Albrecht AE 2980 User manual

CB Radio AE 2980
Downloaded from www.cbradio.nl

2
Introduction
The ALBRECHT CB- Radio AE 2980 has been produced according to the latest European
Standards like EN 300 135 -2 und EN 300 433-2 and offers:
- switchable country settings between 80 channels FM/ 12 channels AM or
40 channels FM / 40 channels AM
- Channel selection via UP-DOWN buttons
- Channel and Memo Scan up and down
- Dual Watch
- 5 free programmable memo channels
- Multi-function illuminated LC Display
- Standard mic socket 2.5 mm
allowed for all kind of mic’s and data transmission accessories
- external speaker / earphone socket 3.5 mm
- slide- in battery compartment for 9 pcs Alkaline or NiMH batteries AA size
- DC- socket for 230 V wall charger and ext. DC power supply 12 Volt
- automatic battery save circuit
- large DC voltage range from 9 to 13.2 V
- switchable transmit power in FM (1 Watt / 4 Watt)
- slide connector for battery eliminator (12 V adapter) instead of battery pack
(optional available)
- 24 Volt DC operation possible via external adaptor cable (option)
- BNC socket for external base station, mobile- or plug-in antennas
- Free use in most European countries (see Radio Passport)
Please read the user informations carefully, and respect the different regulations, channels and
modulation modes in the different countries.

3
Accessories Supplied
The AE 2980 comes with following accessories:
- Empty battery compartment for 9 pcs NiMH rechargeable batteries or heavy duty
Alkaline batteries (AA)
- Plug in- antenna with BNC-connector
- Carrying strip
- User Manual
Optional Accessories (separate available)
• Reserve- empty battery case (Nr. 10103)
• 12 V cable for operating the radio in cars 12 V (Nr. 7575)
• Mobile Adapter 12 V , can be placed instead of the battery pack (Nr. 10109)
• Adapter cable for 24 V DC use in trucks with cigarette lighter plug (Nr. 73750)
• Various magnetic and mobile mount antennas
• Plug-in Antenna CL27 + BNC (Nr. 6577) for larger communication range
Safety Hints
The RF radiation of a CB hand held radio with plug in antenna and full power can have
influences to pace makers and may be a matter of electro smog for sensitive people. If You
should have a pace maker, please let Your doctor or manufacturer confirm that the immunity of
the pace maker circuit is sufficiant for CB radio. In case of problems, better use low power
setting or an external antenna or keep the radio as far away from the body during transmit
mode.
Never transmit without antenna and never touch persons with the antenna while you are
transmitting.
When driving a car, please do not forget that traffic safety has priority against radio
communications. In certain countries the driver is not allowed to use transceivers during driving.
We recommend to use external car antennas wherever possible, because transmitting from
inside a car may also have the risk to generate interference to the car electronics.
To achieve larger communication range from a car or truck, it is essential to have an external
antenna.

4
Insert Alkaline or NiMH Batteries
Before use, place 9 pcs of AA size Alkaline batteries or fully charged NiMH rechargeable
batteries into the battery compartment. Unlock the battery case by pushing the lock on the left
cabinet side to the top side of the radio. Push the battery case to the right side and remove it
from the radio.
Use a thumb nail or a coin to open the top side as indicated here.
Place the 9 batteries according to the markings inside the battery case- take care for the correct
+ and – placement! Please do not use cheap and simple torch light batteries. Only heavy duty
battery types as they are used in digital cameras can be used for hand held radios.
Rechargeable batteries can be charged inside the battery compartment only via our spezial
230 V wall charger and not by any other DC cable or DC adaptor
The charging time depends on the battery capacity and can take 14-18 hours for a full charge.
During charging, the radio must remain switched off.
Our recommendation: Buy a complete set NiMH batteries together with a dedicated rapid
charger- these sets are optimized to the large capacity rechargeable batteries and can charge
the batteries in a few hours- faster than the standard wall charger for the battery compartment
can do it.

