I Still Have My Old Lafayette HB-600 CB Radio In Operation. I Put It Back In Service About 2 Years Ago. Met Several New Friends Who Can Not Believe It Still Works Like New. I Have My Old Turner +3 Desk Microphone Connected. The Radio Still Looks Like New Under The Counter In The Kitchen Next To My Old Radio Shack CB-Niner Which Still Works Like New.
I had one of these in the 1970s. It was a great rig, I had many A QSO with mine to many different states and then a lot of foreign contacts when the solar cycle peaked. Thanks for the memories
I just found a Lafayette HB-600 when helping my neighbor clean out a shed, it is in very rough condition. I am going to put it on eBay for a parts radio.
Glad to hear about another one of these classics still on the air. I've always liked the looks of the Realistic Pro-Niner but I've never owned one. 73's Paul
The two vacant crystal slots were for business band frequencies. Those channels were between CB channel 22 and 23 and above 23. Part of the 40 channel CB radio spectrum today.
@GA5425 Yes and no. They're actually 25 channels if they have the crystals installed on the A and B channel selections after 23. However I'm not sure if they were sold with the crystals for those two selections or if they had to be bought separately. I suspect they had to be bought and installed judging by my radio. But that's just a guess. 73's Paul
@inkey2 It's 100% transistor and not a hybrid. I don't have a schematic for the Lafayette 600 or 600A but it has 25 crystals total. It uses a mixing scheme for TX and RX. Two of the crystals are plugged into sockets on the dial an are likely the A and B channels that were added. Therefore approximately 23 are used for the TX and RX mixing and those are soldered into the channel selector ring and are not in sockets like the 2 added. Since I have no schematic I have no idea how many are TX only.
@TheZeke1974 Yes I've notice the same thing, the cords seem to always be missing. I need to try and figure out what the other two non DC and AC pins are for on the socket.
Actually I found an article in one of my old S9 CB magazines some months ago that talks about legislation that was being considered to add those two frequencies for some special purpose. At the moment I don't remember what the article said they were considering adding them for. Maybe business or emergency purposes. I would have to find and reread the article. Apparently they never passed the legislation and eventually as you mentioned they became part of the 40 channel expansion. 73's Paul
tell me how many transmitting crystals did it come with....or to be more exact see if you can look inside and see how many "receptacles" there are for crystals to plug in. Also, is it all glass vacuum tubes or a hybred? I can tell you this for certain that yours is newer than my mid 60s He-90. You are probably right....about 1969/70. These were actually good sets
