Series Introduction
Recently I thought I might try my hand at repairing and resusing old walkie talkies bought from eBay. These items are usually listed under for spares or not working and can be bought quite cheaply provided you dont mind taking a gamble. Over the past couple of weeks I have received a few different radios each with their own faults and flaws, blindly bidding in the hope of putting them right and using them. so far so good it has to be said .
The first set of 'spares or repairs' radios to arrive we these rather splendid Academy CT-998:S........
Academy CT-998 CB Walkie Talkies (Vintage)
Price: £6.00
Listed as: For spares or not working
Band: FM
Frequency: 49Mhz
Power: 200mW
Description: Vintage CB equipment - Untested
True Condition: Almost new condition
Details: 49Mhz FM Single channel two way radios. Unknown age circa 1980? (Prior to CB being legalised in UK) 32.5 inch telescopic antennas. Powered by a single 9V battery. Earpiece, lanyard and radio cases included.
Crap?: No way
First Impressions
Wow! The condition of these radios is amazing considering how old they must be. I really wasn't expecting that!Still in the original box with all the original accessories this set has clearly been stored in someone's attic for the past twenty five years. The very nice ebay seller was flogging these as part of a house clearance on the Island of Orkney. Along with loads of household bric-a-brak were quite a few vintage CB rigs all of which we in similar condition. It would appear that the original owner of these rigs had sadly gone silent key and this seller was clearing the place - even the house was being auctioned on ebay.
Inside the outer box are two smaller plain boxes containing the radios and their accessories. (see above pic)
A lanyard, ear piece and leather look case make up each handset. Both the lanyard and earpiece look as of they have never been used before. - the same with the cases. These have seen no action I wager.
The handsets feel like new with no rattling buttons or loose telescopic antennas.
These are basic Walkie-Talkies after all with no fancy LCD displays or keypads to be worn out.
Despite a ceaseless search on the internet I can find no definitive year of manufacture so it has been quite difficult to determine their age.
One small clue can be found on the side of the outer box. A sticker suggests obtaining a license before using these in the UK. CB radio became legal in 1981 or thereabouts which means that this set must be older than that. Pretty old then.
One thing I noticed with these radios was the outrageous length of the antennas! They measure approximately 31.5 inches long which absolutely dwarfs the long Nagoya 771 used on my Baofengs. (and I thought they were too long!). When fully extended these telescopic monsters look ridiculous. You wouldn't want to swing this thing around in a crowd for fear of poking someone's eye out. It's easy to forget how over sized CB gear is when compared to modern compact stuff. I love these radios but i would be embarrassed to use them in public.
No it's not a deaf aid from the 1960's, this thing is the supplied Ear piece which comes with each radio. To be honest they look crap by today's standards but they out perform the Baofeng ear pieces which is shameful.
The photo above shows the original price stickers from whenever it was. £33.20 doesn't sound that bad even back then.
Testing
Before I could do anything I had to rustle up some 9V Batteries from somewhere? It's not really a popular size in our house, more AA and AAA really. Luckily I managed to find a couple in some old Multimeters that I had hanging about.
I inserted a battery into each set and fired them up.
Firstly I was greeted with the sweet sound of static! Not surprising considering these handies are open squelch so it's static white noise 24/7 unfortunately.
With fully extended antennas on each handset a distance or around half a mile was possible....albeit slightly muffled. You cant expect much from 200mW I guess.
An intelligible conversation can be achieved if you stand in the right place.
For short range communication these handies are much more effective.
Overall I'm very happy with my second hand CB's, They were bought untested and there was the possibility that they wouldn't work but the small £6 price tag wouldn't have been too big a loss to bare if they did turn out to be crap. They work perfectly and like brand new.
I'm not going to use these at all. Instead they are going straight into storage - I have seen how much these normally fetch on ebay!