Thunderpole T-3000 is winging its way to my shack

Today was my payday, and factoring in that I have a bit of extra cash left over from my salary I placed an order for a Thunderpole T-3000 CB radio, which so far I have heard good reports about, this radio has already been looked at by RustySkull Productions on YouTube and Lewis M3HHY from channel "RingwayManchester" has looked at the radio this is a rebadge of, the Nanfone CB-689, and tested with another station radio to radio, the other station having the T-3000, was found to work well.

I plan to use this radio as my main mobile CB, even though it does not have SSB which I only really use parked up because adjusting the RIT (or clarifier as it's called on CBs) while mobile is a pain and with SSB you sometimes have to concentrate on the incoming audio which is certainly not ideal while driving, as this radio is so slimline it can fit any modern car with ease either into a DIN sized space or fixed to the dash with a bracket in the normal way.

The unit I ordered is an ex display unit, what that means is that Thunderpole have had it out of the box and had it on display, though they will have tested all accessories to ensure they function, particularly the microphone, which although has an LED in it, or at least a position for one, no LED lights up on transmit, this is because an optional Bluetooth mic is available for the Nanfone unit and would work with this as well, by virtue of the Kenwood HT type connector on the front (as I have a speaker mic and some headsets from Baofeng radios that fit I may test these too.

Naturally I will be doing a video with this radio, power tests (4 watts of course), how it looks and feels, ease of use and hopefully if there are any stations on that day a radio report.

I plan to mount this radio in the car, and ultimately keep my Grant II for portable work on 11-meters SSB, the antenna on the car at the moment for 11-meters is in fact my Orbitor/Tornado Stinger antenna that during the summer my XYL painted white and her and I converted into the antenna we dubbed the 'spider antenna', the magmount is an older version of the Sirio magmount I have in use for my 2/70 antenna, except this older one had near destroyed cable so I had to rewire it using coax from a snail mount I was not using, I will later on be replacing the rear antenna with something similar to the antenna I loaned, I'll have to see if GB Communications sell one of these because I then don't have to travel far and can swap the antennas over immediately, provided I remember an SWR meter because the T-3000 does not have one installed.

I certainly am eager to receive one of the most unique CB radios made today to fit into the most unique Toyota Aygo of them all, not because I've fitted radio equipment in it but because it did a journey from my home QTH to well into Bavaria and back and did not seem bothered, so a unique design of CB radio should complement it nicely.

There is a Sci-Fi connection with the naming scheme of the Thunderpole T-series CB radios, I've spotted it, can you spot it too?

I have started monitoring and calling out on 19 due to the appearance of a Ford Fiesta, a Volkswagen Bora and a pick up truck all equipped with Orbitor style antennas, so I know people are out there using the CB, and I'm pretty sure the drivers of these vehicles have seen the antennas on my car too, and I saw a video on YouTube where a CB operator drives to work on the motorway, gets passed by an HGV and the driver of the HGV calls out after seeing the antenna on the car of the operator that's filming, I suspect he's using a President Grant II in that video, no idea what the trucker was using though.

Hope to catch you on the CB and also don't forget as I'm a licenced Amateur radio operator I can be found on local repeaters in my area and sometimes the calling channel on 2-meters.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730 (or you can just call me the red squirrel on the CB if you like)