The Legend of the GE SuperBase
Brian Bower
anybody know what these radio's had that made them so Special.????? Did
GE Make these in the USA or was it made in Taiwan.????
T-Rex
CH 13 Las Vegas NV
_._
being blown away by his closeby neighbor, sometimes friend, and always
rival, Jaybird. Jaybird was of college age, but due to some disability
(laziness), unable to work and homebound 24 x 7. This enabled him to
more-or-less own the airwaves in bufford county!
Jaybird's rig-of-choice was a Johnson "Johnny" 350 with an external crystal
socket and a drawer full of crystals. He'd crank up the audio on his D-104,
and run his meager wattage into a PDL-II sitting ontop of a 60 foot tower,
and sometimes sneak his dad's footwarmer inline for those "special"
occasions. Needless to say, whenever Jaybird was on-the-air, it annoyed
Barney to no end. Part of this had to do with the fact that both parties
only lived a few hundred yards from each other!
Jaybird always used to get Barney's goat when he switched to his secret
frequency, because the rig Barney was using didn't have any special channels
(also because Barney didn't own a goat). So Jaybird would wait for Barney to
get deep into a conversation then creep "upstairs", have an imaginary
conversation with himself while guzzling some Piels "real draft", and bleed
all over poor Barney.
One day Barney came home with a new rig - the G.E. "Superbase", modified for
extra channels - Upper AND Lower. Each week he'd pick a special frequency
and do unto Jaybird, as had been done to him. Naturally, Jaybird was
perplexed at first, but once he figgured out what his buddy down the road
was doing, he'd go down to the local tv repair shop (our clandestine CB
dealer) buy a new set of channels then jump onto Barneys secret frequency
and let him have it. Didn't matter to Barney, he just waited til the next
week and picked a new frequency.
We don't know how many trips Jaybird made to the local tv repair shop for
crystals, how many "real drafts" he slugged down to bury the anguish, or how
much money he spent trying to keep up with Barney, but after a period of
time, he just got real quiet, and finally quit CB altogether. Jaybird later
went on to become a vp at GE and stopped production of the Superbase, and
limited GE's CB lineup to cheap handhelds.
The Superbase became a legend around buford county and I guess that's what
you're referring to.
Nah - just kidding. It's just easy to modify and there weren't many of these
sold.
Brian Bower wrote in message
<17441-37...@newsd-142.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...
TURBO
Thanks.
Brass
Brass
Hillbilly Dave
Dave
KG5XR
The (little) Voice of the Ozarks
Daves Radio Electronics
Since 1972
ICQ#43209866
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Island/4371/index.html
TURBO <tun...@imcnet.net> wrote in message
news:KJMj3.3963$8c3.1...@typ41.nn.bcandid.com...
Brian Bower
save this one....
T-Rex
Ch 13 Las Veg$s Nevada
Sean
didn't know, Cybernet made the majority of older Midlands and
Colts, along with many of the European "export" type radios. The
Cobra 148 GTL DX-B was a Cybernet chassis.
It used a PLL-02A, which made it easy to modify for extra
channels. The radio was / is a bear to work on, as it uses two
circuit boards that are interconnected and stacked on top of each
other. Power output was decent with good audio characteristics.
Receive was pretty decent with good rejection.
The radio had several neat features. It had a digital clock that
could turn the radio on, much like the Cobra 2000. It had a dual
antenna switchbox built in, so you could choose between a stick
and a beam, etc.. It had a built in compression circuit ala some
old Turner mics, which could really make the radio scream.
It didn't look like a big fancy rig though. Kind of boxy and
plain looking. They pop up every now and then. Sean
Jay
Jay at jay...@qnet.com .... In the Great mojave Dsert, just down the road ah
ways from the fillin station.
_._ wrote:
Porky
an abrupt end. Whatever happened to Barney?? Did he go on to become one of
"THE BIG BOYS" on the CB or did he kinda fade away with the rest of the
second generation CB'ers? Guess we'll never know .........unless a sequel
is......naw, that would be asking for too much!!
_._ wrote in message ...
_._
Porky wrote in message ...
> Gee, I was really getting into the Jay & Barney story when it came to
>an abrupt end. Whatever happened to Barney?? Did he go on to become one of
>"THE BIG BOYS" on the CB or did he kinda fade away with the rest of the
>second generation CB'ers? Guess we'll never know .........unless a sequel
>is......naw, that would be asking for too much!!
Barney Vs. Charlie Brown
Barney, who once belonged to the "Ancient Mariners" Organization (AMers)
really got a kick out of CB radio, but sorely missed his arch-rival Jaybird,
who had departed (at this time) for parts unknown. The group he hung around
with the most on the radio was the Buford
Organization For Finnicky Electronic Radiomen (BOFFER), which was made up of
a strange combination of blue collar, beer guzzlin procrastinators,
"Serious" young men, and geezer hams who had come down to 11-meters to
retire (as they often do).
(Barney fell into all 3 categories: He was a serious beer drinker who loved
to procrastinate about getting his HAM ticket!)
Just about the time things were getting dull, a new fellow moved into Buford
county and set up a CB Shop on the other side of town from Buford Counties
"Official" CB shop (which was located in the back of the Buford County TV
Repair center). The year was 1972, and Barney figured that Buford County,
(Population 6575, CB Population 6573 -they were working on the 2 holdouts)
could support two shops at the same time, and both were located next to a
Package Store, so they could pick up their Beer and check out radios all in
one visit.
The New radio shop's owner was named Charlie Brown, with Charlie being slang
for Charles. Naturally, 'ol Charlie slung his shingle on the door and it
read: "CB'S SHOP", and with a sly wink, he would tell anyone within a ten
feet of his shop that CB didn't really mean "CB", it meant "Charlie Brown".
