Unboxing NOS CRAIG 4101 CB Radio Making Contact Looking Through Box Of Vintage Junk 

lol CRAIG! "IT'S LIKE AN OLD MATE YOU CAN CARRY WITH YOU"

Wow, I can't believe you actually got ahold of intelligent life on a CB Radio. Good ol Chris.

Wow that was great, firing up those old CBs. I'm in the UK and was one of the pioneers to get CB legalised in the UK. My first rig was a Midland, I bought in a Walmarts in Toledo Ohio. (I was in the merchant marine). I converted it to FM, when the gov suggested they were only going to allow FM on the UK frequencies. Good times.

When I was a 15 yr old I got to stay with an uncle for a week one summer in the early 1960's. He had a CB and I got use to playing on it. I started chatting with a girl and being a 15 year old with raging teen hormones, I was trying to figure out how to meet her. My uncle came into the radio room and said " give me the mike", so I did. He said " Hey Jean, how are THE KIDS doing?" So much for CB. I got my Novice license later that summer... in 1965. Still operate HF all these years later. I never got to meet her ... or her daughters. That Midland is showing what crappy antennas with crappy SWR will do to a radio. Probably has been that way after a few weeks of use. BTW, did you notice the Craig's Microphone connector was not screwed on to the radio? CB'ers are always obsessed with audio because that is all they know to do with the rigs they have. CRANK up the audio and over modulate and splatter everywhere. That and try to perfect a really good accent. Nothing funnier to hear a guy from Maine or Ontario trying to do a Southern draw. Back to 20.

Sorry if this was mentioned already, but on that Midland lose the quick disconnect mount. They rely on copper tabs to make the antenna connection and are notorious for creating all sorts of problems. It’s also what caused your DC short.

back in the 90es we made contacts with stations from the US on 28MHz, from Eastern Europe, with 1 watt and a lousy wire antenna, in USB mode. It was peak solar activity then. Now the Sun is entering again in the high activity cycle, so these kind of contacts will be possible again.

He's obsessed with his audio because he's newer into CB. There's ways to set up mic gain to get background noise down and vocal audio up. The D104 fan boys love holding the mic 3 feet away , gain cranked so they can talk lazily. When I ran a D-104, it was inches from me and mic gain was down. Everyone always complimented how I sounded, 200 watts, audio limiter still intact. CB got me out of my shyness during those awkward teen years. Learned some electronics and got a ham license also. It all started with a Realistic walkie talkie. Lol

That was the funniest RU-vid video I've watched from you in a while it was really funny. Especially when it started smoking when you hooked up the battery. I love watching your videos on TV repair because that's what my dad used to do for a living back in the day. I even worked with him at some of the TV repair shops when I was younger. Keep up the good work, fight the good fight.

16:55 we just get rickrolled by a cb radio.

Hi Shango. Cool seeing that old CB equipment. In the late 80s and early 90s all I used to do was run my base station shoot skip on the side bands. Had a cobra 2000 GTL and and Antron 99 with ground plane kit. Some of my best memories pinning different places all over the map. Kept me out of trouble unlike today’s generation.

This was awesome content!…A mix of smoke, Shango humor, Japanese electronics, and rando radio contact…

So at some point in 1977 (might have been sometime in January), the FCC made a ruling that only 40 channel CB radios could be sold and 23 channel CB radios could no longer be sold in stores after some date. The result was the mad rush to sell off all the 23 channel CB radios before the prescribed cut-off date. CB radios that might have sold for $99 a month or two before were being closeout as low as $29. The result was that people snapped up these great deals and even more people got into CB. By 1976/1977 CB was so popular in culture through songs, TV shows and movies. 'Smokey and The Bandit' ended up as the #2 movie of 1977. And that's a Big 10-4

Those people on your CB sound just like the guys i used to put up back in the 70s.

I always thought of CB as a scratchy, noisy, hissy, static way for two people to talk to each other on a radio. But that Craig really was a performer. You didn't even have to open it up to change any caps!

