Please register yourself
on the Forum with your DX Callsign and Country Postcode.
This Country Index will list all pages
for DX Clubs and Operators by postcode including any other
CB / Freeband activities that you request or contribute
to.
We know the DX is not always running but
it helps to have somewhere you can go in the meantime to
keep an eye or ear on things happening out in radioland.
This site will eventually be your window
to the latest propagation on 11m.
We can only do so much so any input or
help will be appreciated as well as any feedback on how we
are doing and what you would like to see on here.
A Little History On The Clear Channel
Corporation People by Bob F.
Sam
Lewis of RF Limited/Clear Channel Corporation contributed
some background info on the radio players in the 10 Meter
radio market they associated or partnered with going back
to 1969. The story is interesting and lends insight to how
the 10 Meter radios evolved. Many AR 3300 and AR 3500
owners probably have no idea how deeply dedicated these
people are to the radio business. They have strived to
produce the best possible product while keeping it in
reach of the average radio operator. Other companies broke
the price barrier, but none ever matched the performance
or operation simplicity of the Clear Channel Corp. Ranger
transceiver.
Many
people are still confused and think the AR 3300 and AR
3500 were made by RCI (Range Communications Incorporated).
This is not true; Clear Channel Corporation developed the
Ranger AR 3300 and Ranger AR 3500 and were produced for
them by Nissei in Tokyo Japan. On the other hand Ranger
Communications Corporation has there own factories in
Malaysia and China, The RCI brand is brought in through
their American subsidiary. RCI and CCC are two very
different companies with different philosophies. RCI
produces many other radios for other labels like Galaxy,
Superstar, Connex, General, Virage, Mirage, and at one
time even Cobra as well as others. Clear Channel on the
other hand conceived, designed, and oversaw the production
of the AR line of radios. These radios were developed to
compete in performance with the big buck HF rigs. These
radios were developed to meet the demands of the real
amateur radio market as well as the 11 Meter market.
This is
how the 10 Meter market evolved. In 1969, Herb Johnson of
Swan Engineering produced the Cygnet 260, a 10-80m bare
bones transceiver. It was basically a Swan 350-C with much
of the circuitry eliminated to better compete with the new
Japanese sideband rigs appearing on the market. At this
time, CB radio was going great guns. Sam Lewis and his
father, of Palomar Electronics, were producing the 546
sideband rig and eventually the Skipper 71, 73, 73B, and
private labeled the 1046 for Swan. Herb removed all but 10
Meters from the Cygnet 260, added there most sophisticated
VFO circuit, and replaced the final section with a single
6LF6 to increase the power output because the 260 only put
out 60-Watts on 10m. He stared selling the radio as the
Swan 1011. Sales of the 1011 went through the roof.
Someone
else that went through the roof was Johnny Griggs of the
west coast head of the ARRL (American Radio Relay League).
Inside of six months, Griggs went down to see Herb several
times threatening to have the amateur fraternity boycott
Swan. Sam Lewis�s dad and Herb cooked up a deal, Swan
would not market the radio, they would build the radio a
under private label program under the Palomar Siltronix
label. During this period, Palomar was also building VFOs
for Baggys radio under his �Slider/Scanner� brand.
Siltronix took over the marketing and expanded the
distribution to their Palomar 2-step distributors. Up
until then, the 1011 was only available through Swan
amateur dealers.
Swan was
bought out buy Cubic Corporation, a San Diego based
conglomerate that mainly sold sophisticated communications
equipment to the US government and military agencies
around the globe. A couple of years after that, Cubic
bought Siltronics from Palomar. At that time, Palomar
hooked up with Les Ernshaw and started the Kachina
project. At the same time, Palomar was in partnership with
Communications Power Incorporated (CPI), developing the
DigiCom, the first programmable CB radio, until the FCC,
under pressure from Cobra and EF Johnson, told them they
had to change the circuit, even though they (FCC) type
accepted the radio. The partnership lead to the CPI radio
and accessory lineup.
In 1980,
Palomar died while the10 Meter market faded. However, the
Palomar people continued in the amplifier business, making
amplifiers for their friend Im, the owner of Sommerkamp.
