Tuesday, April 12, 2011 — The photo at right is of a transceiver that was up for auction recently on eBay. Its one of those quasi-legal 10-meter radios that is easily modified to operate on the 11-meter CB band. This one, according to the seller, features many “upgrades,’ which includes an analog S-meter.
Judging from the photo that accompanied the auction listing, the Buy It Now price of $200 was wishful thinking. On closer inspection, you’ll note that the meter assembly has been attached to the left side of the front panel — right where the tuning knob and mic connector are located.
The tuning knob is on the upper left of the main display, the mic connector below it. The S-meter appears to be glued to the front, and the mic jack relocated to the side (!) of the rig. The photo doesn’t show what happened to the tuning knob, and the listing doesn’t indicate how you select frequency, or if that control was relocated somewhere else.
The transceiver had a fairly high opening bid, too — with no takers. I would like to see a closer look at this guy’s work — he’s asking a lot of money for a rig that’s pretty crummy to start with; its hard to say if his mods improved it or hurt it, but judging by the lack of detailed information, I’m going to assume what’s not said is probably more important than what was disclosed in the listing. But, that’s just me ….
-30-