The D201
series of CB base stations followed the Titan series (Titan through Titan IV) and was the
last vacuum tube CB base station designed by Tram. The were essentially three
versions of the D201. The first version of the D201 is referred to by
collectors as the "rat's nest", handwired or VOX model. The "rat's
nest" is in reference to the point to point handwiring used in these radios.
The handwired D201's were built in Winnisquam NH. Tram dropped the VOX control and
replaced it with a variable noise limiter on the second version D201. This version
and the subsequent D201A (40 channel version) were built in Mexico and incorporated
printed circuit boards that were prone to heat related problems. The D201A
was a warranty disaster as a result of the failure of the main channel selector switch
after a very short period of time.
First Version D201
Second Version D201
This may have been a
preproduction or engineering mock-up of the D201. The badge, speaker grille, both
the main channel selector and VFO appear to be different. I believe that is an
"on the air" light between the clarifier and the crystal/manual selector.
I have never actually seen one of these.
Several years ago I was
able to purchase the unmodified mint D201 pictured above from the original owner with the
original box. This radio was purchased for $795 on July 29th, 1975 from E&S CB
Sales in Winchester, IN and only used for a couple of years and then put away. The
serial number is #12163 and it is a very early unit. The manual that came with the
radio was a hand typed preliminary with no schematics. The yellow and white owner's
instruction manual came out later. This radio does not have the factory installed
noise blanker and indicates a very early production run, however Tram made the noise
blanker standard in later production runs.
There were two reviews of the
D201 by CB Magazine. The first was in July 1975
and then a
follow-up in April 1976.
The 1st review and the 2nd review are
available in PDF format.
Tram ran ads
in CB Magazine and S9, however they did not run very many for the D201 early on.
This is I believe one of the first ones that was run for the D201 in the May 1976 issue of
CB Magazine.
Soon Tram
began running full page ads for the D201, however some of the ads were not very accurate.
In both of
these ads the radio has the badge of an early handwired D201, but notice that the knob
just to the left of the main channel selector is not correct. On the handwired
D201's a set of concentric knobs were used and the single knob in the ad above is labeled
as the MIC GAIN/TTC. On the later printed circuit board D201's the dual controls
were replaced by a single knob variable noise limiter as shown in the ads above.
I am always interested in any
information about Tram, so please send it to me.
Back to K5WTX Home Page
Email good on
QRZ