A few Cobra 148 GTL-DX pic's

[The Collector]

As requested, here are some links to pictures of the Cobra I've just bought. The partial refund came through last night so I was able to take it apart now that it's officially mine. I've given it a careful wipe over now.

It's got a few added bits inside, so feel free to comment on where you think the board's are from or if you think you know who's work it is etc.

I've removed the red on-off beep switch from the rear, insulated it and have put it inside the radio.

The insertion of the little 2mm jack plug opens the radio back up from being locked onto UK40 to 8 blocks, one of which is still the UK40. The last 6 channels of block 7 don't fire up and block 8's channel frequencies are a bit weird. I only measured ch's 1 and 40 on each block. . I didn't bother to give it time to warm up, I just connected it to my frequency counter and TX'd away:

https://ibb.co/gMDJG9r
https://ibb.co/Lt6CPVG
https://ibb.co/7XxPP3C
https://ibb.co/hcCrHDh
https://ibb.co/5cyMC3K
https://ibb.co/6PMQDbJ
https://ibb.co/4MGysNF

[The Collector]

More:

https://ibb.co/NxB63nB
https://ibb.co/ssJmvM7
https://ibb.co/HCzj6Gj
https://ibb.co/THjhJmf
https://ibb.co/pdBZ78c
https://ibb.co/6mwdwgK

[The Collector]

and the last bunch:

https://ibb.co/VJgT0XR
https://ibb.co/gzcxtBx
https://ibb.co/4gnxxhk
https://ibb.co/NyCnY1M
https://ibb.co/KXXW6Vh
https://ibb.co/7GMsFtT
https://ibb.co/fqpHWS4
https://ibb.co/N9vwQLy

[gmham]

Stunning !! Not yet read your original thread on the initial purchase of it but you must be very pleased with it.
Never heard of the plug in jack conversion on the 148 ,obviously the ss360fm was often modded this way, guessing was possibly originally sold as U.K. legal 40 ? as a lot of sets were back then with easy conversion should you “ travel abroad “ don’t see any other purpose of the jack mod ?

Edit : just quickly read your thread on its purchase..argh
It’s got potential thou as you know and if you have managed to get a part refund then will help get it to the way you want.

Enjoy

[cb4ever104]

It's had a lot of work done on it . But the quality looks pretty good . NOS it isn't though

It would be too much work to rip it all out , so my advice would be just to leave it as is . The VCO might be struggling a bit on the higher or lower bands .

[Otter]

It would be too much work to rip it all out , so my advice would be just to leave it as is .

Not only that, but the front chassis will have been drilled out to fit that switch. You're not going to easily get an original 3 band switch back in there without addressing that.
I'm sure there would be a way though.

[The Collector]

Thanks all for the comments.

It's cleaned up really nicely now and I'll put a small piece of mirror- silver adhesive tape neatly over the hole where the switch was to smarten it up a bit. The front may look a bit "gold" in the pic's as my loftshack lighting is 2 warm-white fluorescent tubes.

I knew that the Cobra's could only go a few blocks without struggling, so I wasn't exactly shocked when it struggled to use all 8 blocks. The mod does all look pretty tidy though...and that clear resin block thing is something I haven't seen for years.

I heard a few SSB foreign users (sounded Russian/Ukranian/Polish) whilst flicking through and the clarifier knobs were nicely at 12 o'clock on 99% of them RX-wise.

I'm not sure if it'd be worth putting it back to the normal 3 blocks either, as the cost of the work involved plus postage would probably be about the same as the value it'd lose because it's modified.

It's now sat nicely on the shelving next to my white and gold Mk1 GTL-DX, my Mk3 Cybernet GTL-DX , my stealth 360FM and my normal 360FM. I just hope I can hold onto it now as £175 is a lot of cash to fork out for me and my bank manager's not best pleased. I might need to part with a Fidelity or an Amstrad at this rate!



Edit- what I also meant to ask is do my pictures just "show up" on the pages, or do you have to click on each of them, just for future reference??? Ta.

[cb4ever104]

Edit- what I also meant to ask is do my pictures just "show up" on the pages, or do you have to click on each of them, just for future reference??? Ta.

I had to click and open them individually .

[The Collector]

Edit- what I also meant to ask is do my pictures just "show up" on the pages, or do you have to click on each of them, just for future reference??? Ta.

I had to click and open them individually .

Ahh...thanks Sammy, I wasn't sure but thought it might be like that as the words/ links have got lines underneath.
At least that way it doesn't take up any of TM1's server space. I used to lower the pixel quality of my pictures when I posted them directly before now, but it meant things ended up a bit squiggly or blurred.

[astradyne]

That's a well tidy radio you have there Mr C.

£175 is cheap as chips for a radio of that calibre. One just sold on ebay for £435 plus £28.50 P&P on top so consider yours a bargain!

[The Collector]

Thanks Andy.

After having used it for a little while, I'll still continue to use my Cybernet-boarded radio though. It's much more sensitive on reception as always. Someone who gets to me on an s5, radio 4 on my Petrusse Homebase was only s1, radio 2/3 on the Cobra. Deaf as a doorpost these Unidens lol.

If I really had to use a 148 GTL-DX, it'd be my Mk3 one

[cb4ever104]

The front end really needs to be "tunable" to cover this wide bandwidth . Sue did a really good front end mod when she was doing that uPD2824 work .

Capture.JPG

I'm only going to expand my 2824 radios to 3 bands , so I'll never need it , but if you've got 8 bands on that "thing" ( ) Dave , then a mod like this would probably go a long way .

[The Collector]

The front end really needs to be "tunable" to cover this wide bandwidth . Sue did a really good front end mod when she was doing that uPD2824 work .

Capture.JPG

I'm only going to expand my 2824 radios to 3 bands , so I'll never need it , but if you've got 8 bands on that "thing" ( ) Dave , then a mod like this would probably go a long way .

If it was something I was going to use (and actually had anytime to) then I'm sure it'd be a worthwhile mod'. As it is however, it's sadly (for most) going to be sat, looking pretty on a shelf for the foreseeable future.

[astradyne]

The front end really needs to be "tunable" to cover this wide bandwidth . Sue did a really good front end mod when she was doing that uPD2824 work .

Capture.JPG

I'm only going to expand my 2824 radios to 3 bands , so I'll never need it , but if you've got 8 bands on that "thing" ( ) Dave , then a mod like this would probably go a long way .

Simon in Tadcaster used to do a variable front end tuning mod. As the RX drifted off on any added higher or lower bands you could manually bring it back up. I think he used the SWR/CAL rotary control to achieve this.

Maybe a service and tune-up by Nick would also prove beneficial.

[cb4ever104]

Simon in Tadcaster used to do a variable front end tuning mod. As the RX drifted off on any added higher or lower bands you could manually bring it back up. I think he used the SWR/CAL rotary control to achieve this.
Maybe a service and tune-up by Nick would also prove beneficial.

Sue's way uses the VCO voltage to track , so no need to manually adjust anything . To be honest 8 bands is a lot for that radio . I'm happy with the 3 diode , 5 band mod with the LOLO and HIHI on that radio . With that mod you can have the radio back to stock in about an hour , and most of that time would be putting the band switch back to 3 way . But it is what it is . As you say Andy , it's probably worthwhile giving the thing a service anyway .