Charlie was always good with a sly wink, and he didn't need anyone to tell
him that he was the smartest tech, best salesman, and greatest guy you could
ever know - just because he already knew it. Word got around the grapevine
that every morning when he looked into the mirror, Charlie would give one of
those sly winks and then chuckle at his own wink. But Barney noticed that
even when he smiled, Charlie had one of the coldest smiles you would ever
see - cold like a reptile.
At first, business was was pretty good at Charlie Browns Shop, but gradually
it began to taper off - mostly due to Charlies frequent bouts of rage, which
could be vented towards a CB radio he was having problems modifying just as
easily as it could nail an innocent customer who had just walked in at the
wrong time.
In a desperate attempt to regain business, Charlie began to slam the Dealer
across town - According to Charlie, the other guy either had prices that
were high, or he sold REFURBS, or he couldn't
troubleshoot his way out of a wet paper bag!
This got Barney and the boys at BOFFER, pretty darn upset - after all,
Charlie was talking about the guy who fixed their TV's, CB's, and made a
great cup of java to boot! One day, when Barney stopped by Charlie Browns
Shop, he studied Charlie while he worked, and noticed that every so often,
Charlie would lean under his workbench as if he were reading something, and
then dart back up and peer into the radio he was working on, with a somewhat
perplexed look.
By chance, Barney caught the cover's title in a relection, and when he saw
"ABC's of fixing CB's" a plan began to formulate...
Later that week, on Saturday night, everyone from BOFFER got together on the
lower side of 44 (they picked 44 to coincide with Emmitt's wife's breast
size, and just about everyone else's waist size. But they preferred to dwell
on the later) as they always did - to talk and drink the night away. It was
common knowledge know that
Charlie would listen in on their conversations to try and hear someone speak
ill of him, or possibly, to catch a lead on a new radio sale, so it didn't
take Barney long engage his secret plan.
"Hey Emmitt" called Barney
"Go ahead" Came Emmitt's voice
"What's my signal over there??" Barny asked.
"Same as usual" Replied Emmitt, "A Solid 5"
Barney sounded very serious as he asked "Hold on for a minute or two while
I try something"
Well, you could cut the suspense with a large crimper, because everyone knew
that when Barney tried something, he was SERIOUS. A few minutes later,
Barney's voice came over the speaker again.
"HOW 'BOUT NOW EMMITT, ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR-FIVE"
Emmitt's voice was incredulous! "HOLY COW Barney!! WHAT DID YOU DO?? You're
almost pegg'n my freak'n meter!!"
Someone suggested a footwarmer, others, a secret weapon beam antenna,
mounted on a large hot-air balloon...but finally, when the excitement died
down, Barney owned up to his secret:
"I changed my fuse" he confessed.
Naturally, the group was confused at this brief answer, so Barney expounded
a bit on how he had discovered the meaning of life, and along with that, an
easy way to increase power - by changing the 2amp fuse out with a 20 amp
fuse!
"Your radio will now pull 20amps" Barney crowed to his cronies, "And you now
have TEN TIMES THE WATTAGE!!".
The excitement was almost too much to take as one person keyed over the
other in an attempt to find out more...
"It's not a regular fuse" explained Barney, "But a gold-plated fuse, for
better transfer of wattage, and you can only get them through a special
distributor"
Barney then went on to proclaim "The shop that buys up the supply, is the
shop that will rule Buford County".
And with that statement, a "Click" was heard 'round the county - the sound
of Charlie Clicking his radio OFF. The rest of the story is rather mundane,
so I won't go to much deeper, and it is public knowledge in Buford County,
so you can ask anyone about it the next time you pass through (just hollar
for a BOFFER on 44), but in a nutshell:
Charlie sank every last cent he had into these gold plated fuses, and bought
every last one that the ACME PARTS catalog had left. They assured him that
this was "old-stock" and no longer produced, so he
had the remaining inventory in the world! After the shipment arrived,
Charlie borrowed money against his business to place full page ad's in the
Bufford County Times, offering CB'ers the premium upgrade choice of his
super gold-plated fuses. Because everyone in BOFFER was in on the gag, the
only business Charlie got were cars driving slowly by his store, and the
sound of wild snickering echoing through their engine-mounted PA speakers!
What became of Charlie? No one knows exactly. Word has it that he was
financially ruined, and moved away to live in his parents basement....
Is he still selling radios? No one in Bufford County knows, but yes, he
still winks at himself in the mirror.
viggie
I enjoyed your info on the G.E. Super Radio. I am in the
process of unmodifing a Midland 78-999. Is this the same as the G.E. ?
The 999 is all black with a black and gray face that has a chrome trim
and machined aluminum knobs. I doesn't have a clock though. But it does
have the stacked boards.
Viggie
Sean wrote:
> The radio was manufactured by Cybernet for G.E. In case you
> didn't know, Cybernet made the majority of older Midlands and
> Colts, along with many of the European "export" type radios. The
> Cobra 148 GTL DX-B was a Cybernet chassis.
>
> It used a PLL-02A, which made it easy to modify for extra
> channels. The radio was / is a bear to work on, as it uses two
> circuit boards that are interconnected and stacked on top of each
> other. Power output was decent with good audio characteristics.
> Receive was pretty decent with good rejection.
>
> The radio had several neat features. It had a digital clock that
> could turn the radio on, much like the Cobra 2000. It had a dual
> antenna switchbox built in, so you could choose between a stick
> and a beam, etc.. It had a built in compression circuit ala some
> old Turner mics, which could really make the radio scream.
>
> It didn't look like a big fancy rig though. Kind of boxy and
> plain looking. They pop up every now and then. Sean
> >
>