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| new formac 288 am; unknown in nz radio | |
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| Topic Started: 21 Jun 2012 - 07:44 (456 Views) | |
| Deleted User | 21 Jun 2012 - 07:44 Post #1 |
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hi all first post "long time looker first time user" not sure if this is a legal radio forgive me if in wrong section ...i have just brought a "new formac 288" transceiver off our local (new zealand) internet auction site "trademe" (similar to ebay)...going by the ad it is 240 channels and i am guessing here its a am/fm type radio...does anyone know what pll this uses and what it is similar to?...no info on the net under that name ..any ideas please mike yeticomnz.com |
 
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| Cherokee | 21 Jun 2012 - 14:55 Post #2 |
Da Injun
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Nearest I could guess is the "New Formac 88" which was a 120 Channel set. A bit of a dig indicates that Formac apparently had some similarities with the Lafayette and Colt. . . . . If that helps. [imgw=400]http://i720.photobucket.com/albums/ww209/2E0XOM/formac%2088/FrontofradioFormac88serialNO1040018.jpg[/imgw] Edited by Cherokee, 23 Jun 2012 - 11:22.
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| Whitey | 21 Jun 2012 - 18:36 Post #3 |
26 Charlie Tango 646
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I used to have a new Formac 88, they are along the lines of a Colt, cybernet boarded radio. The one I had was AM only, converted to FM & AM, then has UK 40 added. It was one of the best sounding radios, both transmit & receive I had ever had, until it developed a fault, of which I can not remember and it got part ex'd. |
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| Fixerman | 21 Jun 2012 - 19:30 Post #4 |
108 Charlie Tango 300
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Hi Mike, maybe you could post some pics of the radio, it might help, there are a lot of "rebadged" radios out there now. fm 
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| Deleted User | 22 Jun 2012 - 11:08 Post #5 |
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hi yeap sure will when it arrives..got it cheap of our local internet auction site..should be here early next week...yes i was guessing it was cybernet or similar chassis...not sure on the am or fm side of it as i cant find nothing on that model on the net...here is a pic of it from the auction for starters..auction says its 240 channels
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| Radio Pixie | 22 Jun 2012 - 12:12 Post #6 |
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Hi Looks like an old UK standard Jesan or Moonraker rig, but that doesn't indicate what board it is. When you get the lids off see if it has a MC145106 PLL chip in it. Best wishes Dave Edit: P.S. When they say 240 channels, does that mean 240 channels on both AM and FM, or 120 channels multiplied by AM/FM to 240ch to make it sound that it has more channels than it actually has 
Edited by Radio Pixie, 22 Jun 2012 - 12:19.
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| Deleted User | 22 Jun 2012 - 21:34 Post #7 |
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hi radio pixie
i am fully aware of this....i sell radios all over the world and have done so for 27 years...i am only quoting what the ad in the auction stated...if you have a close look at the switch there is a 3 position band switch which has another one beside it that MAY have a high and low band position ..the decal on the front has a line linking the two...yes it more than likey is 120 channel but one can never know till its here right. plus plus either way...for the price i payed fro all thats in the pic i am happy none the less (more or less the dust from my pocket!) anyway just got up out of the sack and i have a cpi2000 and somerkamp ts640 ssb arrive by courier..so off to the workshop to have a nose at...and maybe work some early morning skip into the east island (australia) ps: after my last comment about the radio i had a think and yes i doubt that its a cybernet chassis (the meter is a dead give away here)...more like a 7120/2824 chipped rig it reminds me of the 1990's prease simpson ssb rigs by the look of it...although New Zealand is now a firmly ssb nation and am is al but dead here and fm is not legal here i still use am for the local truckers..who are a major source of income....the formac will be going towards our cb museum (along with the cpi and somerkamp ) mike 
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| Radio Pixie | 22 Jun 2012 - 21:54 Post #8 |
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Hi Mike Glad you are not fooled by the channels multiplied by the modes, many are lol :-)) I did notice in your picture in the dust that two switches have a "line" suggesting extra use. Would be interesting what is inside. I seen rigs like this before, and the internals are non-cybernet and quite cheap. But my memory is failing me on the design, I'm sure I've seen a Euro version once. There has been UK standard rigs is the same box. Unfortunately a very bad performer. Hope yours turns out to a good one! Cheers Dave |
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| Whitey | 23 Jun 2012 - 06:11 Post #9 |
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26 Charlie Tango 646
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Slightly off topic, but is'nt it funny how countries differ from one mode to another in legal terms. Here in the UK, FM is all that is legal and OFCOM (UK Governing body) would like to never hear AM or SSB ever muttered again. Yet in a post above, FM is illegal in NZ! How does this ever happen?? I suppose its like many other things across other countries. 
