I had one. I modified it by adding another crystal and switch....allowed me to transmit on blank frequencies (eg 3a). Had 60 watt Contex 6706 linear. Had 5/8 wave vertical antenna and horizontal rotating 3 element beam. ...at height of skip. However before this I had a couple 100mw walkie-talkies given to my father. Connected it through a line-cord to an aluminum clothesline pole lashed to our chimney. I talked skip on that walkie talkie from Philadelphia to Tennessee. I received a QSL from him. J Couple this to a Turner +2 microphone and the audio was spectacular. Jeff
Revisiting this video. I received a Kris 23+ as a gift. I recapped and changed many of the out of spec carbon resistors with new carbon ones to keep the radio somewhat original. Also ended up purchasing some replacement crystals because some channel banks were way off. Works pretty good now. I'm surprised how much the internal layout of the Kris looks like the one in this video.
My Courier Royale, which I have had for about 42 years, has been stored unpowered for most of that time. Earlier this year (2023) I switched it on at full line voltage without any concern for problems. It took a few minutes to come to life, then it worked perfectly without any sign of trouble. I know that will send some people into fits, but they should remember it isn't THEIR problem if MY radio pops a cap. And if it Does pop one I can repair it myself.
A good alternative for cleaning chrome if you don't have a brass wire wheel is aluminum foil balled up and dip it in water then rub the rust spots with it just leek dipping and rubbing. It's actually amazing how well that it does. Nice video, I have the same base station and may need to pick your brain one of these days when I get it out of storage.
@@dw8840 No, that is not what he meant. Browning and Sonar was a league above these "popular" radios. These were what the mass of cb'ers used because they could afford them .... sort of. This radio sold for $170 in 1966. That would be $1583.71 today. Remember, in 1966 a Ford Mustang was $2600.... So to purchase a radio like this you were on top of the world. A lot of people were using 5 - 8 - 11 channel radios. I owned 3 radios in the early 70's before i fortunate enough to get a 23 channel radio. The prices were dropping and Radio Shack came out with their mini - 23 which was $100. Which is still $622 in todays money.
22A was proposed by REACT in 1964/65 to the FCC as an emergency channel. And some CB manufacturers (like Lafayette and Courier) were so certain that it was going to pass, that they started making them with 22A built in as a way of hoping to cash in early. As we now know, this didn't quite happen and these companies were told to immediately cease making radios with 22A. It wouldn't be until 1969 when the FCC designated channel 9 as the emergency channel for REACT.
Hello , I have owned many , many of these Tube CB radios . One of my favorites was the Courier Fleet cb . It had so much audio coming out that people would yell at me for being to loud ! I called it Grandpap. I really enjoy your videos . Thank You.
I've not read the comments so someone may have already said this, but I had one of those radios back in my teenage years. The Courier 23's channel 22A was active, but if the FCC could track someone down using it, they'd be cited. I know. I was, or rather, my Dad was since the license was in his name. I worked a lot of skip on 22A. There were some radios that had 22A and 22B. Someone I knew back then had one ,but I don't recall the brand or model. I believe the reasoning for the squelch behavior is that it performs a noise reduction function, so CCW is "less noise". The standby mode was an early energy saving feature that reduced the power the radio drew when not being used, but still allowed for a reduced turn-on time. Keep in mind, this was at the end of the tube days and folks were wanting the instant-on behavior of transistors. Personally, I rarely used the standby. It was a blast seeing this radio again. Thanks.
55yr old radio today, Very NICE! I owned one and got nothing but good compliments on how good it sounded, I believe I had almost all RCA tubes in mine. had a Turner power Desk mic on it, lots of deep lows tones soft/warm tube sound, loved using the tune receive. aka: clarifier. worked well. hate I didn't keep it. could've had Mike to restore it. Very nice to see again ! Thanks Mike for the video and letting us see that jewel!
I got the Drake MS-4 speaker cabinet sand blasted and power coated for $10.00 in Tecate Mexico. Your advice with the wire wheel and all that I have heard you say really passes on much knowledge to others. Like to listen to you as I have been rebuilding old ham tube radios for 40+ years. Thumbs up.