Back in '76, I had a Radio Shack CB that had three channels (A, B, and C)and you had to insert a crystal to choose which frequency you wanted ;-)

I could not believe that there are still people on CB who really do this "the old way" as a hobby with beam antennas, amplifiers and a bunch of different microphones. Even over here in Germany the Astatic D104 or "Silver Eagle" was a well known microphone back in the day. I could tell if a station used one of these since most of them drove the hell out of it and you could even hear the metal "clunk" when they pushed the key! I never realy liked those mics, they sounded tinny somehow but way too loud most of the time (keep in mind we used FM most of the time so there was no need to have super loud audio). I got my first CB radio when I was a kid in the early 1990s and still have lots of old CB radios from the early 70s up to the early 2000. My favorite radio (beside my precious President Lincoln which was really expensive back in the day) was my old SuperStar 3600 which I last dug out 10 years ago and was able to copy stations from the USA back then. I even uploaded some clips on RU-vid ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O6brXDvRBcM.html

CB is making a bit of a comeback in the UK at the moment, to the degree that many hams are turning to it.

Thanks for the memories! My dad had a radio like that first one in his VW Beetle. He was the Loose Goose, KAEZ1979. RIP.

Great vid! What a shocker to hear somebody intelligent on the air. Haven't heard that kind of speak since probably the 80's. Glad to know there's still hope for the CB platform. Ahhh... The potential! 😎👍👍✌️✌️

When I was a kid my neighbor gave me a couple of CBs and used to have fun listening into channel 19 as I was near I80 in Illinois at the time. I still have some old CBs and one has tubes in it which is really neat. I should hook one up just to see what I can pick up these days.

Great find! I've got a couple of white face Johnson tube CBs stuck in a closet here somewhere that we used to use in the late 60s and early 70s when I was a kid on family vacations while we were traveling. Our call sign was KEU3587. Lol. But I can't remember what I had for dinner last night. Thanks for the video.

I always loved the aesthetics and design of Craig products. I loved their calculators. Also this was really interesting to watch. I'm not a CB or radio person but I'd love to see more CB stuff from you.

The hose is a radiator flush kit used to flush your your car by directly connecting a garden hose. Sold in the 70s

Fedco was first located on Slauson in the Ladera Heights area. late 50's, early 60's. They killed everyone on price, it was THE place to buy electronics, cameras, etc. Rodney King riots came along and hundreds of businesses got burnt down, Fedco said "adios" and went away forever. I still have my Dad's lifetime membership card, you couldn't enter that store without one :)

Thanks for helping this old dinosaur feel young again. The last time I helped friends install CB’s in their cars or vans, Jimmy Carter was President. Your video was a fun time travel trip back to my early twenties. Thank you, shango!

Thanks for the early morning laughs as usual. Your commentary is always appreciated.

I remember 27Mhz CB from when I was a kid. Yes lots of people were obsessed with how loud they were. I remember one old guy, had lots of cats, He used a Leeson compression mic , sounded terrible so much background noise including weird sounding cats. Everyone told him how good he sounded and that he was louder than everyone. .

That device attached to the CB radio back in the 70’s is a removable radio/8 track security mount. You would unlock it, press the 2 buttons on the side and lock your device in the truck of your car or take it with you. Ricky from IBM, Ret K4VMS

This was a riot! In 81 Craig added a nice meter.

Super cool. Grew up with these in the rural australia. Still got a few retired CB radios lying around. CB here got obsoleted by UHF then that in turn was obsoleted by phones. Both bands ended up full of complete idiots talking complete crap. First thing I do when I jump in my dads car is turn the UHF off. Brings back nostalgia though for how things used to be tho.

Spent a lot of my younger years going to Fedco with my dad. They had everything.

The only CB experience I have is an estate sale purchase 7 watt 40 channel portable midland powered by an auto cigarette jack while driving west along the 101 near the 405. I was with a pair of Hollywood types with zero tech/radio skills. They were shocked when I was able to strike up an informative conversation with a trucker hauling Target store freight.

