what's out there for american made radios

[443 Arizona]

kind of a fitting patriotic question, i have not paid much attention to the country of origin and just wondering what radio i can buy to keep an american employed.

[Nagant]

Are there any made here anymore? I sure don't know of any since the early 1980's such as Regency and some of the Pace models.

[Clodhopper]

I haven't seen a "Made in the USA" sticker on a radio in so long, i forgot what they even look like...
Now that i've put my 2 cents in, i'm Broke!!!

[Radar-DLDN]

I'm pretty sure most of the Americans employeed to make CB's retired years ago. If you want one just to have one you can buy a vintage one but it won't help employment. It's a fact of the times, we just don't build electronics anymore. If you find one though please let us know!

[jessejamesdallas]

No CB Radio is made in the US...But, if you want to help out some American, buy your new radio from any American owned shop, which employees Americans....Next best thing!

[str8stroke]

also you can purchase alot of other cb gear that is hand made here in the good Ole USA! Antennas, Amps, pucks, mounts, and various other toys! enjoy!

[TheCBDoctor]

kind of a fitting patriotic question, i have not paid much attention to the country of origin and just wondering what radio i can buy to keep an american employed.

The last 40 channel radio that was made in the USA was the Tram D-201A made in New Hampshire. That ended in 1980 to 1982. Before that 99% of the radios where made in Japan starting in 1964 to 1965. The manufacturing of most CBs moved from Japan to Korea and Hong Kong around 1975. By 1977 most radios, which where manufactured in Hong Kong, quickly moved to Taiwan where where they continued to make them up until the mid 1980's. After that they where made in the Philippines until April of 1994.

The Cobra 29 GTL was made in Hong Kong for a brief time, and then was made in Taiwan where it was modified slightly and eventually became the 29 LTD. At some point just before the radio was manufactured in the Philippines it was renamed the Cobra 29 LTD Classic. This was when the Cobra 29 LTD, which was made by Uniden, decided to make the radio on their own.

Since 1994 the radio industry moved to China. At first the early models where made exactly the same as they where made in the Philippines. The same radio and quality control lasted until about 1998 before the Chinese bean counters went over the radios, particularly the Cobra 29 LTD classic, and used parts by vendors that brought the cost of manufacturing down significantly. The audio chip that was used from the inception of the Cobra 29 GTL, the TA-72222, was replaced with the YD-1022. Many of the 1/4 watt resistors where reduced in size to 1/8 watt where ever possible. The metal faceplate behind the bezel was removed and the controls where mounted directly to the bezel. The thickness of the covers are about 1/3 of what they where when the Cobra 29 LTD was first manufactured.

Around 2006 the Cobra 29 LTD Classic went though another modification and the audio chip was again replaced by the TDA-2003, which strangely enough, has been around for over 35 years. The quality control has gone down significantly. The solder baths are not cleaned on a regular basis. The Reference crystal 10.2400 MHz, which has never failed in any radio I ever worked on in the past 24 years, now fails or is off frequency. I had to order a higher quality crystal from the original manufacturer because I had 6 bad crystals in the newest Cobra 29 LTD fail in a 6 month period.

There are no Child labor laws in China to speak of so most Cobra radios are not aligned properly. Bad solder connections are a common failure. Now that the MOSFET is used as a Final other issues have evolved.

So, to answer your question the last radio to be made in the USA was the 40 Channel Tram D-201A. The Browning was also made in New Hampshire, but closed down shop before the Tram did. These radios are all tubes made by hand in the early versions using point to point wiring. The later versions used circuit boards. No American company makes Bi-polar transistors in the USA because of the tough EPA standards. The Finals in your older CB are made of mostly Aluminum, Silicon, and **Censored**. If you need tubes they are still made in Holland and in Russia.

Here are some links to some of the information I have provided. You can go to the link at the bottom of this post to visit my website. Go to radio list; you will find some rare and unique radios as well as some technical info. I don't do it for the money. I do it to support the "Outlaw Band."

http://thecbdoctor.net/_mgxro ... 11093.html History of the Cobra 29 GTL/ LTD

http://thecbdoctor.net/_mgxro ... 10854.html Audio Chips

http://thecbdoctor.net/_mgxro ... 10831.html Cobra 29 LTD

http://thecbdoctor.net/_mgxro ... 10956.html Tram D-201A

Click on the photos for additional info. Any photos you may have that you would like to post on the Website The CB Doctor thecbdoctor.net would be appreciated. They most be taken by you and a release in the form of an email must accompany the photos. You may send any Photos and info to thecbdoctor@gmail.com

Thanks and enjoy

[str8stroke]

good info doc!

[jessejamesdallas]

Hy Gain, General Electric, and Johnson CB Radios in the late 70's were still being built here in the US... Sure there were some more, but those 3 are all I can remember...

More or less what put them out of the CB Market was when the Band went to 40 channels, about the same time Japan was flooding the market with their radios, and the FCC made it a law that once the 40 channel radios hit the market, it would be illegal to sell 23 channel radios...Then what happened was all the Company's that still had 23 channel radios in the market place had to buy them back, then convert them to 40 channels before they could be sold...That is why some of the first 40 channel radios that still had a tuning knob for the channels, the channels were real close together, hard to read, and some just had dashes between every-other channel to make it a little easier to see what channel you were on...

This "Buy-Back" program also threw the US Company's behind on New designs, since they needed to get rid of all their old stock before trying to market New radios...In the mean time, Japan was selling their radios cheaper than their US competitors...

By 1980 most of the US Company's that were building CB's had folded up shop and gone under, or got out of the CB Radio market all together.

I think it was in 1977 or 78 HY Gain and Johnson had gone to President Ford to try and get a limit put on the Japanese Company's as to just how many CB Radios they could Import into the Country, so the US Company's could get back on their feet after the 40 channel expansion was release...But by the time it went into effect, the CB Craze of the 70's was already starting to fade...

President Ford also had a CB Radio installed in the Oval Office at the White House. I don't remember if he had a handle or not, but I know Betty Fords handle was "First Mama"...

-Peanut-Head that moved into the White House after the Fords left, had the CB Removed...He also ended up being a one term President.

[hilltop 439]

I don't think anything is made in the USA anymore it may say it is on the box but what they mean is the item was put in the box in the USA the item and the box themselves were made in China.

[Radar-DLDN]

Just found out today that the A-99 and Imax 2000 are built in Holland, OH which is part of the Toledo area. I have probably been by the plant/warehouse several times and never knew it.

[Nagant]

There are a fair number of antennas, cable, amplifiers, meters, and various accessories still made here.

[weatherman]

Ten-Tec but I don't think that you want to pay that kind of money to be on 11 meters. Would sound good though.