I have 2 of these units, one is an early one with the chrome speaker grill, the other with the front panel slotted. I owned one back in 1965 and had a great time with it, I picked up the not working slotted grill unit for a song on ebay, and the other I have had since around 1980. A couple interesting differences in the key relay, the later unit has a voltage doubler off the filament line to create relay coil volts, it also has a unit on top of the chassis with a pot and terminal strip that is hanging in space next to the speaker and believe it to me the modulation control that does not exist in the early unit. I have not located a schematic for my early unit, but have a 23 Plus schematic that also does not show the coil relay voltage doubler but does show a mod control, and one that does Apparently there were production changes as they were built without a model change. Several factory notes can be found on CBTricks. The later unit went bad with smoke coming out of it, thought I lost an electrolytic. Those were fine. The power transformer secondary goes through a 10 ohm 1 watt resistor first, and it was fried. I checked the power supply diodes, they checked good, so with good caps and diodes, maybe the modulation transformer went to ground I thought. For giggles and grins I rechecked the diodes on the Simpson 260 (old radio demands old test equipment) R X 10, still good, then R X 10,000, one of them showed up bad on that range. So replaced them both and B+ restored. One big issue for me is the 6MC first IF. The old rig does not have a trap, the newer does but is not completely effective but there is a SW station on or about 6MHz. and it makes the radio useless when it is strong, all you hear is the SW station. This is also on of the easiest to convert to the 10 meter ham band if you are a ham, you only have to change the 6 MC crystal for one about 4MC and retune. It will put you around 29Mhz where the AM activity has migrated
Folks like to use the inflation number on stuff, but for the most part, nothing has changed. In 1965 when I had a paper route and saved the 160 bucks this radio cost me at Parts Unlimited in Jax Fla, my dad was making about $5000 a year, a nice Dodge cost around 3K, the house payment was $62. The median income in NC where I live now is about 57K, or 11 times what my dad made, a nice car can cost you 35K, a house comparable to the one I grew up in at 1100 sq. feet, if they even build them that small now, would have a house payment around 600 a month. Back then gas cost 24.9 at the Sunoco when using the 'Custom Blending Pump' on 160, bread was 2 in a bag for a quarter at Winn Dixie. Nothing has really changed except TV's and other electronics. A 25 inch RCA color set was over a grand then, a flat screen twice as big today is 6 or 700 at Walmart, solid state CB mobiles are 100 or less. Buy those in 1965 dollars and that flat screen should cost you $55 and that CB, 10 today.
Not a bad looking radio for its day. I can just imagine what that cover looked like. You made a great job of polishing that cover. Another tip for getting rid of small pits and rust is tin foil rubbed into the pits. But brass will speed things up and if that works and it looks like the one you have done, there is no point in using the tin foil. Baking foil for wrapping up your turkey. Don't know what you call it, but it is hard bloody work!
Nearly all of these old tube rigs used a 6BQ5 as a modulator and a final tube. We used to replace them with the 7189 heavy duty version. Not that it made a huge difference. lol Some guys used a 6CW5 in the final but it would beat a radio to death. They would strap the screen resistor and get a huge carrier out of them with crappy audio to match.
Great advice on the caps. I am rebuilding a Drake TR 6 and the previous owner turned it on and the 4 section cap was very leaky and it took out 4 resistors. If you bring up a radio with a variac slowly there is not single cycle surge current and all is well but if you just turn it on it will cause the damage I described. Great advice.
I bought a radio hoard from a craigslist ad. He wanted 100 bucks but it included 2 nice sonar 23 channel bases and a dozen other very early 23 and 1~6 channel radios in decent shape all with original mics plus dozens of accessories. One of these Eci Courier bases was in the hoard. I know one thing and that's radios used to come with quality stock microphones.
We had at one time a Poly Com Pro which at the time was more expensive. The great thing with the tube sets was they were SO easy to customize/improve the circuits. You could, for example, put in a Q multiplier/stronger modulator with far Better Xmit audio. And of course, lowers and uppers. And,....my brothers used to do put in a motor driven vfo...which CONTINUOUSLY SWEPT the entire coverage range....which "put" you on all channels from like 60 channels below to like 60 plus channels above. My brothers had rival CB Jerks in cars looking for their 20 or where they were parked.. Of course, they were using thier trusty footwarmers...... Hey, it was height of the CB Craze, you know?......
Even small Caps can go boom, Big time. I had a small new battery tester that I purchased from a seller on Ebay. It had mostly SMD parts and I put a LiPo battery in it and hit the start button. I got across the room and I heard a crackle then a loud bang. I turned around and saw a fireball shooting across my living room. The SMD solid tantalum capacitor blew up, so not always electrolytic that go bang.