I remember in the 1980s when CB radio was still popular. I knew the CB handles of some of my parents' friends and my mother would spend time on her CB inside chatting it up with people before smartphones, etc.

This was great. Your cb handle should be zero discipline. Lol

I had a Rat Shack "One Hander" I played with in the 80s and 90s with a mag mount antenna. I used to be able to get pretty clear audio about 5 miles with it. Once in a while you'd get skip and hear someone hundreds of miles away. Fun times. I think I trashed it in the early 2000s as CB was totally dead in my area at that time.

Enjoyed the picture on the CB Radio box, my folks had a 4 door '72 Chevy Impala, like the one on the box picture. Ours was a light green color, and was one of the first cars I drove during my "permit" days, and after I got my driver's license in summer of '76.

I was a fully authorized Craig service station in the late 70's early 80's. Their products were very good for build quality. I would get stacks of service manuals periodically. They had a real market in a micro hand recorder for transcribing, with a transcription machine for the secretary. foot pedal ff, rew, etc. I likely have a box of manuals to edit from my estate.

When i was a kid my dad had a base station radio that all the neighbors would complain about because it would come through their tv and stereo speakers. He had an antenna in the top of about a 70 foot pine tree. Some crazy guy he knew climbed the tree and put it up there.

14:24 “Oh we got smoke! Oh shit.”

Great finds; there's a service bulletin out on the 4101 regarding the output transistors, SB090176, looks to be from the mid-70's. We used them a lot back then on the road when racing. Fun times.

Im out here in Ontario by the truck stop and man the base stations out here are jackasses. I took the cb out of my truck because they wont shut the hell up

22:26 DUCK PLUCKER “So dis DUCK PLUCkER be putting out about 1.7 watts.”

Took me right back to the early 80's on my AM/SSB (FM-ish) (illegal) rig in the UK. Every American Dx sounded to me as if they came from Texas.

And he just got down ! Bump bump bump…… you can’t beat CB radio for entertainment. 😂

What I remember from back in the day. The security mounting bracket on the midland ran power and antenna connections through it for quick removal and re-install in a vehicle. The antenna connection was notorious for getting dirty and losing power. Bypass that and maybe you’ll get better output. Can’t say the same for the antenna. Only tuning will help the high reflected power reading.

Cool. (( I just bought a new CB - first time since 1995. [ I’m going on vacation soon and will be driving]. )) Interesting video. 📻🙂👍

CB went from 23 to 40 channels in 1977, so she sat in the box someplace for over 44 years.

There are TONS of huge stations I California. The biggest and LOUDEST but cleanest station is John MOTOR MOUTH MAUL. He has a you tube channel with video gates. Hello from North Dallas Tx. SDS-1 Shoot DX as 713 I've been on the air in some for or another since 1994.

its funny watching u discover cb radio. i have been a cb radio operator for over 20 years. the capacitors need replacing. no 1 radio killer. cb radio isnt dead. even here in australia. we keep the dream alive. get into cb radio, 73's

Always seeing these Shangoo videos with a smile on my face. :) Love the comments besides the stories and educational about the old electronics and tubes. Was about to change the rotors and brakepads on my Volvo S90 -18 but that have to wait now. First watching this video. Always looking forward to your next video Shangoo. keep up the good work. Noting but the best :D Mikael from Sweden.

Look at Duck Plucker Shango making with a new CB friend.😙

Way back in the day I worked at a CB store. Some of the Cobra radios could be tweaked to 20 watts jusr by melting the wax out of an adjustable iron core cap and tweaking it. Pretty sure it was illegal, but we sure sold a lot of them. Very handy on farms.

Fedco was founded in1948 and went bankrupt in 1999. It was cool seeing you connect with people on the CB radio.

This video makes me want to get my old radio out!! That diesel truck spewed clouds of black smoke under load! That’s how I remember them🤣 please fix that radio!

Guy: How you can hear me ? . Im testing my mic collection ....Shango "Mine has a plastic bag still on it"

“Chanel 6 crowd” I know what you mean. I am old now. Thanks for that. Love your videos!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who accidentally burns crap up!

