Binatone 5-star CB27/81 UK FM CB radio - On The Air test

After servicing this 1981 Cybernet 134 chassis radio, it was time to ask Mr Chippie to drive around our 6-mile 'difficult terrain for radio' test route to see how it performs.

Recorded 10th May 2022

Richard G0OJF
Richard 2E0FKC (Mr Chippie)

Lincolnshire, UK

[rorykelly]

I remember repairing these as a kid, and the Rotel too. New output transistors and modulation chips and PLL chips. Ah the good old days.

[joohop]

That Really Is A Diamond In The Rough When It Comes To Cybernet Rigs
Great Video Lads

Bless Up

[paulchapman]

Hi richard i always enjoy your air test From paul chapman at east sheen 73s

[lyndonwebber]

The nicest looking radio second being the mustang

[glenjarnold]

Still got mine from 1981, still works great!

[stevegrew]

At least it’s not the Russian anthem Richard, they might have come and impounded the organ. Nice radio, looks top end and in great condition for age.

[dallasdorrington]

That's a very sweet looking Cybernet radio. What a shame its FM only. The distance that tiny little 3.8 watts frequency Modulated carrier would only cover what say 5 miles at most.
In my country we use 27.965mhz to 27.405mhz same as the US frequency coverage. Because of the long distances to travel AM mode is no longer used.

SSB is the mode used most and lower sideband were our call channel is channel 16 27.155mhz and channel 35 27.355mhz both using lower sideband. With solar cycle 25 now starting to provide very long distance communications, other CBer's thousands of kilometres are effortless everyday now. During the day the East coast comes booming in with some stations with signals of 30db or more.
My longest distance "Copy" Slang for contact was Fremantle WA 43 Devision to Costa Rica at 16, 882km.

These conditions are daytime only. Western Australian CBer's will use a callsign for example; 43 Whiskey Alpha 123. We very rarely hear a UK CBer calling CQ on our band.
73*
43 Whiskey Alpha 963 Fremantle Western Australia.

[Ossiepints]

Nice one Richard, all the best with the Ukrainian national anthem 👍

[charlieoscar]

The 5 Star struggled on test at the last test point