King of the Walkie Talkies

Today while trolling through an antique mall, I ran across what I once considered the absolute ultimate walkie talkie... the Realistic TRC-101.  It's a 23 channel 5 Watt, CB you carry in your hand.    Of course, it's a bit of a workout to carry it.  It weighs over 3 pounds without the batteries.  With the 12 AA batteries close to 4 pounds.  I seem to recall back in the day it sold for $199 or $299... whatever it was, it was out of my reach.  Today I bought it for $10.



Granted, the antenna tip was missing... but easily replaced with a computer board post from my collection of screws.

It feels good to finally find something you wanted REALLY badly, but could not afford, back in the day.  Good score.  Enjoy...  

Regards

WC

hmm.. very nice TRC-101. I had a pair of walkie-talkie some years ago but not comparable to a TRC. It's fun..

I think it's great to get something that escaped you when you were young.   

How is the traffic on it these days? You ought to get batteries relatively cheap from Home Depot or Big Lots. Rechargeables are reasonable on Ebay.

I usually get my batteries at Harbor Freight, since they are easy walking distance from my office. I'll let you know about traffic as soon as I get it powered up.

Okay, loaded it up with Big Lots batteries... heard someone chatting with a skip talker on channel 6 and distance broadcasts on a few other channels. Otherwise, very quiet these days.

That could be a good thing. I used to have one of those. I dropped it off at goodwill shortly after buying a Motorola tough talker phone. I guess either one would be a collectible these days.

I still have my grandpa's old white-faced Johnson CB radio. He ran the battery on his Buick down many a night "ratchet-jawing" on that thing.

Regards

WC

It was cheaper than I remembered... only $149.95!

http://robco.ath.cx/cb_tricks/radios/realistic/trc_101/ad/index.htm

Hey Greg,

I too spent HOURS looking through the RS and La Fayette catalogs 30 to 40 years ago drooling over such "big ticket" items that I could NEVER afford as a kid.

A while back I got a fairly modern 40 channel digital readout walkie (can't recall model # w/o looking) for $10. It has an antenna jack (RCA type !) but no mike jack (bummer).

I made up a quickie thin wire 27 Mhz dipole and made up a portable "kit". Last time I used it I copied CA (from here in MA) quite loudly.

Some days LOTS of skip from Dixie here and some locals still active.

K

Well, it won't be long before I'll be back in TX. I'll give the radio a try there and see if there's any traffic. Here in WA, I get only static and a little sideband garble from afar. As an aside, I also have a base station and an Astatic D104 microphone. Maybe I should try putting those together some day...

Hey Dave ,

I ASSUME that the walkie has an external antenna jack. So obviously, the better the antenna , the more you'll hear. I'm sure you already know that.

K