I have been offered a box of the following 23 channel CB's, Is there anything neat I can do with them or should I leave them as they would be space wasters?

models

Johnson Messenger 123A
Johnson Messenger 123B
Pace CB123
JcPenny Transciever/Scanner.

Thanks,
Jason

I have over the years tried to sell CB's at tag sales for $3.00, nice working sets. No luck so I installed one with SS in my truck, a waste of time unless you live next to a major highway. They are loaded with hash from things that in the airwaves.. At our auctions they sell for $5.00 for a box full. last week two NOS CB's mounted on a plastic deck so you can lay it on your console went for $15.00 for the pair.. Absolutely curb material.

Strip the finals and heat sinks for 10-meter qrp homebrews?

The scanner might be worthwhile to fix up depending on condition.
As far as the CBs go, they make good candidates for a parts queen.
Lots of good parts for making a QRP radio!

~ Mitch ~

I would take the two johnsons for shipping costs, they make a nice cabinet for an antenna tuner.

Dave

I read on this forum recently you can take a crystal filter out and use it in your am radio.

Is there an ebay for Mexico? Last time I tuned the CB band, Mexican lingo was about all I heard. With one major exception. It seems the logtruck drivers still use 'em here. Just a handy way to keep track of each other on narrow logging roads. A lot of these guys were hauling logs back when the only way to do it was CB. Probably the over the road haulers still use 'em, too. Might be a few drivers who still prefer the older rigs, but you can still buy a new CB.

The Johnson's are good, solid units. I had one for awhile. Still have my JC Penny and it's the best mobile and has a built-in AC supply to boot. They're probably all decent if they still work. Just not worth much these days.

I have a boxfull myself from when I was resisting my wife wanting to get a cell phone to reach me while I was on errands, just because of the cost for the limited need. The CB plan woulda worked, too, except our town's in such a valley that we'd lose contact as soon as I dropped down that last long hill... Too bad, I sunk a couple hundred into the experiment, what with antennas, cables, base and mobile setups.
In the end, we got a cellphone anyway. Which I usually leave at home!

-Ed

A lot depends on what radio a person has as far as value goes. An AM only radio isn't really worth much unless it is a tube type. Most CB's that have SSB are worth something. In the tube types look for Browning, Tram, DAK and a few others. Most of the newer radios (no tubes) can be modified for more channels and power. An example is my base radio. Its a 40 channel Galaxy DX-2547. It now has 120 channels. BTW, there are only 2 companies making CB base radios now. Galaxy and I don't remember the other one.

If you go way up above channel 40 on Lower Side Band (LSB) at times you can talk all over the world. I have made it to England, Ireland, Belize and Australia to name a few.

Terry

Yep...athough doing so in the US is against the law.

Dave

Actually, if I remember correctly, it is not a law but a "ruling."
That gives the accused much less leverage. Should they care to take it up..
My best advise is that it's not worth the possible consequences.

Get a license and go to ten meters like a true ham.

If I wanted to be a ham operator I could. Actually, the language I hear on ham is just as bad as what is on the 40 CB channels. At least up above 40 on LSB I can carry on a normal conversation without 4 letter words. Better attitudes also.

Terry

On ten meters? I think we will have to agree to disagree on that one. Now, 160 meters has long been the stomping grounds of angry, self-righteous crotchety old men (in my opinion) and is not getting much better as time goes by. But I also work good folks on 160, mobile. To each their own. I won't pretend to be more correct than others. I don't want to lose either my ham license or my general radiotelephone. So, I won't be working there. But have fun. I understand the desire to get as far away from channel nineteen as possible.

I don't go to 10m to talk. I stay between CB channel 40 and 10m. Once in a blue moon I go below CB channel 1 but not often.

Terry

I buy base stations at garage sales whenever I find them. They make great cabinets for HB test equipment. Power connections, meters, external connections, feet, bails, etc. already exist. Usually can use the PS and lots of other parts also. Sometimes have to make a new front panel but that's OK too.

Another thing to pick up are the old extruded aluminum cased modems but they are getting hard to find. Change out the board with a perf board, change the label on the LED front panel, and make anything you want.

Great fun!

Bill

Clean the dust off of them and put them on ebay. If they do not work, just say that they light up and you have no antenna to test them, so they are as-is. The Johnsons will sell. Wipe off any dust or crud before you take pictures. Old CB's can and do sell on ebay. Probably the only place you can make money off of them. Unless they are in such miserable condition that they look like junk in the photos. If you can state they work then that might bring you a premium or more bids. I think looks count for most of it, though. If you had some of the older crystal controlled less than 23 channel sets, those could be put on 10 meters for probably the cost of crystals and a tuneup. People tell me there is a gathering place up there for AM ops. I am not sure where. But I think well above the SSB active portions.

One rural area I know of gave them to people living in isolated areas who had limited
money, in some cases no phone. The idea was to set up a party line. Most of them still
work just fine and will run with an antenna made of 4 egg insulators, coppe wire and
some coax. And they can be easily repaired.

Unfortunately, the price of crystals to put them on 10M is just not practical. Actually considering the reasonable prices of 10M ham gear, it's not worth the trouble to convert them unless you want an interesting project. Kind of amazing, you can pick up working CBs at swapmeets for anything from $1-3 each. You know, you actually can sort of use them as is.
If you travel on freeways long distance, it actually is sort of worthwhile to have one onboard. Altho as you approach the big city, the number of sociopaths on the microphone increases. -Hue

I agree if they have ssb, they are worth something to a ham..I've converted one in the past and had loads of fun. I now have a cobra139xlr base I'm going to convert soon if I can find a sams photofact on it (cb-127). Sorry I hear trash talk all over 11m and above and also hear pirates station in cw portion of 10M...73 Alan

Places used to sell "conversion" kits to "add extra channels" to CB's. I have one around here somewhere that someone gave me. I wonder if it is practical to convert a synthesized radio though? Anyway, Johnson base stations can sell pretty well untampered with. Maybe not so much mobiles. I have a few CBs that work. I have a Sears SSB 40 channel base station that is hooked to an 18 inch mag mount and it is just used to tell when the bands are open. Propagation monitor, more or less. Even with that little antenna, I hear stations claiming to be all over the USA. What are they running, anyway? Big amps with lots of pills I suppose. But as with anything, determine what the intact value might be before making it into a pile of parts. You could sell some things and use the profits to buy what you need!

I have a crummy Rhapsody all-band all-everything do-nothing-well radio and on its CB band i can hear Buddies all over the USA on the Minority Channels ( 1-5 or so ). I suspect not running 5 watts. However with SSB it doesn't take much power. I had a SSB set bought for $5 with a mag mount antenna with SWR of 3:1 and i talked to someone 1700 miles away - i was mobile. There is an online group for CB - hamband conversion, i mostly read it just for education, the PLL type changes are pretty technical. There has been some talk there about replacing the whole channel selector with a DDS vfo so you have stable variable tuning. But for AM rigs i just don't think it's worth the trouble, best to just try to use as - is, as they are, on CB. I do have some really nifty old walkie talkies that i'd like to use with a better antenna on 10M and see how far they get, but the crystals thing has been the stumbling block. -Hue