I got good results on AM by twisting the power wires with a drill and running a direct link to the battery. Pulling power from the fuse box or a cigarette lighter plug gets terrible results these days in my experience. And I doubt if there'll ever be enough people on 11 meter FM for it to ever make any difference, at least in my area. It's a shame, really.

FYI, The Craig 4101 is a 1976 model, that came without a meter. models after that had meters on them.

Why do people who get on CBs think they need to sound like a drunk backwoods hillbilly? Or is that just the way they normally talk?

Craig Road Rated, any of their better mobile electronics pretty much smoke anything else commercial.. .when they work right. I had a pair of Road Rated Receivers, HIgh Power AM-FM-Cassette, and a CB separate unit. All in my 78 Trans Am. In back the 6X9's were made by Mind Blower, they had built in high power amps. Front were Kricket AFS. I loved their gear. You have a super nice CB, NOS perfect out of the box. A keeper for sure!

I used to love playing with CB radios before I became a ham. They were fun in the day. I still have an old am CB in my van. It came in useful when we were gridlocked around Atlanta several years ago. Truckers were able to give us an alternative route. The route worked and because of that, when on the road..I will always have an AM CB radio.

My dad spent 35 years on the damn road one of those trucks he started to win over the first move trucks from hard rubber tires to inflatables believe it or not and ran all the way up to the 90s in 1 of those trucks

Shangoo, your humour out performs your skills and talent in fixing vintage tv and radios lol😅

Cool video watch till the end I talk on CB radio up here in Spokane Washington there's not very many of us left but there are a few I started watching you after I discovered boat anchors I appreciate so much that you share your knowledge and do it without sounding like you're talking to a bunch of kindergarteners

Mmmm! Marble-rows! @17:17 Did you just fecking Rick-roll us?!?!? Nice of that dood to offer advice and assistance to a new user...

LOL - I believe I smiled....smirked and chuckled throughout your *entire* QSO. hee hee! Good stuff. Thanks!!!

I had the same Craig but it was a 40 channel crammed onto the same dial. It had a meter in place of the "On The Air" light. They must have been made made right at the 23 to 40 channel change over. @ 20:45 Likely a more credible news source than 99% of mainstream media.

That hose and bag are an engine coolant flush kit. I believe Prestone made that yellow plastic model. It is spliced into the heater hose and allows flushing by screwing a garden hose to it then open the radiator cap and flush it out.

We've been using FM ( Frequency Modulation ) here in the UK on CB radio since 1981 .... We've been DXing on FM ever since ... Although FM is a great mode and sounds superior to AM , AM Modulation just has that something special that FM lacks , Maybe it's nostalgia .

This was epic, and getting some intelligent contact back! I had to lol at the mc sounding louder when in the bag!; That Craig performed well!!

I think the midland was turned down to 2watts dead key for the little amplifier on top of it that promptly smoked. I’m a licensed ham but still love CB. I’ve worked the world on 11m and have friends all over the world. My CB call is World Radio 2356. CB is on the upswing again with the new solar cycle starting and skip improving. There’s action on the bands again.

That's amazing, the first thing that Midland plays in many years is a Rick Roll

😂 You were right on those years I do remember Fedco. I remember going to the fedco over there in Costa Mesa I believe it was off of harbor and adams. That whole shopping center is completely different now. Here's another one for you do remember Gemco? Gemco I believe was owned by Lucky supermarkets. There's some nostalgia for you lucky supermarkets. I used to work there when I was a teenager. Love your channel keep up the good work don't change a thing I like your style and the way you do things. I like how you throw in a little humor every now and then with little comments makes me laugh every single time 😂.

Dear Shango066, If you make a simple RF choke and 2 Capacitors junction between the DC source into the radio it will greatly reduce the noise from the vehicles carious electronics. 2 x 35v 1000uF (or greater) and a RF choke works best its what I made for mine. Positive coming in goes to the first capacitor, then to RF choke, and then to the Second Capacitor All grounds are linked, and then grounded to nearest vehicle frame. Also CB is not dead... Just everyone is on sideband on channel 38 LSB mostly we dont go below Ch 36 tho... so we always stay between 36 and 40 we leave 1-35 for the AM users.

this is fun... I haven't turned on a CB radio since 1985.

