Look Out General Lee

As the competition for your hard earned dollars gets more frantic, more people are making illegal overpowered radios. The General Lee has ruled the roost for the last year and a half. With a peak power output approaching 50 watts, the General Lee has been winning the war for your money. That rebel flag has won the hearts of truck drivers across the country and opened their wallets very wide.

The General Lee is nothing but a Connex 3300 with dual finals and a front load microphone. The Connex 3300HP has fallen in sales because of the side mount microphone plug. So Connex sent out the same radio with a full-face rebel flag. So Superstar...not to be outdone, put out the same radio with lineared finals and squeaked out a few more watts. The Superstar 6600 has an edge in power but not enough distributors carry it to make a dent in the General Lee sales. So along comes the General Washington, exact same radio as the General Lee, but it has the stars and stripes on the front instead of the stars and bars. This radio as you can probably guess, appeals to the same drivers who are put off by the stars and bars.

Finally, the people who own the export market are about to strike back. Galaxy has unveiled their new DX48T. Promising to generate 50 watts from a pair of 2SC2290 power transistors. This configuration should be more like 80 watts Peak Envelope Performance. With a new starlight blue and green faceplate, this should be very pretty. But, will it be an improvement? The case is slightly larger to accommodate the bigger amplifier section. Only time will tell if this is a wise decision. I remember the 93V and the disaster it was, so may a few other technicians.

That remains to be seen. All I know is that you as the average consumer will suffer. The FCC will not stand by and let this continue forever. They will act and when they do: The little guys who buy these radios will suffer. The importers will continue to get away with stuff because they can afford big time lawyers to fight their battles in court.

You may buy whatever radio you wish. You may be as loud as you wish or can afford to be, but be prepared to face the consequences. I do not sell or recommend these export radios. However, the facts of life are that they are here and make up a large part of the B market. That fact cannot be ignored.

If everyone ran a legal CB radio we would all be able to talk a lot further on the 3.8 watts allowed by the Federal Communications Commission. At least that is my opinion. Please let me know how you feel on this matter, it would be interesting to hear other opinions on this controversial subject.