Nice. I used to have one of these I got with 15 other radios for $20. I sent it to an old CB technician in hopes of resurrecting it but he couldn't get it revived. Ended up selling it at a hamfest. I'd like to know where you get crystals for these old CB radios.
I’m finishing up a complete restoration of the first two-way radio I ever owned, a Lafayette HB-444/25A 25 channel CB transceiver. On the bottom of the outer case there was a large sticker showing the tube placement and identifying several internal adjustments. That label is more than 50% deteriorated. Does anyone know of any vintage CB restoration sources that might have reproductions of such labels? Or, if someone has this radio, with the label intact, perhaps I can get a clear photo?
Someone should do a Ted Talk about how the CB radio was the original internet, complete with chat channels, traffic info, news and yes plenty of trolls!
Or even for 12 volts if that's easier for me to do I have a power supply so if you could get back to me so I can talk on this old beauty thank you Mike
Hated this noisy receiver. Transmit was awesome. The receiver in the next generation, 1968 I think, was much better, very quiet noise floor but the signals jumped right out nicely and had quiet background when listening.
So it’s been years since I’ve worked on radio, are there still companies making old radio crystals or are you purchasing used or old stocks? Great video and I love to old tube types…..
I would like to know approximately, how much a repair bill for such a radio, with what you did, would cost. I have several old cb's from the 70s that i have though about sending off.
I’ve come across possession of a similar radio, though it’s the 12 model. I’ve no clue where to start on it since it’s a good 20 years older than anything I’ve worked on.
Where did you find the multi capacitance capacitor? I'm restoring one and it would be nice to not have to add 4 separate capacitors and could do it in one unit like the original. I see it loos like a Richey.
Hello, I just picked up a Courier 23 Royale, and I am acquiring capacitors. I am wondering what replacement you used for the can cap, I see it is a black 'Richie Gold' but can not make out anymore. Any help greatly appreciated, wishing to restore this great unit.
Hey if you could please tell me on the plug what's what mine will turn on but it blows the fuse at my house so if you could please help me so I can wire a plug up for it please Mike ps your videos are great man
I think that chassis plating is actually cadmium, just looks like copper. Also what is your setup to test if the CB is transmitting and receiving on frequency? I have one of these radios and by just using another CB I can tell that it is not transmitting and receiving on the correct frequencies. I was thinking I could get a dummy load and then tap off of that to a frequency counter, or is it easier to test each crystal?
Mike, where are you located. I have some radios i want to restore. I am in Florida, Miami fl that is. I’ll go you no matter how far to restore this radios. One is Courier 23 just like the one you’re showing and a Sonar FS-23.
Mike you talk about the 23 can run on ac as well as dc. I’ve got the ac wiring diagram but for the life of me I cannot find the 12v scheme. Would you happen to have a link to that info? I’ve got a 23 with the Range Boost and I would like to run it on both options when I get it done
I have one of these, how can I contact you I want to get it working. It's in similar condition to the one in this video, looks to be complete but doesn't have a mic. About how much did it cost to repair this radio in the video?
Hi Mike, I know you are touchy on people not respecting shielding on and around circuit boards but I want to convert some base radios from 110v to 220v and noticed untouched radios have power transformers with a steel case around the winding's a lot like the one you have in the radio here. It's easy to get transformers with wingdings exposed in electronic part stores but I haven't seen ones for sale with steel all around them for sale, are they called RF Shielded Transformers? Could I just make a tin box around a common one or are the proper ones better for heat dissipation? Thanks
Not going to lie to you, I'm not a engineer who designs power transformers. Surprise. :-) I would think the shielded transformers help to prevent 60Hz hum from getting into the radios receiver circuitry. You probably could make your own shielding can but any major transformer manufacturer probably already makes what your looking for. Shouldn't be to hard to find a 220V shielded transformer with the output spec's your looking for.
HOW, ARE YOU, DOING, TODAY,,, I, NEED, SOME, HELP, I, HAVE, A, SATELLITE, TRC-X 23A,,,,24/CHANNEL, TOTALLY, ANOLOGE,,, MY, FRIEND, GOT IT, FROM A, DEAPOO, HAZERDOUS GOOD, S,,, THE, ONLY ONE THING, MISSING, IS THE, POWER, TRANSFORMER, CAN YOU, PLEASE, TELL ME, WERE, I, CAN GET A, SCAMATTIK, THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP AND TIME, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK,,,...
How do i contact you for service? I have a 2000 gtl that needs a cap job volume control and a couple bulbs do you have a website? Or phone number where i can schedule service? Jim