The conversation about the mics was hilarious.

This is a great video about a 70s 80s cb radio that works many thanks for sharing this!!!

I like the design of that Craig radio. Looks modern.

Here's a funny thing, I still have that Midland unit. Installed in my dad's 1970 Suburban back in '77. And my granddad had a version of the craig radio that was installed in his pickup--moved into his motorhome in "86. 2 popular units.

We have had FM on CB here in the UK since 1981. The audio is normally cleaner than AM but iam not so sure on the range advantage. We got SSB in 2014 and over the past few years many groups and nets have sprung up across the UK. The conversation is quite good and not just about equipment etc. During Covid lockdowns CB's actually sold out as more people came back on air. It will never be quite the same as it was in the 80's and early 90's but i actually think that is a good thing. Great video as always.

Cool find Shango0. I remember these CB Most were Midland around here " Had to edit "sets for back in the 70's. I found a halarcrafters 108 base in a wooden cabinet. Sorry if I misspelled the name. Getting ready for the end of the world, : ) All my best

It could be the Craig was bought from a "reseller" that did an "upgrade" on it. And if you have a D-104 put a ziplock bag over it and see if that helps with noise? :)

A great find, had a cb until they started too play 'radio" on it.

-I don't need to smell your Japanese made Craig CB Radio... cause I still vividly remember that same beautiful smell from my brand new in mid 80-ies gorgeously looking and stunningly sounding National RX-CW50F Portable Stereo Component System, made in Japan, of course... ;)

If Shango's going to develop a presence on the CB bands, he needs to cultivate a southern accent. No Yankee accents allowed! Good training material for this are the Cannonball Run movies or Smokey and the Bandit. ▪

Some old mobile radios will do really good with little to no adjusting or modifications. That guy can do what he's doing because of his directional Beam/Joe Gunn antenna's and since he's running Beams with a D104 power mic, you already know he's running some type of power, probably a couple hundred watts which is still technically illegal here in the U.S..

That was a good ol' time. Is it possible the bag acted as an upgraded membrane and/ or enhanced isolation? The dude on the receiving end was pretty convinced it was better and he seems to have sensitive stuff.

The Midland was probably detuned to two watts to drive a low drive linear amp. Most c.b.'s after 1977 used the Cobra 2000 GTL architecture capable of 20 watts on a.m. They were detuned to 4 watts at the factory to be legal. KF5MEZ Razorback Nation.

Marlboro box used to be my favorites. That was a long time ago though. Haven't smoked since CB radios were big.

You still can tell the difference in the sound of the Cobra and the Craig even with that small setup you've got going on right there

The paper work is how to test cable pairs for telephone.

In the summer of 1976 at the peak of the CB craze, I drove coast to coast in both directions with a brand new Panasonic RJ-3200 23 channel CB. Fond memories.

Wonder if you or how many of your viewers are old enough to remember what a ridiculous law the 55 speed limit was.

Great to see the new old rig in action! I'd love to see you work on the antenna side of things some more and improve your SWR.

That Craig was built before 1977, CB was only 23 channel until then.

I like the dodge coronet on the front cover

FM is fun to play with. If you're on a qso that's on the fringe, spark plug noise is actually louder than on AM. still could sometimes talk with my friend across the ends of Houston with 1 watt fm. We usually ran 37 USB

Ahhhh my Saturday morning cartoons and Shango's videos. Like two peas in a pod. Unrelated: An acquaintance of mine years ago claimed a 1/2 cross country conversation using a side band on a CB once back in the late 80's.... Me, I was more impressed with him lighting fluorescent light bulbs with his than anything. CB's in my area were popular in the 70's and died out like other fads pretty quickly.

Never trust old electric bracket always go straight to the radio make sure you gave a fuse ... At least you cought it in time 73