Sommerkamp had the European distribution sewn up. Im was
also responsible for putting Yaesu Munsen (YM) on the map
in the early 70�s. When he first visited Mr. Hasagowa in
Japan, his main business mainly consisted of repairing
color TVs in Tokyo. He had built a few sideband radios and
was starting to build up sales outside Japan. Meanwhile,
in the US a couple of guys started Spectronics East &
West. They would drive around LA in a converted ambulance
(circa Ghostbusters) delivering radios to anyone with the
cash. Im made a deal with Mr. Hasagawa. Im put money into
YM, in return, Im got total distribution rights for a
specified period and all would bear the Sommerkamp brand.
Im showed Mr. Hasagawa the one thing that put YM on the
map, how to install the crystal for easy 11 Meter
conversion.
Im had
an engineer named Mr. Sakamoto in Japan. When the
exclusive ran out in the late 70�s, Im had Mr. Sakamoto
develop the TS788, Palomar/RF Limited supplied the MRF454
transistors and when the radio was available, RF Limited
in exchange got the TS788 exclusive for the Americas. This
was when I got involved with RF Limited, repairing
Sommerkamp 788 radios.
The 788
was a compact 10/11 Meter transceiver with output power
around 70 Watts PEP. The SSB transmission was not the
cleanest on the market and there were many problems with
the Circuit boards. It was a dual board radio with a
wiring harness sandwiched between them. The boards were
also phenolic double sided and the feed-thoughs were
constantly breaking. Although this was a very innovative
radio, it was a nightmare to work on. Im realized the
magnitude of the problem and after a while abandoned the
project
In 1982,
RF Limited started developing the Ranger AR-3300. They
wanted a fully computer controlled radio and at that time
CMOS was the most readily available. NEC helped them along
the way. The designer of the AR-3300 had also worked with
Mr. Sakamoto on the TS788. The lead engineer designed the
front end for most of the AOR scanners. That�s the main
reason the 3300 and 3500 radios have such good front ends.
These radios were built by a subcontractor to AOR, Nissei
in Tokyo. The first production run was built in January
1984 and delivered in April 1984 and Clear Channel
Corporation was born. The radios had warble problems and
other issues. This is when they hired an engineer named
Vic. Vic came aboard and solved the problems and continued
to work for Clear Channel developing options for the
AR-3300.
To
overcome the low audio in FM, Vic developed the SP-1
speech processor, which works awesome in all modes. In
addition, the SP-1a is now manufactured by
Bob�s CB.
Vic did some audio tailoring on the transmitter for all
modes of operation. When you hear a 3300 or 3500, you can
hear the results. On a properly tuned AR-3300 or AR-3500,
the quality matches that of the most expensive HF rigs.
Then Vic
developed the 100 Watt RF amplifier and made changes to
the AR-3300 such as RF bypassing to insure clean
operation. At that time, we were shuttling evaluation
radios across the county from Clear Channel Corp to Bob�s
CB and back. I was involved in testing Vic�s changes in
different environments and played a small part in some of
these ECOs. Then came the AR3500, which incorporated all
the engineering changes that Clear Channel was adding in
the US. The 100-Watt radios were converted 30-Watt radios,
most were done at their facility in Washington State.
Bob�s CB immediately
became the East Coast Warranty center for Clear Channel
certified to do all conversions including the 100-Watt
upgrade. I, seeing one shortcoming of the radio, developed
the memory NiCad battery backup BB-1.
Later
Vic developed the CW-1 CW board with all mode adjustable
power. Then he developed the SM-1 scanning mic board,
which allowed frequency scanning from the microphone. This
is why there are 4-pin and 8-pin wiring codes for the
AR-3300 and AR-3500 radios. Any 3300 radios with the 8-pin
connector have more than likely been changed during the
installation of the SM-1 or SM-2 scanning mic board.
During the middle of AR-3500 production, Clear Channel
changed over to the 8-pin jack at production to eliminate
that time consuming step during the installation of the
scanning mic option. Both the CW-1 and SM-1 were improved
and upgraded to the CW-2 and SM-2. Both had improved
features and reliability.
The latest radios RF Limited brings to the
Amateur platform are the Magnum radios, under the Magnum
International label. All that needs to be said is the RF
Limited folks continue to bring quality products to the
communications market.Bob F
A special
thanks to Sam Lewis of RF Limited/Magnum International for
contributing so many details to make this article
possible.