5
Use of DC cables (optional)
Our DC cables and adaptors are only designed for operating the radio in a car or truck. They
cannot be used to recharge the batteries inserted in the battery compartments.
The DC cable connects to the DC socket on the side of the battery pack (inner contact + and
outer contact -)
It is technically not possible to charge the radio with inserted NiMH batteries from 12 V DC. With
engine off, no charge current is possible. With running engine, at 13.2 V, only a weak charging
current is applied to the NiMH battery, which can only keep the charging status, but cannot
recharge an empty battery completely. The technical circuit allows to connect the DC cable
permanently to the radio, and Alkaline batteries are switched off as long as the DC cable plug is
inserted.
230 V Wall Charger: Only this device can charge NiMH batteries in the battery compartment
completely. It supplies a higher (but current limited) voltage of 15..16 V and is matched to the
circuit. During charge procedure the radio must remain switched off.
Please make sure that You do not have Alkaline batteries inserted. Such batteries cannot be
charged and there is even a risk of explosion or excessive heat if You should try to charge such
batteries.
Note to the DC fuse
A DC fuse for 2 A current is inserted inside the cigarette lighter plug of the DC cable. If this fuse
should blow, please exchange only by a fuse of the same current range and try to find out the
cause! Our repair experience shows that in most such cases the polarity of the cigarette lighter
installation was wrong. Never repair a blown fuse by aluminium foil or similar material!
Warnings
Never try to charge Alkaline batteries Such batteries may explode, heat up, leak and can cause
injuries. If You are using rechargeable batteries, check from time to time that the battery and
battery holder contacts are clean and not corroded. Many NiMH batteries show corrosion or
leakage after longer time periods. Take out the batteries from time to time, clean the contacts
and check that they work. Cadmium containing batteries, like the former used NiCD batteries,
are not any more allowed to sell because of their environment risks.
Antenne connection
The supplied short plug in antenna allows only communications over short distances. Higher
communication ranges in CB can only be obtained by longer antennas up to a quarterwave
length (this is a physical law and on CB, a quarter wave is 2.75 m!). Any longer Antenna, mobile
or base station antenna can extend the range of Your radio considerably
It is allowed to connect other antennas to Your hand held radio. All You need is an antenna with
BNC (for example Nr. 6577) connector or an adapter between the normally used PL plug and
BNC.

6
Notes to CB regulations in Europe
Your Albrecht AE 2980 is a CB radio according to European Standards EN 300 135-2 / EN 300
433-2. With EU regulations and bilateral agreements it is possible to use this radio (latest
information January 2009) in following countries:
80/12 setting in D, CZ, SK
40/40 setting in B, BG, CH, D, E, EST, F, FL, FIN, GR, IRL, I, LV, NL, P, PL, RO
Note: in Austria only a specially limited version AE 2980 FM is allowed to be used.
In other not mentioned countries the radio may not be used from the regulations. But
most countries except Austria accept the radio, as long as user does not transmit in AM.
For visitors and travellers from other countries, use of this radio is free of charges everywhere.
Only residents living in Belgium. Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and Spain still must pay a
certain fee for CB radio in their home countries.
Please find the CE conformity declaration at the end of this manual. Updates can be
downloaded any time from www.alan-albrecht.info
Operation- Knobs & Buttons

7
Before first use:
- Set SQ (Squelch) to left counterclockwise position
- Set
VOL (Volume, Power) in a medium position
The Power switch is combined with the Volume potentiometer. A click sound in
counterclockwise position remembers that the radio is off.
Please adjust the desired volume after switching the radio on. The Display will show the icons
for a short test.
At first use the radio will start with the 80 FM/ 12 AM country setting for Germany. This is as well
valid for Czech and Slovak Republics. In Czechia only FM on 80 CH is allowed, while in Slovak
Republic only FM channels 1-40 and 70-80 are allowed to be used.
Channel selection
If everything is ok, the radio will first start on Channel 9 (in the display you see 09).
With UP – and DWN- keys at the left side You can switch each of the 80 or 40 channels.
- UP - key will switch to higher channels
- DWN- key will switch to lower channels.
- keeping the keys pressed longer, the channels will change faster.
(see display).
Country Switching
Because of the variations of CB regulations in Europe, the German factory setting of the radio
cannot be used everywhere. You can anytime switch to the international setting with 40
channels AM and FM, which is also allowed to be used in Germany.
40 CH AM and 40 CH FM (international setting for all countries)
• Switch the radio off.
• Press D-EU and PTT together and keep pressed for at least 3 seconds.
• Switch the radio on again (with the other free hand) .
• Release all buttons.
80 CH FM and 12 CH AM (CH 4-15) for D, CZ and SK
• Switch the radio off.
• Keep PTT pressed for at least 3 seconds.
• Switch the radio on again (with the other free hand).
• Release the button.
The settings remain stored as long as batteries will be in the battery pack. For changing empty
batteries You will have some minutes time, before the setting will be lost.
Please use the German settings only in the above mentioned countries. Use of the channels 41-
80 can disturb other services in countries, where the 80 channels are not allocated.

