Courior Royale vs Crown Royal

[BBB]

The Courier Royale 23 channel tube CB face plate sure does resemble the Crown Royal whiskey bottle...





Looks to be a well constructed rig with a Nuvistor and large crystal filter inside. Now if I can find a 37.750 MHz crystal for the back of the Channel selector so I can get channel 13. I replaced the 37.800 crystal that brought channels 17-20 back. Also need a 37.650 for ch. 5-8 if anyone has one laying around. I wonder if any other common rigs use this same crystal set up that I might have a parts rig for that would have the 37.750 crystal in it?

[Sandbagger]

Apr 30, 2014 11:42:12 GMT -5 BBB said:

The Courier Royale 23 channel tube CB face plate sure does resemble the Crown Royal whiskey bottle...



Looks to be a well constructed rig with a Nuvistor and large crystal filter inside. Now if I can find a 37.750 MHz crystal for the back of the Channel selector so I can get channel 13. I replaced the 37.800 crystal that brought channels 17-20 back. Also need a 37.650 for ch. 5-8 if anyone has one laying around. I wonder if any other common rigs use this same crystal set up that I might have a parts rig for that would have the 37.750 crystal in it?

Those are very common crystals. Rigs like the SBE Trinidad use that frequency mixing scheme. I know I have some of those in my crystal drawer. Getting it to you would be the challenge.

[BBB]

I checked some other Panasonic tube chassis (Comstat & Gemtronics) and so far no-go on the needed crystals. I can see in a web photo that the Courier 23 Plus has a similar channel selector. I also saw that the Courier 23 Plus had a Nuvistor in it also. I'll check a Trinidad. Thanks.

[BBB]

Plucked the 37.750 and 37.650 MHz crystals from the Trinidad that had the removable crystals (the other Trinidad I have has a different board with the crystals soldered in place)

Now I have receive across the 23 channels on the Royale, but I'm a bit high on Ch 13 at 27.118. I found another crystal located on the bottom of the chassis with an air capacitor in line and with adjustment, was only able to get it down to 27.117. I'll try to locate another 4.635 MHz mixing crystal that works in conjunction with the 37.775 crystal to try and get down to 27.115 hopefully. The Trinidad's use 10 MHz mixing crystals.

Alright, finally was able to pull it down to 27.1152 with pico caps on the crystals. One in parallel with the 37.750 and one in series with the 4.635. Gonna' need to find a permanent solution though as the caps on the crystals are somewhat loose.

Thanks for the time saving info Sandbagger

[Sandbagger]

Apr 30, 2014 15:52:04 GMT -5 BBB said:

Plucked the 37.750 and 37.650 MHz crystals from the Trinidad that had the removable crystals (the other Trinidad I have has a different board with the crystals soldered in place)

Now I have receive across the 23 channels on the Royale, but I'm a bit high on Ch 13 at 27.118. I found another crystal located on the bottom of the chassis with an air capacitor in line and with adjustment, was only able to get it down to 27.117. I'll try to locate another 4.635 MHz mixing crystal that works in conjunction with the 37.775 crystal to try and get down to 27.115 hopefully. The Trinidad's use 10 MHz mixing crystals.

Alright, finally was able to pull it down to 27.1152 with pico caps on the crystals. One in parallel with the 37.750 and one in series with the 4.635. Gonna' need to find a permanent solution though as the caps on the crystals are somewhat loose.

Thanks for the time saving info Sandbagger

27.1152 is plenty close enough to use. Sure beats being 3 khz high. I'm guessing we'll get to hear that beast on the roundup tonight.......

[BBB]

I also noticed that the very similar Courier 23 Plus is labeled "By E.C.I." on the front face plate.

We were discussing on air whether or not the Courier Royale was a Panasonic chassis. They look somewhat similar to the Panasonic chassis rigs but there are some differences, like the use of a larger 8 pin industrial ice cube relay and different style sheet metal covers. The radio doesn't say made in Japan anywhere nor does it have any obviously Japanese parts inside except for the meter. Even the Courier tubes say Made in USA. There is a Clevite mechanical filter inside and a silk screen label on the top of the chassis that reads "Courier Royale, Courier Communications Incorporated, a Whittaker Company"

Hmmm... makes me wonder if this series of early Couriers were made in USA and Panasonic copied these E.C.I. - Whittaker rigs for all their Gemtronics clones.

[MonkeyMan]

I don't care for this style chassis in general, but wow, what a beautiful radio. Great color combo! I'm also digging that "rack mount" Sparkomatic.

[Sandbagger]

May 1, 2014 18:23:14 GMT -5 BBB said:

I also noticed that the very similar Courier 23 Plus is labeled "By E.C.I." on the front face plate.

We were discussing on air whether or not the Courier Royale was a Panasonic chassis. They look somewhat similar to the Panasonic chassis rigs but there are some differences, like the use of a larger 8 pin industrial ice cube relay and different style sheet metal covers. The radio doesn't say made in Japan anywhere nor does it have any obviously Japanese parts inside except for the meter. Even the Courier tubes say Made in USA. There is a Clevite mechanical filter inside and a silk screen label on the top of the chassis that reads "Courier Royale, Courier Communications Incorporated, a Whittaker Company"

Hmmm... makes me wonder if this series of early Couriers were made in USA and Panasonic copied these E.C.I. - Whittaker rigs for all their Gemtronics clones.

Well, the meter is certainly similar to that found on the Panasonic chassis radios like the Lafayette HB-444 and HA-410. There are also circuit similarities. It's also possible that this radio was an American-made version that inspired later Panasonic designs. I guess a little more research is in order.

[mark4]

That is the cleanest one I've ever seen!

[BBB]

Thanks. Last year I purchased a couple of boxes of Sams manuals from a local ham operator at a ham fest and he mentioned that he had some other 11 meter stuff left over from a silent key's estate. He said that there were a bunch of crystals and a couple of radios left and asked for my email if I was interested. Almost a year later I got an email from the him (Brian) asking if I was still interested. Went to look at the items and in the stack were the Royale and a Polycom N-4. Turns out the Royale was the ham's (Brian) personal radio that he owned from new. Last week I saw him at another local ham fest and told him the good news that I got the Royale back on the air. He seemed genuinely pleased and it made me feel good that he was happy that his old rig was alive again. Love that part of the hobby

On a side note: I thought of local operator "Skeeter" because this was the same dude he got an Executive radio and rare Executive external meter from. The estate was from a gentleman that ran a communication company, and in the boxes of documents were all kinds of old CB sales literature and manuals including Executive stuff. I thought for sure I was going to find the external meter manual he's been looking for, but so far no-go. I'm going to hand him the Executive packet to see if he can find it in there. Maybe I'll post some of the cool ads and such that were in the other manufactures packets.