higher channels on crystal mixed radios. Just pop in a crystal of the correct frequency and your there.

[@djsteeves2913]

Well you found my first radio. But in Canada it was rebranded as the Jana Vindicator. Thanks for this video Mike , I was waiting to see if you would ever get to this one. I'm working on a Jana interceptor right now,which is a Cobra 21. Cheers

[@mikesradiorepair]

Never knew the Jana was a rebranded Cobra radio. Learn something every day.

[@terryfromme2ucolbert]

I just found 1 today , exact same radio , it's filthy I don't want to burn it

[@shartne]

Looking forward to seeing your classes on how to work on radios I m learning all I can but there is not a lot of info on videos.

[@leroystraley7750]

I have a Cobra 21 X NOS. In the box and in original package. It has never been opened. Manuals, mic etc. What museum should it be in?

[@shartne]

@@leroystraley7750 I dont know but if it can just at least get channel 19 put some brand new capacitors in it and use it.

[@dx1450]

I have one of these I'm converting to a 10 meter QRP CW rig. I've change the crystals to put it on the lower portion of 10 meters, and am building a BFO so I'll be able to hear the CW signals in the AM receiver. Right now I just left it channelized but may experiment with a VFO. I tried unlocking the delta tune to make it work as a VFO, and it worked but it screwed up the channel frequencies and offset, so I undid that mod. But replacing the 11.275 transmit crystal with a 10.240 crystal puts channel 1 right at 28.000. Mine also has the same issue with the stuck meter needle. I may just replace the meter with a different one I salvaged from other old CB's.

[@dx1450]

*Update* I swapped out the meters last night. It wasn't hard removing the old one, just pried up on each side of the meter where the plastic had been melted and it popped right out. I put in a new one that had similar mounting ears on each side and just super glued them down to the inside of the front panel. Luckily I had a meter which fit perfectly, but most meters out of old CB's are pretty much the same size.

[@foxman362]

The coolest skip on west coast is motor mouth mual his audio is more like hd audio very nice for amp radio like he's 50 year old guy i seen one interview on youtube on bbi youtube channel,he talks pretty nice on the radio the way does voice i feel like i'm at theme park or sporting like back in 1990's he cleans up the airwaves on ch 6 he's pretty cool i can hear him very good on my cobra 139 base station.

[@soylentgreen6476]

Very nice!

[@foxman362]

I bought a cobra 139 a 40ch mod 2weeks ago off ebay..

[@brianzielinski2495]

I had one of those 35 years ago and I regret letting it go. 😕

[@JrGoonior]

Have the lesser version of this, the Cobra 26. It says 29A on the label and has a black face. It also uses the standard power power socket versus the hardwired power cord this one uses. It doesn't have all of the features of the 29 but it's a great working radio...

[@JrGoonior]

Just bought a Cobra 29X on E-Bay, it's identical to the 26 except it has the silver face like this one.

[@cmvb69]

Just ordered one as my first cb and im 40 years old, how many watts does this putt out? Great video and channel

[@norbertvanallan2446]

Should be 4 watts

[@peternewman958]

Cobra 29 were made in both Japan and Taiwan I think Japan first then Taiwan with Uniden moving Round production plants.

[@TraderRoss]

I had one of those but got on a cleaning spree & threw it out. Nothing was wrong with it. I wish I would of kept it for screwdriver learning.

[@shartne]

Can you demonstrate how to use the Oscilloscope to align the cobra 138XLR and run test on it with the oscilloscope too. I have replaced all the capacitors in mine but it just squeals on transmit but it has lots of swing and 100 percent modulation. And no I dont have the mic gain cranked up too far and the speaker is not too close to the mic for feed back Im way past the simple cb know how. I think someone has cranked it up too much golden screw drivered it or molested the tunning pots and now it is way distorted on transmit. I removed a channel hack off the PLL on the bottom and had to recreate the traces someone literally hacked off but it seems to have plenty of white noise as if it is receiving. But I have not heard anyone yet. Not a lot of people in my area where I live occasionally I hear a trucker and not much skip lately. But I thought I should have heard someone by now. A lot of videos on the cobra 29 but its not the best radio to use it dont have side band as you know and its not a good sounding radio like the 138XLR is. Also show us how to put a Variable Dead Key Modification on a 138 XLR too. tired of the cobra 29 they are ok but they leave a lot to be desired. I wonder if you could put a 2sc2879 transistor there in place of the final on the 23 channel 29 LTD ?? It kinda looks like that kind of a final transistor is what gave me that thought LOL Maybe my radio needs new bypass caps too I dont know what brand to buy if there is a best kind for RF or does it matter. Where do you find those huge pancake ceramic caps like go in the Cobra radios at new?