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| Deleted User | 23 Jun 2012 - 10:05 Post #10 |
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Deleted User
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hi whitey yes nz law is a funny thing...we got the 40 channels and ssb and higher output power back in around 1994...we were 14 channels 26.425-26.750 25khz steps (top 3 were for business and government use only.) and 2 watts am max..no beams no skip talking...40 channels came in (26.300-26.770mhz..4 watts am and 12 ssb and allowed to use beams still no skip talking)..then last year they allowed us the fcc band 26.965-27.405mhz along with the old band..so in effect we have 80 channels am/ssb....we under law are still not allowed skip talking but since that is all there is to talk to (the bands are dead here local..not like the old days!)..so the radio inspectors leave us to it and dont care (no license fees so no revenue from cb here in nz so no involvement)...now the reason they gave us the use of the fcc band is because nz has come out of the dark ages and t.v here is going all digital..new bands (for t.v freqs) etc..the issues the r.is had with nz using the fcc band and why we did not start there in the first place was their theory that 27mhz interferes with the 55-65mhz channel 1 t.v band here in nz second harmonic of 27 mhz (and 26mhz and 28mhz does not..yeah rite!)...so since nz has gone digital on the t.v bands we are allowed fcc band....a argument i have always put is why not f.m....well we get no comment on that!....they (the r.i,s) are really backwards thinking here!....as a bonus when they "upgraded" the h.f band here for cb they also gave us a extra 40 channels on our uhf cb radio band (called personal radio service here ..476.425-477.400)..basically turning 25khz steps into 12.5khz steps and now narrow band f.m....so its now 80 channels....of course they are now saying that it was their idea blah blah...which is cr*p because i have here in front of me the submission put forward back in 1994 when we first got the 40 channels on uhf (same as the aussie uhf cb band) that we wanted 80 channels there(back then hf was a mess with the cb boom we had at the time...they said no!....now we have it and the bands are dead everyone has a cell phone and the net so cb in nz has gone the way of the cw key....funny old world..nz now has 80 channels am/ssb on h.f and 80 channels fm on uhf and barely a handful of operators in each city...got to love it |
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| Deleted User | 23 Jun 2012 - 10:13 Post #11 |
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i might add to this..the second harmonic of the uhf cb band is the digital trunked radio telephone band here...the uhf cb operators get a lot of interference from that and vise versa..... very funny...yet nothing done about it when we complain but when the trunked users complain its a big issue |
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| Deleted User | 28 Jun 2012 - 23:19 Post #12 |
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hi all heres the update on the unknown formac cb rig well the "New Formac 288" arrived today uses crystals to get the 6 bands...runs a mc145109 pll (why they just didnt use binary adders to get the bands is weird ..two adders(about 5 bucks here) vs the 6 crystals (about 220 bucks here!) is just bad economics lol) am mode only..26.065-28.755mhz using usual band structure (i will be adding a picaxe ic to get our New Zealand legal band 26.330-26.770 on the anl/nb switch) here is some pics of it straight out of the courier box new formac 288 pics runs a driver into a 2sc1969 final..without testing should be a 8-10watt(carrier) rig time to head down to the workshop and stick it on the spec analyzer and bird 43 and see what it really is doing mike |
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