Manufactured by Les Wallen, the original "Modulator" adorned many a gutter mount on a MKII Escort in the 1980's.
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This popular base loaded antenna sported the instantly recognisable yellow label at the bottom of the coil, and was yours in 1982 for £14.99.
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Although it was well documented that it was capable of handling 1000 watts of power, the Modulator soon became the object of CB radio folklore.
People boasted of their radio suddenly going deaf, and upon inspection of the antenna, found a pile of wire and heat shrink tubing on the roof of their beloved Cortina. The myth that their Kilowatt Linear had melted the antenna soon abounded the airwaves.
For those of you who have ever repaired a Modulator, and have seen the 18mm plastic coil former, you will appreciate how virtually impossible it is to melt this into oblivion....just leaving the "pile of wire and heat shrink tubing on the roof"
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I remember, however, one of the Modulators I possessed developing a rather nasty bend in it one extremely hot summer night....but that is another story......
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Sadly, many of these antennas met their demise NOT by too much power being applied, but by the mag mount slipping off the roof of the car and crashing to the ground.
"But I was only doing 50 MPH....."
Yeah, of course you were Derek, and you were NOT racing Kevin at the time in his 1275GT either were you!!
1 comments:
I had forgotten the Modulator existed, but the moment I saw that splash of yellow I remembered that Talk Down used to have a base variant, with two helically wound radials. Was that the "Modulator II"?
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