I know that these posts are "old" compared to today, but I hope that he got more than $44.00 for the TRC-490, as it went for quite a bit of money back when it was new.

I actually don't know what the TRC-490 went for, because back then I didn't have one, but I did buy the TRC-458 brand new for around $400.00, and I did take a look at the TRC-457, that you mentioned, in pictures on E-Bay, so I could see some of the differences between the TRC-457 and the TRC-490.

The TRC-458 that I had was so much like the TRC-490 that, at first glance, you could almost not tell them apart.

They did use different chips inside, and on the outside, the TRC-458 that I had had three push buttons on it. One button was for the ANL, or Automatic Noise Limiter, which worked on AM, the next button was for the NB, or Noise Blanker, which worked on SSB, and the third button was for the PA or Public Address system, and if you pressed the NB and PA buttons together, then you'd get CB Receive through an external speaker which you'd be using if using the PA function.

After having my TRC-458 for maybe two weeks or so, or less than the warranty period of time anyway, the receive gave out on it, so I sent it in for warranty work. The factory stated after a while, that after testing the unit out, that they couldn't find anything wrong with it, then later they stated they lost the rig and gave me a replacement of equal value, and it was one that had a clock inside, worth the same, but didn't have SSB in it, and that was what I was getting into and didn't want to be stuck on AM only.

I really didn't believe that they lost the rig, and I actually seen an ad on the Internet where a guy bought a "dead TRC-458" back in 1981, so I was wondering whether or not it actually was the rig I had ha ha ha.

In any case, in 2000, I bidded on a TRC-490, so I could get what I thought was the same rig I had back in 1978 when I had purchased the TRC-458, but then I saw that even though it looked the same, I noticed that there was a difference. The buttons for the TRC-490 were Emergency Channel 9, instead of ANL, like on the TRC-458, the next button combined the ANL and NB functions, instead of only NB, like on the TRC-458, and the third button was still for PA like on the TRC-458.

The bidding stopped for quite a while, for a number of days, then ten minutes before the end of the bidding or auction, the bidding started increasing, so I did bid on it, and it was going up $5.00 or $10.00 at a time, and once it got up to $100.00, and there was only two minutes left of the bidding, to be reasonably sure of getting the TRC-490, and since back then I was only using 56k Dial-up and didn't have Broadband like I do now, and it seemed like it would take nearly one minute for a response back that the bid was accepted, I placed a maximum bid of $150.00, and it did get right up to that amount, letting the "Automatic bidding" go, so I hope that Dave got at least $75.00 for it and maybe as much as $125.00 because if it was in great shape, like the one I got, then it probably was worth it, as I have seen TRC-30's I think the model number was, of the 23-channel, AM only, Realistic Navaho's, going for around $25.00.

I actually have one of those in storage, so I could take a look at the number, but even though I never modify CB radios, my two friends and I had modified that model just a bit. There's a "Slot," or missing, or cut out spot, in the channel selector, and what we did, back in 1976, just a few months before 1977, or a few months or so before it became legal to sell 40-channel CBs, and back then they were advertised as having more than 100 channels ha ha ha. They spoke about 100-channel CB radios, and what I think they meant was 40 AM channels, 40 USB and 40 LSB "channels," which totalled 120 channels if you looked at it that way ha ha ha...In any case, what we did was to place a toggle switch in a hole in the case of the rig, like one of the mobile bracket mounting holes, since we only used it as a base station, and soldered the wires where the metal would touch, if that "Notch" wasn't cut out of the channel selector, then what we'd do is go to either channel 22, or 23 I think it was, flip that switch, turning it on in other words, then we'd move the switch to that "Blank spot," where you'd go for PA operation.

What ended up being is getting a frequency or channel that we called 22A, but just a few months later, it was a legal frequency anyway, and was actually Channel 24 I think.

I hope Dave was able to get a "fair" price for the TRC-490 and didn't sell it too cheap.