8
S-Meter / Power
There is a bar graph display for the signal strength of the received signals. More bars = higher
input signals. A strong signal with S 9 + 30 will show full deflection. The bar graph is used for
Power meter as well. 4 Watt = full deflection, 1 Watt = 2 or 3 bars.
Suelch Adjustment
Especially in FM the background noise will disturb on free channels. With the squelch control
SQ you can suppress this noise by carefull adjustment of the SQ potentiometer. You can also
suppress weak signals or signals, which are far away and which You may not wish to receive.
SQ to left position: All signals can be heard
SQ turned more clockwise: Signals must be stronger to open the squelch
Best setting to highest sensitivity:
- Go to a free channel without any signal
- Turn SQ slowly and carefully so much to the clockwise position, that the
background noise just disappears.
Now the speaker will suppress the disturbing background noise, but the radio is sensitive
enough to open when any usable signal appears.
The correct SQ setting is very important for the SCAN function. The SQ threshold point decides
about SCAN Stopp or SCAN restart
Special frequently used channels
The CB community is using some channels for special purposes:
Channel 9 Emergency and Calling Channel, in Germany „Trucker Channel“
Channel 19 Trucker- Channel in some other countries
MEMORY- Operation
The MEMO key allows toggle switching between 5 preselected memory channels and the
standard channel selection.
• Press MEMO shortly and You will see the channel number and the memory location
number of the selected MEMO channel (1-5).
• Use UP/ DWN to select between the memory locations 1 to 5.
• Short pressing MEMO will switch back to normal operation

9
Factory default setting:
-Channel 1
-Channel 9 (international emergency and calling channel)
Especially in Germany most truck drivers use this channel in AM for their communications.
This means, that channel 9 is the only channel on CB, where many people are permanently
listening. This can be very important in case of emergency.
Even if you intend to call a certain station, you can try to call on CH 9 first. If the called station
answers, you can discuss with the other party to which working channel you will go. Then
change the channel – and channel 9 is again free for other calls.
-Kanal 19
Trucker-Channel in France, Spain and Italy
- Kanal 4
- Kanal 40 (FM Calling channel in Switzerland)
Programming your own MEMO Channels
Each of the 5 memory locations can be re-programmed to other channels.
-Step 1 Select the desired channel and the modulation in normal mode
- Step 2 Press MEMO about 2 seconds until one of the memory location numbers
will appear (1-5)
- Step 3 Select the memory location number by UP/DWN (1 to 5)
- Step 4 Press MEMO shortly to store the new channel
- Step 5 Press one of the buttons UP/DWN to go back into normal operation
Your new channel is saved in memory as long as the power supply will not be interrupted for
longer periods. Please note that memory settings will be lost when you change the country
programming.
Note:
Even if the battery becomes discharged, there is still enough energy for the memory back-up.
Replacing batteries will provide some minutes back-up power, so that the settings are not lost
during normal battery replacement procedures.
The current consumption for the memory backup is very small and does not have any influence
on the normal discharging of batteries over longer time periods.
Channel SCAN
The AE 2980 has an automatic Scanning function, where all 40 (80) channels or your MEMO
channels can be subsequently checked for activity.
First select between normal operation (channels) or MEMO mode.
Adjust the squelch SQ to the desired opening point (threshold)

10
SCAN Start
• Press SCAN shortly.
• In the display SCAN will appear. The automatic search procedure will start after a short
delay and checks all channels in rising sequence.
• If the circuit detects a signal on one of the channels, the scanner will stop there and you
can listen for some seconds to the communication.
• If You do not do anything, the scanner will restart and resume the search procedure after
about 5 seconds waiting.
SCAN Stop
•
You can any time stop the scanning process by pressing the SCAN -button or the PTT
button.
Change the scanning sequence
It is possible to change the scanning sequence from rising channel numbers 1-2-3-4- etc to
lower channel numbers 40-39-38-37 etc.
• Press simply DWN or UP during scanning.
SCAN on MEMO Channels
• go to the MEMO mode by pressing MEMO.
• press SCAN – the scanner now works only on the 5 memory channels.
• use UP / DWN to change the direction of scanning, if necessary
Dual Watch
Your radio can check two channels subsequently for activity.
If you want to monitor for example a special important „house“ or „priority“ channel, but at the
same time you want to listen to other channels of your choice, you can program the more
important channel as your “first channel” and use the Dual Watch (DW) function:
• select first channel
• press DW
• DW appears
• select second channel
• Radio checks now both channels one after the other
• stop DW: press DW, DW disappears
The second channel can be changed any time during DW operation.