[@FelixTheHouseFreak]

Mike, I could really use your help. I have this exact radio but for whatever reason it seems to overload the detector circuit. Basically it will do a great job of picking up stations but the stronger the station the worse it sounds. Once a station gets strong enough you can't hear any of the modulation at all. It pinches off modulation to the point were reception is silent. You have to detune the receiver chain for stations to be audible, otherwise it just overloads. It's on frequency and I tried aligning it but the problem remains. Transmission works fine. I've tested all sorts of stuff to no avail. My guess is that since I don't have the alignment info, I might be doing something wrong with my own "Made up" alignment procedure. Do you have any alignment info on this radio you could share or could you give me any ideas on what might be wrong with mine? I'm about to pull my hair out over here. Any others with the same chassis?

[@mikesradiorepair]

FelixTheHouseFreak Here is the service info. www.cbtricks.com/radios/cobra/29_23ch/index.htm I would check the AGC circuit. It sounds like it isn't working and automatically adjusting the gain. When the AGC circuit fails it doesn't take much signal to overload the receiver circuit.

[@FelixTheHouseFreak]

Thanks a lot Mike! For whatever reason I never got notified of your reply. Either way you were right. The AGC circuit was receiving excessive voltage due to leakage at D4. That one had me scratching my head for a while. I had previously removed VR6 and thought it had killed the receiver so I figured there wasn't any voltage leaking into the AGC. I also had tested D4 in circuit and it tests fine, it wasn't until I lifted one side that I noticed it leaks voltage. It is replaced problem fixed. Now I wanna know how to calibrate the AGC. The service on CBTRICKS doesn't include any alignment info. Any tips?

[@211Wyoming]

Are you still working on radios?

[@cassfracassi7825]

I just got one of these exact model. Now how do you tune these haven't seen a video that shows how to tune it. There is no calibration switch...can you help? Thanks

[@DogDaze66]

I’ve the same radio do you work on them? Can I send you mine?

[@foxman362]

MikesRadioRepair cb radio cost back in 1970's i think price been more like xbox one between between nintendo switch and playstation4 i seen old photos flyers ad on google on images for cb radios i seen 299 between 499 on cb radios from lated 1970's.

[@foxman362]

I was pretty happy we had one biggest skips on cb in utah it went on for 4 hours it was on tuesday4-14-2020 10:30am to 4pm i heard all stuff on ssb too i have 4 videos of video gates of that day on my youtube channel i really like SSB better it very nice and clear audio.

[@cmvb69]

What would make this model not able to power up ?

[@mikesradiorepair]

First check the fuse in the power cord. If the fuse is OK check to make sure the power cord itself is OK. I have seen the terminals in the fuse holder go intermittent before because of a poorly crimped terminal. If you have a spare power cord try using that. If your getting power to the radio and nothing works including the meter light check for burned circuit traces and check the on/off switch for proper operation.

[@cmvb69]

@@mikesradiorepair cool ty that'll get me started

[@foxman362]

they must been same price xb360 and xbox one for cb radios back in the 70's.

[@k.c.lejeune6613]

They were well over $200 in the late 70's, i remember because i kept trying to save up to buy one and i never earned enough. The good ol' days.

[@cmvb69]

Trying to lower a deadkey on one of these but can only find tp6, no jp6, is this the same thing, wanted to add a resistor and cap ?

[@billkearin4091]

What are the mods

[@bobo9860]

I have a radio just like this that I found in an old shack, where I assume it'd been sitting for years. It looks somewhat alright, and it lights up when I put power to it, but other than that I have no idea if it works. Is it worth having a professional look at it?

[@histopixelfilms6778]

I wonder why they called it the 29 and not the 23 ?

[@mikesradiorepair]

HistoPixel Productions That was the next number. For a good whole Cobra had a continuous numbering system. There are two versions of a Cobra 23 that were made previously.

[@histopixelfilms6778]

Ahhh Thanks Mike, I have wondered that for a while.

[@jorgelopez4934]

El original no tiene focos amigo I tiene solo 3 botones + el de canales

[@larrykeesee1442]

WHAT YR DID THE 29 COME OUT ??

[@mikesradiorepair]

Late 1973.

[@larrykeesee1442]

@@mikesradiorepair THANK YOU!!

[@russellhoover4132]

how can I contact you for radio work?

[@mikesradiorepair]

Just add @gmail.com to my youtube user ID.

[@XwaD666]

Are the knobs on these old 29s metal or plastic?

[@mikesradiorepair]

THE BIGGIE Z Same as all the others chrome plated plastic.

[@scottmerrow1488]

My Colt 480 has metal knobs.....

[@cmvb69]

What is the MOD light for. ?

[@mikesradiorepair]

Modulation indicator.

[@cmvb69]

@@mikesradiorepair should it light up when you talk ?, I cant find an owners manual anywhere on the internet